Prose
Personal software for the AI era — optional AI that doesn't write for you.
Prose is a free, open-source, distraction-free markdown editor for macOS. Prose is opinionated, while offering you choice. We believe that when it comes to creative work, AI shouldn't write for you. That's why Prose ships with three AI modes: Chat, Editor, and Create. Use Chat Mode to bounce ideas, Editor to fix typos and grammar errors, or rip through the rote stuff at lightning speed with Create Mode.
Don't like AI? Use it as a clean, fast, local-first editor.
Your files stay yours. Your API keys are yours. Your writing stays yours.
Why Prose
Respectful AI.
AI augments your skills instead of replacing them — find a typo, fix grammar, pressure-test an idea, the way a good editor would. It never touches the page silently.
Free and Open.
Free on the Mac App Store, MIT-licensed on GitHub — the same codebase, every line readable. Prose exists to be useful, not to manufacture dependency.
Privacy First.
No accounts, no analytics, no telemetry. API keys live in the macOS Keychain. Crash reporting is opt-in and off by default.
Local-first, Plain Files.
Your documents are ordinary .md / .txt files. Open them anywhere, back them up anywhere — they'll outlast this app.
Bring your own API Key.
Prose talks to Anthropic directly with your key. No middleman, no markup, no subscription, no training on your words.
Features
The Editor
- Distraction-free TipTap / ProseMirror editor with full markdown round-trip
- YAML frontmatter parsed, preserved, and rendered elegantly
- Code-block syntax highlighting, live word / character count, light + dark mode, multiple themes
- Multi-tab editing with session restore and single-click preview
- Autosave with debounce; standard markdown keyboard shortcuts
- Tables you can actually edit — insert one from Edit → Insert Table, then add or
remove rows and columns from the hover rails; always saved back as a GFM pipe table
AI Three Ways — All optional, all BYOK
- Chat — Talk through a draft; pressure-test structure and ideas without touching the text
- Editor — A copyeditor that flags typos and grammar issues with suggestions you approve
- Create — Let AI take over for the uncreative, rote, or mechanical work you don't need to do by hand
Review and track every change
- AI edits arrive as inline comments and tracked suggestions — never silent rewrites
- Accept or reject each one individually inline, blast through in Quick Review, or dig in with a thorough side-by-side diff
- A persistent, per-document activity log of every AI edit — with the model that made it and the reason why captured for posterity
- Authorship highlighting marks non-human words, so you always know what you wrote vs. what AI did
- Your document stays clean until you say so
Organize
- Pin Projects and Favorites in the file explorer to keep the documents you live in one click away
MCP server
- Prose ships an MCP server! Connect Claude Desktop once and it can read and edit your active document directly
- Tools:
read_document, get_outline, suggest_edit, open_file, create_and_open_file
Sync — OSS builds, opt-in
- reMarkable tablet sync via rmapi-js — handwritten notes → markdown via OCR
Getting started
Download — Free Everywhere
Mac App Store → — sandboxed, auto-updating, Keychain credential storage
GitHub Releases → — notarized direct download with auto-update
Both are free, from the same codebase. The only differences are sandbox-related; there's no paid tier and no feature held hostage behind one.
Build from source
Requires Node.js 20+.
git clone https://github.com/solo-ist/prose
cd prose
npm install
npm run dev
To build a distributable:
npm run build:mac
Configuration
Prose stores settings at ~/Library/Application Support/Prose/settings.json on macOS, and uses the macOS Keychain (via Electron safeStorage) for API credentials. The legacy ~/.prose/settings.json path is migrated automatically on first launch.
{
"theme": "dark",
"llm": {
"provider": "anthropic",
"model": "claude-sonnet-5-5"
},
"editor": {
"fontSize": 16,
"lineHeight": 1.65,
"fontFamily": "IBM Plex Mono, monospace"
}
}
MCP server
Your editor has an API now.
