A note app that runs AI on your laptop, not someone else's server

What it does

WitNote is an Electron-based writing app for macOS, Windows, and Linux that treats any folder as a notes vault. It edits .md and .txt, previews PDFs and Word files, and bakes in three AI options: a lightweight WebLLM engine (offline after first download), Ollama for heavier local models, or a standard cloud API if your hardware can’t keep up. The interface apes iOS card management with drag-to-sort, a resizable three-pane layout, and a focus mode that narrows the window into distraction-free editing.

The interesting bit

The project is aggressively local-first to the point of excluding Intel Macs entirely. The developer explicitly dropped x86_64 support because Apple Silicon’s unified memory and Metal acceleration make local inference tolerable; on Intel, “generating a single token may take seconds.” That’s a rare hardware bet for a note-taking app, and it signals where the real engineering lives: not in the editor, but in making on-device LLMs feel responsive enough to replace cloud autocomplete.

Key highlights

• Three AI engines with hot-swapping: WebLLM (built-in, macOS-only), Ollama (self-hosted), or any OpenAI-compatible cloud API
• Smart autocomplete with three intensity presets, accepted sentence-by-sentence via Tab
• 10+ built-in role prompts (Writer, Translator, Polisher) plus custom system prompt editing
• Frosted-glass UI with light/dark/Zen Tea themes, Apple Notarized, Mac App Store distributed
• 8-language interface with auto-adapted AI responses

Caveats

• macOS version is Apple Silicon only; Intel Macs are explicitly unsupported, not merely slow
• WebLLM’s built-in qwen2.5:0.5b model is macOS-only; Windows users must install Ollama separately for local inference
• Windows and Linux builds lack code signing, so expect SmartScreen or antivirus friction

Verdict

WitNote suits developers and writers who want AI assistance without subscription creep or data egress, and who already own modern Apple Silicon or decent discrete-GPU hardware. If you need cross-platform parity without Ollama setup, or you’re on an Intel Mac, this isn’t your app.