Product Documentation.

Vaults are read and written through the browser's File System Access API, which only Chromium-based browsers implement. Use one of the browsers below.

HermesMarkdown ships a web app manifest, so supported browsers offer an Install option in the address bar. Installing gives it its own window and app icon, but doesn't change how it works — it's the same browser-based app, not a native build.

Click the vault icon in the sidebar and pick an existing folder, or create a new one in the picker.

The browser grants HermesMarkdown direct read/write access to that folder for the session. Nothing is uploaded — files stay where they are on disk.

Everything in the folder — your notes, your subfolders — is yours; HermesMarkdown never restructures it or writes files of its own into it.

In the sidebar, click the vault icon and choose New Vault, or run it from the command palette.

Type a vault name (this becomes the folder name on disk) and click Choose parent folder to pick where the folder will be created, then click Create Vault.

HermesMarkdown creates the folder and opens the vault on a blank note. No example content is added.

Use the + button in the sidebar, or run New file from the command palette.

The frontmatter panel opens automatically on every new file, prompting for the fields defined in your vault's schema — title, status, and whatever else you've configured. Fill in what's relevant and skip the rest; nothing here is required beyond title.

Save manually with CTRL+S, or rely on autosave — configurable under Settings → Editor. The status bar shows whether the file has unsaved changes.

There's no formatting toolbar above the text. Formatting happens through Markdown syntax, keyboard shortcuts, and the slash command menu.

The sidebar (files, search, tasks) stays hidden at rest. Move the mouse to the left edge to open it, or pin it with CTRL+SHIFT+E; switching between its panels happens from the command palette rather than a row of icons.

Open several files side by side: split right from the tab bar, drag tabs between panes, and resize with the divider.

New files and vaults open in Rendered by default — type directly into a formatted document instead of raw syntax. Source is still there for anyone who wants the plain-text view: it highlights Markdown inline over the raw text as you type — headings, bold, links, and lifecycle tags render in place, without hiding the underlying syntax. Both surfaces write to the same file; switching between them never loses changes.

Toggle a pane between Source and Rendered with the eye icon in its tab bar, or change the default new files open in from Settings → Editor → Default View.

Two column widths are available from Settings → Editor: Standard and Narrow. Below the medium breakpoint, the column collapses to full width regardless of the setting.

Type /table in the slash menu, or the {table} shortcode. Both drop a 3×2 starter table with the cursor in the first cell.

Click inside any table to get a floating toolbar over it. Drag it out of the way by its grip handle if it's covering something you need to see.

Smart sorting recognizes dates, currency, and plain numbers regardless of column alignment. Output stays clean, auto-padded Markdown that respects left, center, or right alignment markers.

Any fenced code block (/code in the slash menu, or typing ```` ```lang ```` yourself) is syntax-highlighted as you type, for any language CodeMirror recognizes from the fence's language tag.

A ```` ```mermaid ```` fence is a special case: instead of highlighted text, it renders as a live diagram, with a small Diagram / Code tab in the corner to switch between the rendered view and the raw source — clicking the diagram itself also drops straight into the source, the same as clicking the tab. Invalid syntax shows an inline error instead of a blank diagram.

```mermaid
graph TD
  A[Start] --> B{Decision}
  B -->|Yes| C[Do it]
  B -->|No| D[Skip it]
```

Math works the same way: type $E=mc^2$ and the closing $ instantly renders it as a formula. For a multi-line or display formula, use /math from the slash menu, or wrap it in $$...$$ yourself. Click a formula to edit its raw LaTeX; click away to render it again.

Type /link in the slash menu (or CTRL+K in Source) to open the Add Link dialog — fill in the link text and the URL, then Insert.

Pasting a bare URL on its own does the same thing automatically: it lands as a link with a placeholder label already selected, so typing immediately replaces it with a real title instead of leaving the raw URL as the visible text.

Rest the cursor on any link and a small floating pill appears with two actions: the pencil reopens the same dialog to edit its text or URL, and the external-link icon opens it.CTRL+Click the link directly to open it without the pill.

Keep typing after / to filter by title or keyword; ↑/↓ to move the selection, Enter to insert, Escape to dismiss. Results are grouped under Text, Lists, Insert, and Callouts.

Open it from the command palette (Open Tasks). The pane scans every file in the vault for Markdown task lines and lists them grouped by status.

A task counts as In Progress when it's unchecked and tagged #prog anywhere on the line. The #prog tag itself — along with #todo and #done, which are purely cosmetic — is stripped from the text shown in the pane. Within each group, tasks are sorted by their note's title.

Click a task's checkbox to toggle it — the change writes straight back to the source line in the file, no need to open it first. Click the task text instead to open its note and jump to that line.

Click the ✎ icon in a document's frontmatter header to open the panel. It also opens automatically on new files.

