Journal
Today's entry is always ready. Scroll back through every day in one continuous view, and jump to any date from the calendar.
Public betaLocal-first · Plain Markdown · macOS
Your journal, projects, people and tasks.
All plain Markdown.
CaptainLog turns a folder of .md files into a calm, keyboard-first workspace. No cloud. No account. Your files stay yours.
21 seconds. One Markdown file. A whole task manager.
The trick
It's just Markdown. …and it's a proper task manager.
Every task is a checkbox in a file. Dates, owners and projects are small tokens that Obsidian and any text editor can read. CaptainLog turns them into chips, lists and reminders, and never hides anything in a database.
journal/2026-11-01.mdon disk
# Next - [x] Confirm freeze window with Finance ✅ 2026-11-01 - [ ] Send the cutover timeline ⏳ 2026-11-01 📅 2026-11-02 - [ ] Ask [[marta-nowicka]] for the billing mapping 📅 2026-11-06 - [ ] Rehearse the rollback ⏳ 2026-11-04 👤 [[anna-nowak]] - [ ] Revisit log retention #someday
Sunday, 1 Nov 2026Today
Next
Confirm freeze window with Finance
Send the cutover timelineTodayDue tomorrow
Ask @Marta Nowicka for the billing mappingDue Friday
Rehearse the rollbackWednesdayANAnna
Revisit log retentionSomeday
Same bytes on disk. Open the file in VS Code, Obsidian or vim and you'll see exactly the left side.
What it does
One lens over your files. Six ways to look through it.
Tasks from every note
Today, Upcoming, Someday and Awaiting views, gathered from every file. Type “by friday” and it becomes a deadline.
People, first-class
Type @ to mention anyone. Each person gets a page showing what they owe you, where they're mentioned and who they work with.
Projects that assemble themselves
A folder or a _project.md becomes a project page: your own notes on top, then live tasks, documents, people and files.
⌘K to anything
One search box for notes, journal days, people, projects and tasks. Keyboard first, with your hands never leaving the keys.
Quick capture, anywhere
Press ⌃⌥Space from any app. The thought lands in today's journal, and you see the exact line it writes.
Private by design
Your files stay yours.
Not ours. Not a server's.
CaptainLog has no backend to send your notes to. It reads the folder you point it at and that's it. Quit the app tomorrow and you keep every word, in a format that will outlive any app.
- No cloud, no accountNothing to sign up for. Nothing leaves your Mac.
- Plain
.md, readable anywhereOpen the same files in Obsidian, VS Code or any editor. - A disposable indexThe search index is rebuilt from your files. Delete it any time.
- Ready for your AI agentsAgents read and write the same folder. No API or export needed.
~/Documents/CaptainLoglocal
- journal/
- 2026-10-31.md
- 2026-11-01.mdtoday
- notes/
- kickoff-notes.md
- people/
- anna-nowak.md
- marta-nowicka.md
- projects/platform-migration/
- _project.md
- cutover-plan.md
- vendor-quote.pdf
--- status: active due: 2026-11-14 people: [anna-nowak, marta-nowicka] ---
Take the helm of your own files.
Beta Free during the beta · Apple Silicon · .dmg
CaptainLog is still in beta, so expect a few rough edges and frequent updates. Your notes are plain Markdown files, so a bug can't lock you in or hide your data.
First launch on macOS
The app isn't signed with an Apple Developer ID yet, so macOS blocks the first launch. Open it once, then go to System Settings › Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway. After that it opens normally and keeps running in the menu bar, so quick capture works all day.