Vulkan Glass is a free and open-source Markdown notes app for macOS. Each vault is a GitHub repository you own, so every note keeps its full history and syncs to every Mac you write on.
Free for macOS 14 or later.
~/Notes git log --oneline
Automatically syncs to your git repository over multiple devices
Autosync is on by default. When you pause for 1.8 seconds, Vulkan Glass runs the same git commands you would. Press ⌘S to sync right away. Renaming a note is committed too, as “Rename Untitled to First Principles”.
The note is saved as a plain .md file in your vault folder. Nothing proprietary, no database.
Writing is telepathy.mdEverything that changed is staged and committed, with the note's title in the message.
git commit -m "Update Writing is telepathy"Edits from your other Macs come down first, so your new commit lands on top of them.
git pull --rebase --autostashThe commit goes up to GitHub and the status bar changes to Synced to GitHub.
git push -u origin mainIf git can’t reapply your changes cleanly, sync stops and names the files in conflict. Resolve them and the next save carries on. Vulkan Glass never picks a side for you and never force-pushes.
If you’ve used Obsidian, you can find your way around. There’s a ribbon on the left, your files beside it, the editor in the middle, and backlinks and graph on the right.
[!TIP] and [!WARNING], task lists, footnotes, and highlighted code blocks for Swift, Python, TypeScript, Rust, Go, SQL and more.[[ and pick a note from the suggestions. Link to a note that doesn’t exist yet, and following the link creates it..md file in Finder and press Space to see it rendered, without opening an app.Everything is in the menu bar with its shortcut next to it, so you can learn them as you go.
Obsidian is a great app, and people familiar with Obsidian will feel at home with Vulkan Glass. The difference is underneath. Vulkan Glass is free, it opens any Markdown file, and every line of its code is public. It’s also much smaller and faster for the same kind of experience. Using fewer system resources, you’ll feel the difference.
Every feature is free, sync included, because sync is just git and GitHub. The code is MIT-licensed, so you can read it, fork it, or build your own copy. Obsidian is free to use, but its source is closed, and Obsidian Sync costs $4 to $5 a month.
Anyone can audit every line that touches your notes, and anyone can report what they find. Updates are signed. Obsidian’s own help pages say community plugins can read your files, reach the internet and install programs, and that it can’t reliably restrict them.
Press ⇧⌘O to open a Markdown file from anywhere on your Mac. Edit it and it’s saved where it is, with no vault to set up and no git involved. Obsidian only opens files that live inside a vault.
Obsidian is an Electron app, so it ships its own copy of Chromium and Node.js. Vulkan Glass is a native Mac app that uses what macOS already has.
Download
Installed
| Feature | Vulkan Glass | Obsidian |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, every feature | Free app, paid Sync and Publish |
| Source code | Open, MIT license | Closed |
| Build it yourself | Yes | No |
| Sync | Git and GitHub, built in | Obsidian Sync, $4–5/month |
| System resources | Very low | Much higher |
| Open a file outside a vault | Yes | No |
| Built with | Native SwiftUI | Electron (Chromium + Node.js) |
| Platforms | macOS 14 and later | Mac, Windows, Linux, mobile |
Vulkan Glass is free and MIT-licensed. It needs macOS 14 or later.
Download the disk image
Drag Vulkan Glass into Applications
VulkanGlass.dmg and drag the app onto the Applications folder.Open it and choose where your notes live
Create GitHub vault
Makes a new private or public repository on your account and opens it.
Clone GitHub vault
Pick one of your repositories and use it as a vault.
Open local repository
Use a folder you already have, as long as it has a GitHub remote.
The source is on GitHub. With Xcode and mise installed, this builds a Release copy and puts it in /Applications.
$ git clone https://github.com/arkaydeustech/vulkanglass.git
$ cd vulkanglass
$ mise run setup
$ mise run install