The panel renders three fields: title, status, and tags. That's the whole schema — fixed, not configurable, kept deliberately small.

Every change in the panel writes straight back to the YAML block at the top of the file — there's no separate save step for frontmatter and no risk of the panel and the raw block drifting apart.

> [!tip] Optional title
> Body text, same as a regular blockquote.

Insert one from the slash menu — search "Callout" for Note, Tip, or Warning. Slash-menu callouts start foldable with a click-to-collapse chevron next to the title; hand-typed callouts are foldable only if you add + or - yourself.

Add + or - after the type to make it foldable: + starts expanded, - starts collapsed. No suffix means a plain, non-foldable callout.

> [!warning]- Collapsed by default
> Click the title to expand.

The type is case-insensitive and any word works, but these have dedicated colors and icons:

Start voice input from the command palette (Start voice input) to start listening. Speech accumulates in an editable preview box instead of the document itself, so you can fix a mishear before it ever touches your note. Say "insert this" (or press Enter) to commit the reviewed text at the cursor, Shift+Enter to add a line break within the preview, or Escape to discard it.

Dictation is transcription only — it never inserts Markdown syntax or otherwise formats the note from speech. A small set of session-control phrases works instead, since those act on the preview buffer rather than the document:

Listening stops automatically when the pane loses focus, the tab is backgrounded, or the mic button is clicked again. If the browser denies microphone access, loses its network connection mid-session, or can't find a microphone, a toast explains why and listening stops rather than retrying silently.

CTRL+SHIFT+P. Keep typing to filter — matching characters are highlighted, and each entry shows its own shortcut if it has one.

Every command here is a second entry point to something also reachable another way — there's no command-only behavior. The palette adapts to context: pane- and file-scoped commands only appear when there's an active pane or open file to act on.

Combine this with the per-context shortcuts in Keyboard shortcuts and the slash command menu (/) for inserting content, and the editor is fully operable without ever reaching for the mouse.

Any folder you open becomes a vault. Subfolders, file names, and organization are entirely yours — HermesMarkdown doesn't enforce a structure or move files around.

my-vault/
  projects/         ← yours
    roadmap.md
  daily/            ← yours
    2026-06-25.md

Every note is a plain .md file with a small YAML frontmatter block. Open the folder in any other editor, sync it with Dropbox or Google Drive, or move it to another machine — nothing about it depends on HermesMarkdown being installed. HermesMarkdown never writes files of its own into the vault.

title

The note's primary identifier. The only field a note can't be saved without.

status

One of draft, review, active, or archived. Stays in sync with the document's lifecycle tag — change one and the other follows.

tags

Free-form domain tags, distinct from the lifecycle tag that mirrors status.

Settings → AI Features → choose a provider → paste your API key → Test Connection. Once a key validates, every AI action in the editor and command palette becomes visible.

The key is stored in your browser. Each AI request passes through HermesMarkdown's servers on its way to Anthropic or Google — the key is never logged or saved there. See Privacy model for the full picture.

Select some text and a small toolbar appears right above the selection:

It only appears while something is selected, positioned at the selection itself.

Run Repurpose note into blog / social / newsletter draft… from the command palette (only visible once a key is configured, and only with an open note that has content).

Pick one or more target formats, then Draft. The AI drafts each selected format from the current note's content and shows every draft for review before anything is saved.

Confirming writes one new file per format, named after the source note (e.g. pricing-launch-blog.md, pricing-launch-social.md). The original note is never modified.

HermesMarkdown is local-first: your vault is read and written directly from the browser, with no upload step and no HermesMarkdown database holding your notes.

Dark/light theme is a single toggle in Settings → Interface. Type settings live in Settings → Typography.

Settings → Editor → Display → Editor Width.

Every shortcut in HermesMarkdown is built in and not user-configurable. See Keyboard shortcuts for the full reference grouped by context.

A thin bar stays fixed at the top of the screen showing the active file's name and save status — there's no keyboard shortcut for the command palette on mobile, so tapping this bar is the one always-present way to open it. From there, Open Files, Search, Open Tasks, New file, and every other command work exactly as they do on desktop.

Files and Search open as full-screen overlays rather than a docked sidebar panel.

Tables use the same floating toolbar and in-place cell editing as desktop — there's no separate view to switch to. Tapping the frontmatter ✎ icon instead slides a sheet up from the bottom edge, capped to a portion of the screen height so the soft keyboard never covers it. Drag the handle down to dismiss.

Cell navigation and range selection work the same as desktop — only the surrounding chrome changes.

On desktop, selecting text surfaces a toolbar with Ask AI. On mobile, the equivalent toolbar is pared down to Bold, Italic, and Link — there's no per-selection AI toolbar on mobile yet. AI Chat and Repurpose Note are still reachable from the command palette on either platform.