Changelog

Two fixes, both of them things you could see.

• The sidebar keeps a surface of its own under any theme, running continuously from the window controls down past your folders and tags to the bottom of the column - the way it does under the System theme. It works the same in the dark themes and in full screen.
• The note's title no longer draws clipped in half when a note first opens.

The iOS parity release - plus Reading and AI fixes on the Mac.

• iPhone and iPad catch up: the vault-wide agenda, creating folders, the note properties editor, and resolving iCloud sync conflicts all arrive on iOS. If you keep a vault in iCloud, the phone is no longer the device that can only read it.
• Reading mode: a paragraph no longer draws over a table after a Mermaid diagram or a remote image finishes loading.
• Folders: creating one with a name that already exists is refused with a message, instead of silently doing nothing.
• Ask Vault: answers render as Markdown, and a question too broad for the on-device model retries automatically instead of failing with an error code.

Themes that keep the Mac look, and a faster Agenda.

• The sidebar and the Inspector keep a visible edge under every theme, down their full height.
• A selected row's icon takes the row's colour instead of staying dark against it.
• No more lines drawn across a note's title and properties - spacing separates them.
• The Agenda now has Open and Completed as two halves of one control, each with its own count. Finished items are one click away instead of collapsed under every open item.
• The Agenda opens promptly on a large vault - a thousand notes went from 575ms to 177ms.
• A note reaches the Agenda by carrying a due date, not merely a status, and notes no longer sit in the checkbox column looking like tasks that lead nowhere.
• Removing a custom property removes it, instead of emptying it and leaving the chip behind.

Fixes for the themes 2.1 introduced.

• Switching back to System no longer leaves the window half dark - the sidebar, toolbar and note page follow the change together, without a relaunch.
• One selection highlight instead of two, and it takes your theme's colour rather than your Mac's accent colour.
• The sidebar keeps its top edge under every theme.
• The window reopens at the size and position you left it.
• Dragging a note over the folder list marks the folder it will land in.
• Moving the open note updates its breadcrumb straight away, and images inside it keep working.

A map beside your note: headings in one tab, links in the other.

• Outline: every heading of the open note, click to jump, following your cursor as you write. Works in Live, Wysiwyg and Reading. Opt-Cmd-I, the toolbar button, or View > Show Inspector.
• Local graph: the same panel's second tab shows the open note's neighbourhood - one or two hops - and follows whatever you open. Click a node to go there.
• Metis Light and Metis Dark: the app's own palettes, next to the ten editor classics.
• Themes reach the controls: buttons, links and selection follow your theme now, sheets included.
• Agenda: task rows render their Markdown instead of showing the source.
• Fixes: heading jumps no longer slide text under the line-number gutter; search handles punctuation in note names; a note edited outside Metis sorts by when the file really changed.

Already own Metis? 2.0 is a free update. Nothing to buy and nothing to claim - your licence already covers it. New purchases are $29.99 one time, covering your Mac, iPad and iPhone together, with no subscription. Started a trial before the change? Write to contact@empiricapps.com and we will honour the old price.

Your work leaves the app: print it, export it, colour it.

• Print, PDF and Rich Text: Cmd-P prints the rendered note with real pagination; the same document saves as a PDF or as Rich Text that opens in Pages and Word with its formatting.
• Graph export: the whole graph as a PNG (1x/2x/3x) or a vector PDF, with an optional transparent background - the full extent, not the visible viewport.
• Tags as graph nodes: a toggle links every note to the tags it carries, so clusters show.
• Your own colours: pin text, background, headings and links on top of any theme. A custom background colours the note, not the app chrome.
• Edit Link Text: change what a link shows without touching where it goes.
• Faster on external edits: a file changed outside Metis patches the graph instead of re-parsing every link - about 9x quicker on a 10,000-note vault.
• Fixes: themed toolbar in full screen, Insert Link at the caret with a searchable picker, no phantom "changed on disk" banner, Insert Image keeps your selection, bulk right-click menu.

Link to a section, and see where a link goes before you follow it.

• Section links: `[[Note#Heading]]` opens a note at a specific heading, and `[[#Heading]]` links within the note you're writing. Type `[[Note#` and Metis autocompletes that note's headings.
• Hover preview: hovering a `[[link]]` in Reading or WYSIWYG shows the target note - or just the linked section - in a popover. Toggle it in Settings -> Editor.
• Reading mode no longer hits a false bottom on long notes, and Mermaid diagrams are cached so they render instantly on revisit.
• Opening a large vault shows real progress instead of an empty window for a few seconds.
• Smaller fixes: selecting text inside Reading-mode code blocks, Settings tab-strip transparency.

Open Markdown files with Metis from anywhere.

• Metis now registers as a Markdown editor, so it appears in Finder's Open With menu and can be set as your default `.md` app (Settings -> Editor -> "Make Metis the Default Markdown App", or Get Info -> Change All).
• Opening a `.md` already in your vault selects that note; a file from a new folder offers to open its parent folder as a vault (Plain Markdown mode, so project files stay untouched).

Embedded images and editor fixes.

