Hillnote for your thinking

Think it through, wherever it strikes.

The best ideas rarely wait for the right moment. Catch them the instant they land — on your desk or your phone — then spread them across a canvas, link them into a web, and work them out with an AI peer that sits right beside you.

Catch the thought before it's gone.

A quicknote is one keystroke away on the desktop and one tap away on your phone — no naming, no filing, no breaking your flow. Type "/" for any block you need and keep moving. The thought lands as plain markdown, ready to shape whenever you come back to it.

See quick capture

Think in whatever shape the idea wants.

Some ideas are a paragraph. Some are a sketch. Some are a table of options. Think in whichever one fits — they're all the same markdown underneath.

Draw it out on an infinite canvas

Sketch, diagram, and pull documents onto a spatial board when an idea only makes sense laid out side by side.

Write it long-form

A full editor for when the thought wants to be prose — headings, lists, code, and [[links]] to everything around it.

Organise your thinking

Turn a set of options into a sortable, filterable database with typed properties when you need to compare, not just write.

Pitch it as slides

Step through an argument one idea at a time — any document becomes a deck without rebuilding a thing.

1 keystrokeFrom a blank screen to a new quicknote, on any device

Every formatProse, canvas, database, slides — your thinking, your shape

Open filesPlain markdown your own agents can read and write

A thinking partner that stays on your machine.

Apple Intelligence and Ollama models live inside Hillnote to rephrase, summarize, and poke holes in your reasoning — running on-device, so your half-formed thoughts never leave home. Auto-mode only reaches for a frontier model when you ask and you're online; small thoughts stay on the desk, big ones get the right tool.

Meet your local peer

Think it through with people — and with agents.

Point Claude or Cursor at the same folder and they draft right inside your markdown, no copy-paste. Turn on sync and collaboration and the same workspace stays in step across people and devices, so you can work an idea out together in real time — then break apart and keep your own private copy.

Connect your tools

Download for Mac

$0forever

Everything you need to get started.

Core editor on desktop and mobile
Local AI via Ollama and Apple Intelligence
Limited premium model use
100MB of synced storage
Collaboration on synced workspaces

Download Hillnote

$2/ month

Billed yearly

Thinking questions, answered

How fast can I capture a thought?

A quicknote is a single keystroke on the desktop and a single tap on your phone — a lightweight surface for rough, unfiled notes. Think out loud, then fold it into your workspace later or throw it away. Either way it's plain markdown the moment you type it.

What formats can I think in?

Documents, an infinite canvas for sketching and arranging ideas spatially, databases for weighing options, and slides to present. Connect any of them with [[links]] and follow the graph — your thinking isn't locked into one rigid layout.

Does the AI run locally?

For in-flow work, yes. Apple Intelligence and Ollama models run on your machine for rephrasing, summaries, and brainstorming. Auto-mode only reaches for a frontier model when you ask and you're online — and you can point Claude or Cursor at the same files through MCP.

Can I think through an idea with someone else?

Yes. Turn on sync and collaboration and the same workspace stays in step across people and devices, so you can work an idea out together. Leave it off and everything stays as private markdown on your own disk.