A small place to write, without distractions. Quiet is a local writing app: a single executable with no dependencies that opens a page to write on in your browser. Your writing stays on your computer, in an SQLite database.
Executables for Linux, macOS and Windows are on the releases page. All you need besides is a modern browser (Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Safari).
On Linux and macOS, make the file executable first. On macOS the executable isn't signed, so the system blocks it the first time; clear the block with:
chmod +x quiet-darwin-arm64
xattr -d com.apple.quarantine quiet-darwin-arm64./quietOn Windows you can double-click quiet-windows-amd64.exe instead: a console window stays open while Quiet runs, and closing it stops the server.
The server starts at http://127.0.0.1:8765 and opens the browser. To stop it, press Ctrl+C in the terminal.
You can keep several windows or tabs open at once (see Several windows). You can't run two servers at once, though: the second one finds the port taken and exits with an error (address already in use).
| What | Where |
|---|---|
| Drafts (including those in the trash) | quiet.db, next to the executable or in your user data directory (see below) |
| Theme, focus mode, font, text size and text language | The browser's localStorage |
| Changes the server hasn't confirmed yet | The browser's localStorage, until the server saves them |
Quiet looks for quiet.db next to the executable first. If it finds one, it uses it: this is the portable setup, where the executable and your writing travel together in one folder, on a USB stick for instance. If there's none, it uses quiet.db in your user data directory, creating it on the first run. The path in use is printed at startup.
To make a copy portable, put an empty quiet.db next to the executable (touch quiet.db is enough, or move an existing database there).
The data directory depends on the system:
| System | Directory |
|---|---|
| Linux | ~/.local/share/quiet (or $XDG_DATA_HOME/quiet) |
| macOS | ~/Library/Application Support/Quiet |
| Windows | %AppData%\Quiet |
To use a different database, start Quiet with -db path/to/file.db.
Backups. The safest way is to copy the database with SQLite, even while the server is running:
sqlite3 quiet.db ".backup quiet-backup.db"Otherwise, stop the server and copy quiet.db. To restore a backup, replace quiet.db while the server is stopped.
Updates. When a new version of Quiet changes the database layout, quiet.db is upgraded on its own at startup, without losing anything. After an update, restart the server and reload every open window.
Coming from the Python version. It kept quiet.db next to quiet.py. Put the executable in that same folder and it picks the database up as it is. The very first versions kept drafts only in the browser: they are imported into the database automatically on first load, and a copy stays in the browser under the key quiet-writing-drafts-v1-migrated.
- Autosave: every change is saved shortly after you stop typing, and at least every 2 seconds if you type without pausing. The label at the top left reads Saving…, Saved or Not saved.
- New draft: the + button or
Alt+N. If an empty draft already exists, it opens that one instead of making another. - Export: Export .md or
Ctrl+Shift+Edownloads the draft as Markdown. The title becomes the# Titleheading, so use##and###for chapters and sections.
Move to trash doesn't ask for confirmation: a notice with Undo shows for a few seconds instead. The Trash link under the list shows deleted drafts. From there you can open them read-only, Restore them or Delete them for good, and Empty deletes them all. Only these last two actions can't be undone, and they ask first. The trash never empties itself.
- Mood: three themes, Warm paper, Light studio and Midnight.
- Aa: font (Serif, Sans, Mono), text size (16 to 28 px, 20 by default) and text language.
- Text language: sets how words break across lines in the book style, and which dictionary the browser's spellcheck uses. Auto, the default, follows the browser's language; English and Italiano fix it, for example when you write in Italian in an English browser.
- Book style: with Warm paper and Serif the page looks like a printed book. It uses EB Garamond, old-style figures, justified and hyphenated text, a centered title and an ornament below it.
Focus mode or Ctrl+Shift+F leaves only the page and the words. To leave it, press Esc or use the button that appears when you move the mouse. If saving fails, a small notice appears at the bottom left.
On macOS, Cmd works in place of Ctrl.
| Keys | Action |
|---|---|
Ctrl+S |
Save now (not needed: saving is automatic) |
Ctrl+Shift+E |
Export the draft as Markdown |
Alt+N |
New draft |
Ctrl+Shift+F |
Enter or leave focus mode |
Enter in the title |
Move to the text |
Esc |
Close the Aa panel, then leave focus mode, then go back from the trash to your drafts |
You can write in several windows or tabs, even in different browsers:
- Sync: changes made in one window show up in the others. Between tabs of the same browser this is almost immediate; another browser catches up when it comes to the foreground, and every 15 seconds anyway.
- Conflicts: if two windows edit the same draft at almost the same moment, neither overwrites the other. The draft keeps the version saved first, and the other window's changes become a copy titled "Title (conflicting version)". You merge the two by hand.
If the server is stopped while you write, the label turns to Not saved and your changes are kept in the browser. Quiet retries every 5 seconds and saves them as soon as the server is back. If the server was restarted, reload the page: pending changes are saved on load, even if the window that held them was closed.
The server listens only on 127.0.0.1 and can't be reached from other devices on the network. The API only accepts requests whose Host header is 127.0.0.1 or localhost, and that carry a random token generated at every start. This way a web page open in the same browser can't read or change your drafts.
| Option | Effect |
|---|---|
-port 8765 |
Port the server listens on |
-db path |
Database to use instead of looking for quiet.db |
-no-browser |
Don't open the browser at startup |
Changing the port doesn't affect your drafts, since they live in the database. The theme and reading settings are tied to the address, though, so on a new port they start from the defaults.
LICENSE the GNU GPL v3
main.go server, API and database
index.html the page (HTML, CSS and JavaScript)
fonts/EBGaramond.woff2 font for the book style, served locally
fonts/OFL-EBGaramond.txt the font's license
.github/workflows/ builds the executables for every vX.Y.Z tag
docs/focus-mode.png the screenshot above
The page and the font are embedded in the executable at build time.
You need Go 1.26 or later. SQLite comes as a pure Go library, so no C compiler is needed:
go buildOr, without cloning the repository:
go install github.com/gosub/quiet@latestThe EB Garamond typeface is by Georg Duffner and Octavio Pardo, released under the SIL Open Font License 1.1 (fonts/OFL-EBGaramond.txt). The included version is trimmed to the Latin alphabet and a few ornaments, but keeps all its OpenType features.
Giampaolo Guiducci
Quiet is free software, released under the GNU General Public License version 3 or, at your option, any later version (GPL-3.0-or-later). You can use, study, change and share it; if you distribute a modified version, it must stay under the GPL and include its source code.
The font in fonts/ is not covered by the GPL: it keeps its own license, the SIL Open Font License 1.1 (see Credits).