• Images embedded in notes filed in a subfolder now render in Reading mode again (the vault-relative attachment link is resolved against the vault root, not just the note's folder).
• The app-managed attachments folder is now hidden in Finder so it stays out of your file listings.
• Pasting a copied or screenshotted image into the editor works again - the Paste command is enabled for an image-only clipboard, and a JPEG-only clipboard is handled.
• The note-properties panel is now a session toggle rather than auto-expanding on every note.

Editor and navigation polish. The formatting bar gained bulleted, numbered, and task-list buttons - toggle a list prefix across the selected lines without typing markers. Task checkboxes now draw as clean, text-sized boxes instead of raw brackets. Selecting a folder now opens its first note instead of a blank pane. Locking a note while your notes session is locked shows a clearer prompt.

Attach images to your notes.

• Paste, drag, or use the Insert Image button; images copy into the vault's attachments folder and sync with iCloud vaults.
• Notes imported from Obsidian that store tags as a YAML list now surface those tags in the tag browser and graph.
• Plus iOS-side polish and a themed line-number gutter / reading-mode diagram fixes.

The graph is now a navigator.

• Click any node to jump to that note (right-click for Open / Open in Reading Mode).
• Hover to highlight a note's connections and dim the rest.
• Hide orphan notes with no links.
• Filter the graph by title.
• Color nodes by folder or by primary tag, with a legend.
• Tune the layout with force sliders (repulsion, link distance, gravity).

Encrypted-note sync across devices, plus editor upgrades.

• Encrypted notes now sync across your devices: one notes password, shared through iCloud - lock a note on your Mac and open it on iPhone or iPad.
• Numbered checklists (1. [ ]) are now clickable checkboxes.
• Type :shortcode: emoji (e.g. :rocket:) inline.
• Numbered lists renumber themselves live as you add, delete, or reorder items.
• New notes show a content preview in the list as you type.
• Fixed: Return after a bold word no longer breaks its formatting in Wysiwyg.

Encrypted notes now sync across devices, plus editor fixes.

• Your one notes password is now shared across your Macs and iOS devices through iCloud.
• Lock a note on one device and unlock it on another with the same password.
• Fixes 1.2.0, where each device used its own key, so a locked note couldn't be opened on a second device.
• Fixed: numbered lists renumber correctly when you add an item in the middle, and pressing Return no longer carries a bold "" onto the next list item.

Lock your private notes, and a cleaner way to write.

• New: lock any note with a password and Touch ID. Locked notes are encrypted on disk and in iCloud, and stay out of search, Spotlight, and the link graph until you unlock them. Your password is the only key - it cannot be recovered, so choose one you will remember.
• New: Wysiwyg editing, a third editor mode beside Live and Reading. Markdown syntax hides on every line as you write; select text for a floating format bar, and use Cmd-B, Cmd-I, and Cmd-K.
• New: a running note, folder, and word count under the note list.
• Fixed: mixed bullet-and-checkbox lists now render correctly in Reading mode.

Reliability fixes for new notes and renames.

• Fixed: a freshly created note no longer flips back to "Untitled" in the note list while you are typing its title. (The app's file watcher briefly mistook its own save for an outside change and reverted the title.)
• Fixed: renaming a note that lives in a folder now keeps it in that folder instead of moving it to the vault root.
• Fixed: the toolbar buttons no longer disappear when no note is selected - and the empty state now has its own New Note button, so you can create a note without selecting one first.
• Fixed: a new note always opens ready to type. If you had left the editor in Reading mode, a fresh note opened read-only and silently swallowed your typing.
• Fixed: duplicated note files (for example a note copied in Finder) no longer confuse selection - clicking one note highlights exactly that note.
• External edits to your vault (another editor, iCloud, git) now show up even when they land right next to one of Metis's own saves.

Markdown now (almost) types itself.

• New: Markdown typing assist. Pairs like ``, backticks, brackets and parentheses close themselves as you type - and typing the closing character steps over instead of doubling it.
• Select some text and press a formatting key to wrap the selection.
• Return continues bullet lists, checklists, numbered lists (auto-numbered) and quotes; Return on an empty item ends the list. Return after an unclosed ``` fence closes it for you.
• Prefer typing everything yourself? Turn it off in Settings > Editor.
• Fixed: the Settings window now follows your theme fully (including the header) and fits its content.

Code blocks got a serious upgrade - in both Live and Reading.

• Much richer syntax highlighting: types, function calls, attributes and properties now get their own colors - not just keywords and strings - with dedicated support for Swift, JavaScript/TypeScript, Python, Go, Rust, SQL, JSON, YAML, CSS, HTML and shell.
• Reading mode: every code block sits on a card with a language badge and a one-click Copy button, and long lines wrap with a hanging indent.
• Live editing: code blocks now sit on a subtle theme-matched card right in the editor, with the fences dimmed - and a block styles as code from the moment you type the opening fence.
• Every built-in theme carries hand-picked colors for the new token kinds.

Your license at a glance - plus a smoother, safer Metis.

