Notes 🗒️

Notes are the first and simplest tier in SigNote. They're stored as plain text — no encryption, no passphrase needed. Just open the app and start writing.

When to use Notes

Notes are perfect for:

• Everyday thoughts, to-dos, and ideas
• Information you want to search through quickly
• Content where convenience matters more than privacy

If you need to store something sensitive — a password, a private key, a personal secret — use Secrets or Seals instead.

Full-text search

Because Notes are stored as plaintext, the server can index them fully. Search matches both the title and the body of every note, and results are ranked by relevance — a title match outranks a body match.

Two things are worth knowing about how matching works:

• Words are matched from the start. Typing groc finds "groceries", so search narrows as you type. It won't match in the middle of a word: cery does not find "groceries".
• Words are matched by their root. Searching run also finds "running", and vice versa.

Every word you type must match for a note to be returned.

Secrets and Seals can only be searched by title (their bodies are encrypted and invisible to the server).

Rich text editor ✍️

Notes use a rich text editor powered by Tiptap. There's no toolbar — formatting is done with keyboard shortcuts and markdown-style input rules.

Keyboard shortcuts

Markdown-style input rules

Type these at the start of a line and press Space to trigger formatting:

Links are auto-detected as you type and become clickable when viewing a note.

💡 Clicking inline code in view mode copies it to your clipboard.

File attachments 📎

Notes support file attachments directly in the editor. Drag and drop a file onto the editor or click the drop zone to browse. Images render inline; other files (PDF, DOCX, ZIP, etc.) appear as a card with the filename, type, and a download button.

• Max file size: 5 MB per file
• Total storage: 100 MB per account
• Files in Notes are stored unencrypted, matching the plaintext nature of this tier

→ Full details in File uploads

Organising your notes

Colors 🎨

Each note can be assigned a color label to help you visually organise your collection. Click the color dot in the note card or modal to change it.

Drag and drop

Notes can be reordered by dragging and dropping them on the grid. Your custom order is saved automatically.

Archive

Notes can be archived to keep your main view clean without deleting them. Archived notes live under the Archive section in the sidebar.

Soft delete

When you delete a note, it's soft-deleted — it won't appear in the app, but is permanently removed from the database after 1 hour. There's no undo after that window.

Privacy reminder

Notes are stored as plaintext in the database. Anyone with database access can read them. If you're running SigNote yourself, keep this in mind when storing sensitive information.

→ For encrypted notes, see Secrets and Seals.