A version on its own
About once a minute while you write, and whenever you switch tabs or apps, press ⌘S or quit, Hoard keeps a version. No button. You can change how often, from ten seconds to an hour.
A text editor with a memory, for Mac
Keep everything.
Hoard saves every version of everything you write, and lets you step back through it like a filmstrip.
Free · macOS 13 or later
Filter files
notes.txt
lighthouse.md
todo.txt
ideas.txt
The lighthouse had been dark for eleven years.
Nobody in the village talked about why.
The keeper's daughter left on a Tuesday, and took the light with her.
Delete a paragraph. Drag back. It's there.
Try it
Delete something. Get it back.
A small working copy of the idea. Edit the note, clear it, make a mess. Every pause becomes a version, and the slider takes you back.
lighthouse.mdLatest
Version 3 of 3Drag the slider to look back.
Nothing you type here leaves this page. In Hoard a version is saved about once a minute while you write, and when you switch tabs or apps. Here it is every pause, so you can feel it.
A history for everything you write.
Quietly, in the background, in the open.
A filmstrip of your writing
Press ⌘` and drag through every version of the note. ⌘[ and ⌘] step one at a time. Compare any version with the text you have now.
Ask the past
What did this say last Friday? Type it. Or jump to the version that last changed the line under your cursor. Name a version "first draft" and come back to it whenever you like.
Search what you deleted
Find a sentence you cut weeks ago, in one note or across every file in the folder with ⌥⇧⌘F. If it was ever in a version, it turns up.
Yours, in the open
Notes are plain text files in a folder you choose. History is a normal git repository beside them. Any git tool can read it, and if you delete Hoard tomorrow, it is all still yours.
Plenty more
Quick open with ⌘P. A filter field and preview tabs. Rename a note and keep its history. Find and replace with regular expressions. Markdown highlighting. We'll let you find the rest.
Go to date
What did it say
last Friday?
Ask in plain words. Hoard shows the note as it was, and you can bring any of it back.
last friday
NowThe light was never coming back.
Last Friday · 6:40 PMThe light was coming back, slowly.
Plays well
with others.
Hoard does one thing, and it leaves the rest of your tools alone.
Plain files, any editor
Your notes are ordinary text files in an ordinary git repository. The same folder opens in Obsidian, VS Code, vim, or anything else that opens a folder. Hoard doesn't mind who else is looking.
The part that remembers
No plugins, no graph of links, no terminal. Those tools are very good at what they do, and you can use them on the same files. Hoard is the part that remembers, and gets out of the way.
A note with a past.
A look at the field in general, one box at a time.
| The field | Hoard | |
|---|---|---|
| Keeps every version of a note on its own | Some | |
| History is a standard git repository you can open anywhere | Rarely | |
| Plain text files in a folder you choose | Some | |
| Step back and forward through versions like a filmstrip | Rarely | |
| Name a version, then jump back to it | Some | |
| Ask what a note said last Friday | Rarely | |
| Search text you deleted, across every file | Rarely | |
| Rename a note and keep its history | Some | |
| Find and replace with regular expressions | Some | |
| A real Mac app, not a web wrapper | Some | |
| No account, no sign-in | Some | |
| Makes no network connections of its own | Rarely |
Compared with notes apps and text editors in general, not any one app. Many of them do some of this, and extensions or plugins fill in more; "Some" and "Rarely" describe how common each is out of the box. Features vary by app and version.
Fair questions.
Is Hoard free?
Yes. No subscription, no account, no trial that runs out.
How often does Hoard save a version?
About once a minute while you write, and whenever you switch tabs or apps, press ⌘S or quit. You can change the interval in Settings, from 10 seconds to an hour.
Where are my notes kept?
Wherever you put them. A note is an ordinary plain text file in a folder you choose, and its history sits in a hidden .git folder beside it.
Do I need to know git?
No. Hoard does the committing for you, and you never type a git command. Git itself comes with Apple's Command Line Developer Tools; if it isn't installed, Hoard asks macOS to install it the first time you open a file.
Does Hoard sync?
No, and it makes no network connections of its own. The folder is yours: put it wherever you already sync or back up, and the history travels with it.
Can I open my notes in other editors, like Obsidian or VS Code?
Yes. They are plain text files in a normal git repository, so any editor that can open a folder can open them. One thing to know: if a folder is already a git repository that something else made, Hoard opens it read-only instead of adding commits of its own to someone else's history.
What doesn't Hoard do?
It is not a plugin platform, a graph of linked notes or a code editor. There are excellent tools for those, and nothing stops you using them on the same files. Hoard is the part that remembers. Files are listed one folder at a time, with no subfolders yet.
How big can a note be?
Up to 50 MB by default, which is a great deal of writing. You can change the limit in Settings.
What Mac do I need?
A Mac running macOS 13 Ventura or later.
Open it.
Write something.
Look back.
Free · macOS 13 or later