Mnemo

Local-first spaced repetition for cards you actually own.
Write cards in Markdown, organize them with folders, review with FSRS, and sync or back them up like normal files.

Download Mnemo  ·  Screenshots  ·  Card format  ·  Development

Why Mnemo

Mnemo is built for people who want spaced repetition without surrendering their study material to a service. Your cards live in a plain folder, each card is a Markdown file, and review state is stored separately so the notes stay readable and git-friendly.

What you get	Why it matters
Markdown cards	Use prose, lists, code blocks, links, and images without a proprietary format.
Folder-based decks	The filesystem is the source of truth; folders become namespaces in the app.
FSRS scheduling	Reviews are scheduled with the modern Free Spaced Repetition Scheduler via ts-fsrs.
Live file watcher	Edit cards in Mnemo or in your editor; changes appear in the app automatically.
Portable archives	Export selected cards to .mnemo.zip and import them on another machine.
Local data	No account, no hosted database, no cloud lock-in.

Screenshots

Review - focused recall, keyboard shortcuts, deck filters, and queue progress.	Browse - search prompts and tags across every Markdown-backed card.
Read cards - inspect prompts and answers without dropping into edit mode.	Edit - prompt variants, tags, namespaces, Markdown editing, and live preview.
Dashboard - due forecast, weak decks, leeches, retention heatmap, streaks, and stats.	Share - select cards or whole namespaces and export a portable archive.

Install

Download the newest build for your platform from GitHub Releases.

Platform	What to download	Notes
macOS	.dmg	Drag Mnemo into Applications.
Windows	Mnemo-Setup-X.Y.Z.exe	Run the installer.
Linux	.AppImage or .deb	Use the portable AppImage or install the Debian package.

Unsigned app warnings

The current builds are unsigned. Mnemo is a small single-maintainer project, so macOS Gatekeeper and Windows SmartScreen may warn on first launch.

• macOS: right-click Mnemo in Applications, choose Open, then confirm. macOS remembers this choice.
• Windows: choose More info and then Run anyway in the SmartScreen dialog.

Linux commands

For AppImage:

chmod +x Mnemo-X.Y.Z.AppImage
./Mnemo-X.Y.Z.AppImage

For Debian or Ubuntu:

sudo dpkg -i mnemo_X.Y.Z_amd64.deb

First Run

On first launch, Mnemo creates a managed vault in the OS-standard app data folder:

Platform	Default vault
macOS	~/Library/Application Support/Mnemo/vault
Windows	%APPDATA%/Mnemo/vault
Linux	~/.config/Mnemo/vault

Inside that vault:

vault/
  cards/      # your Markdown cards
  state/      # Mnemo review state

Back up the vault like any other notes folder. If you use Git, Syncthing, Dropbox, iCloud Drive, or another file sync tool, Mnemo does not get in your way.

Card Format

Each card is a .md file with YAML front matter and a Markdown answer body.

---
id: 01HXYZABC...
prompts:
  - id: 01HXYZPROMPT1...
    text: 'What problem does consistent hashing solve?'
  - id: 01HXYZPROMPT2...
    text: 'Why does adding one cache node not reshuffle every key?'
tags: [systems, caching]
created: 2026-01-15T10:23:00.000Z
---

Consistent hashing maps both cache nodes and keys onto the same ring.
When one node joins or leaves, only the neighboring slice of keys moves.

Field	Meaning
id	Card ULID, generated by Mnemo. Review state is keyed by this ID.
prompts	One or more question variants. Mnemo picks one during review.
tags	Free-form labels for search, filtering, and organization.
created	ISO 8601 creation timestamp.

The answer body below the front matter is shared by every prompt on the card. Review state lives in state/<id>.json, not in the Markdown file, so your notes stay clean.

Namespaces

The folder path under cards/ becomes the card namespace.

vault/
  cards/
    languages/
      japanese/vocab.md         -> languages/japanese
      spanish/verbs.md          -> languages/spanish
    algorithms/
      graphs/dijkstra.md        -> algorithms/graphs
    systems/
      caching/consistent.md     -> systems/caching

Namespaces power the sidebar, deck filters, dashboard ranking, and archive export. Deleting a namespace removes the folder, every card under it, and the matching review state.

Sharing Cards

Mnemo archives contain cards and referenced assets, not review progress. That means you can share study material without copying someone else's memory state.

1. Open Export from the sidebar.
2. Search, select cards, or select whole namespaces.
3. Save the .mnemo.zip archive.
4. On another machine, choose Import, preview the archive, pick a target namespace, and skip or overwrite existing card IDs.

Updates

• macOS and Linux AppImage builds can check for updates in the background and show a restart banner when an update is ready.
• Windows and Linux .deb builds are updated manually from GitHub Releases.
• Auto-update checks can be disabled in Settings -> Updates.

Development

Mnemo is an Electron app with a React renderer, a strict preload boundary, and a local main-process store for disk I/O, indexing, file watching, archives, and FSRS scheduling.

npm install
npm run dev

Command	Description
npm run dev	Vite + Electron with hot reload
npm run build	Typecheck and build renderer, main, and preload bundles
npm run typecheck	TypeScript only
npm run test	Vitest unit tests
npm run e2e	Playwright end-to-end tests
npm run dist	Build an installer for the current platform

src/
  main/       Electron main process: disk I/O, FSRS, IPC, file watcher
  preload/    Context-bridge API exposed to the renderer
  renderer/   React UI: routes, widgets, stores
  shared/     Zod schemas, constants, and API types

Building Releases

Packaging is handled by electron-builder. Per-platform targets are declared in electron-builder.yml.

Command	Platform	Artifacts
npm run dist	Current OS	Platform default
npm run dist:mac	macOS	.dmg, .zip
npm run dist:mac:arm64	macOS Apple Silicon	arm64 .dmg, arm64 .zip
npm run dist:win	Windows	NSIS installer (.exe)
npm run dist:linux	Linux	AppImage, .deb

Artifacts land in out/. The first packaging run downloads Electron binaries and can take a few minutes.

CI

.github/workflows/build.yml runs typecheck and tests, and packages installers on pushes to main or manual runs.

.github/workflows/release.yml is manual-only. Run it with a version input matching package.json; it builds platform installers and publishes vX.Y.Z to GitHub Releases.

Code Signing

Unsigned builds run locally, but operating systems warn users. To sign releases:

• macOS: set CSC_LINK, CSC_KEY_PASSWORD, APPLE_ID, APPLE_APP_SPECIFIC_PASSWORD, and APPLE_TEAM_ID.
• Windows: set CSC_LINK and CSC_KEY_PASSWORD.

See the electron-builder code signing docs for full details.