• Licensed accounts now show a green seal and a "Licensed" label under your name in the sidebar, and the account menu (email + Sign Out) opens reliably.
• Live editing: moving through a note with the arrow keys no longer makes the content jump or flicker.
• Fixed the note title occasionally rendering clipped after switching vaults.
• GitHub sign-in is now more secure: the sign-in handshake completes on our server, so no credentials ship inside the app. GitHub will ask you to approve Metis once after updating - everything else stays the same.

Your daily note now starts with context, not a blank page

• Open Daily Note (Cmd-T) comes pre-filled: items due today or overdue, unfinished tasks carried over from your last daily note, recently edited notes, and entries from the same day in past years.
• Fully customizable: create a "Daily" note in your Templates folder and place the {{agenda}}, {{carryover}}, {{recent}} and {{onthisday}} tokens wherever you like - empty sections stay out of the way.
• Briefing (when Apple Intelligence is available): a short on-device AI summary of your recent activity is added to the daily note automatically. Notes never leave the device.

• Fixes a crash when undoing (Cmd-Z) after switching a note between Live and Reading modes.

• Undo and redo in the editor - Cmd-Z / Cmd-Shift-Z now work reliably while editing.
• Snappier right-click in large vaults - a note's context menu opens instantly instead of briefly hanging.

• In-app documentation - the Help menu (Help -> Metis Help, Cmd-?) now opens the online docs.
• Snappier typing in large notes - editor performance improvements.
• Sort your notes - pick the sort field and ascending/descending; the list scrolls to the selected note.
• Heads-up on outside edits - if an open note changes outside Metis, a banner lets you reload it.
• Delete confirmation - deleting a note (single or several) now asks first.

• Tables render reliably in Reading mode - a table placed directly under a line of text (no blank line above it) now shows as a real table instead of raw `| ... |` text.
• Export a note straight from the right-click menu - "Export As" now offers HTML or JSON for a single note, without opening it first.

• Editor & reading themes - pick from Dracula, Nord, Solarized, Gruvbox, Tokyo Night, One Dark, Monokai, GitHub, or Catppuccin; the whole app recolors (editor, reading, sidebar, graph). "System" follows light/dark.
• Multi-select notes - select many (Cmd/Shift-click) and drag them onto a folder, or batch-move / delete / move-to-another-vault from the right-click menu.
• Export to HTML - a note or the whole vault as a clean styled page (the vault becomes a folder of linked pages + an index), matching your theme.
• Open With - right-click a note to open it in any external app (VS Code, Typora, and more).
• Snappier build and various polish.

• Reading mode is now buttery smooth on long notes - scrolls without lag, and you can select and copy text across the whole document at once.
• Beautiful, readable code blocks in reading mode, with diagrams (Mermaid) and math that render even offline.
• Folder colors - give a folder a color and its notes show a matching dot in the list, the breadcrumb, and on the graph (subfolders inherit it).
• Faster vault opening - large vaults open behind a tidy progress indicator instead of a spinning cursor.
• Snappier on large vaults - edits made by other apps or git refresh instantly, and the open note updates live when changed on disk.

• Reading mode is now buttery smooth on long notes - scrolls without lag, and you can select and copy text across the whole document at once.
• Beautiful, readable code blocks in reading mode, with diagrams (Mermaid) and math that render even offline.
• Folder colors - give a folder a color and its notes show a matching dot in the list, with the same color on the graph (subfolders inherit it).
• Faster vault opening - large vaults open behind a tidy progress indicator instead of a spinning cursor.
• Snappier on large vaults - edits made by other apps or git now refresh instantly instead of re-scanning the whole vault.

• Reading mode is now buttery smooth on long notes - it scrolls without lag and you can select and copy text across the whole document at once.
• Beautiful, readable code blocks in reading mode, with diagrams (Mermaid) and math that render even offline.
• Folder colors - give a folder a color and its notes show a matching dot in the list, with the same color on the graph (subfolders inherit it).
• Faster vault opening - large vaults open behind a tidy progress indicator instead of a spinning cursor, and switching vaults no longer stutters.

• New notes and daily notes are created in the folder you have selected, not always at the vault root.
• Detects notes added in subfolders by other apps or git automatically - the live view now watches the whole vault tree.
• Much faster graph on large vaults - it opens and pans smoothly even with hundreds of notes.
• Snappier note switching in big vaults.
• Autocomplete while you type - `[[` suggests note titles, `#` suggests existing tags.
• Your remaining trial days now show in the sidebar.

• New notes and daily notes are created in the folder you have selected, instead of always the vault root.
• Smoother graph on large vaults - node labels are now drawn only when readable, so big knowledge bases pan and switch Full/Local without lag.
• Your remaining trial days now show in the sidebar.

Metis 1.0.0 - first release. A native, local-first Markdown knowledge base for macOS.

• Live-preview editor with a bidirectional [[link]] graph, backlinks, aliases, and unlinked mentions.
• Folder-tree organization, typed front-matter properties, a vault-wide task agenda, and semantic + keyword search.
• Private, on-device AI (summarize, writing assist, Ask Vault) - requires macOS 26 + Apple Intelligence; the app is fully usable without it.
• Optional git-backed version history (snapshots, diffs, restore).