Why I Built Kuku

Obsidian is great, but it's Electron. Notion is nice, but your data lives in the cloud. Apple Notes is native, but doesn't support Markdown.

I wanted an editor that is:

• —Truly native (not Electron)
• —Stores files as plain markdown on my machine
• —Supports Obsidian-style [[wikilinks]] and backlinks
• —Has AI that can read and edit my documents directly (like Cursor)

So I built it myself.

The Stack

Frontend: React 19 + TypeScript + Vite
Editor:   Tiptap (ProseMirror-based)
Backend:  Tauri v2 (Rust)
Storage:  SQLite (FTS5 full-text search)
AI:       Gemini API (tool calling)
STT:      Whisper.cpp (local, offline)

Thanks to Tauri, bundle size is ~15MB and memory usage ~80MB. An equivalent Electron app would consume 200MB+.

What Makes It Different

Plain Markdown Files

Your notes are stored as .md files. Open them in vim, version control with git, or open the same folder in Obsidian. No lock-in.

AI Agent, Not Just Chat

This isn't a chatbot. Using Gemini's tool calling, the AI can actually:

• —Search your vault (search_vault)
• —Read, create, and edit files
• —Insert wikilinks automatically
• —Find related documents

Ask it to "summarize last week's meeting notes" and it will search your vault, read the relevant files, and offer to create a new summary document.

Cursor-Style Edit Preview

AI edits aren't applied directly. You see a diff and choose to Accept or Reject:

- Original content here.
+ AI-modified content here.

[Keep] [Undo]

When editing multiple files, manage them all from a floating bar. Cmd+Y to Keep, Cmd+N to Undo.

Local Speech-to-Text

Voice recognition runs locally with whisper.cpp. Download the model once, then it works completely offline. No API calls to OpenAI.

Full-Text Search

SQLite FTS5 with BM25 ranking. Search through titles and full document content. Korean tokenization supported.

Honest Comparison

Use Obsidian if you need the plugin ecosystem or mobile apps.

Use Kuku if you want native performance, AI that edits your files, and local voice recognition.

What It's Not

• —No cloud sync — use iCloud or Dropbox folder directly
• —No mobile app — macOS only for now
• —No collaboration — this is for personal use
• —No plugin system — yet

Try It

Kuku is free to download. AI features require a subscription, but the core editor works without any account.

Requirements: macOS 12.0+, Apple Silicon or Intel.