Prose ships an MCP server, so Claude Desktop can read and edit your active document directly — no copy-paste. Install it from Settings → Integrations → Install MCP Server: Prose copies the server, writes Claude Desktop's config for you, and prompts you to restart Claude Desktop. (OSS / direct builds only — the sandboxed App Store build can't install it.)
Under the hood, that adds an entry like this to claude_desktop_config.json — you don't write it by hand:
{
"mcpServers": {
"Prose": {
"command": "/path/to/node",
"args": ["~/Library/Application Support/Prose/mcp-server/mcp-stdio.cjs"]
}
}
}
Available tools
| Tool | Description |
|---|
read_document | Returns the document as a structured node tree (each node with an ID) plus its markdown |
get_outline | Returns the heading structure with levels |
open_file | Opens a file by path, switching the active document |
create_and_open_file | Creates a new markdown file, saves it to disk, and opens it |
suggest_edit | Proposes an inline diff on a node — a tracked change to accept or reject (supports block-type conversion) |
list_comments | Lists every comment in the active document |
add_comment | Adds a comment to a node or range |
resolve_comment | Resolves (removes) a comment by ID |
list_tabs | Lists open tabs — title, path, active / dirty state |
select_tab | Switches the active tab by ID or name match |
Edits from Claude Desktop land as suggestions, not silent writes — the same review flow as in-app AI.
Keyboard shortcuts
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|
| New document / new tab | ⌘N / ⌘T |
| Open… | ⌘O |
| Reopen closed tab | ⌘⇧T |
| Save / Save as… | ⌘S / ⌘⇧S |
| Copy markdown | ⌘⇧C |
| Convert to plain text / markdown | ⌘⌥T / ⌘⌥M |
| Add comment | ⌘⇧A |
| Find | ⌘F |
| Toggle source view | ⌘⇧E |
| Toggle file list | ⌘⇧H |
| Toggle chat panel | ⌘⇧L |
| Add selection to chat | ⌘⇧K |
| Send chat message | ↵ |
| Settings | ⌘, |
Stack
| Layer | Technology |
|---|
| Desktop shell | Electron |
| Renderer | React + TypeScript |
| Editor | TipTap + ProseMirror |
| UI | Tailwind CSS + shadcn/ui |
| LLM | Anthropic SDK + Vercel AI SDK |
| reMarkable sync | rmapi-js |
| Packaging | electron-builder |
| Build tool | electron-vite |
Distribution
Prose ships two builds from one codebase:
Mac App Store — free, sandboxed, macOS Keychain for credentials, Apple's update mechanism. The IS_MAS_BUILD flag gates a few OSS-only features the sandbox can't allow.
OSS / Direct — free, GitHub Releases, electron-updater for auto-updates, full feature set including reMarkable sync (opt-in).
Free everywhere · MIT-licensed · No subscription required to write.
Contributing
Fork it. Make it yours.
Prose is a starting point, not a finished product. If you have an idea for how your editor should work, run with it — change anything, and shape your own instance around the way you write. You shouldn't need permission to bend your own tools.
This repo is where we share that work back. Build something other people would want, and open a pull request — good ideas belong to everyone who can use them. For anything substantial, open an issue first so we can talk it through, and skim the roadmap before you start: a lot is already planned, and it's better to build alongside it than to reinvent the wheel.
Commits follow Conventional Commits.
Roadmap
Shipped — core editor · AI chat with BYOK · Chat / Editor / Create modes · inline + side-by-side review · per-document Activity log and authorship highlighting · Projects & Favorites · HTML export · MCP server · reMarkable sync.
Now — free on the Mac App Store. Dropping the price, refreshing the branding, and hardening the sandboxed build.
Next — Core Build-Out, three tracks in parallel:
- A smarter desktop app — let the agent drive the app itself: resize panels, navigate the file explorer, change allowlisted settings (never credentials), plus a universal slash-command palette and richer streaming indicators. Always gated, always undoable.
- reMarkable parity — a real notebook view, cover-image thumbnails, EPUB / PDF import, and two-way typed-document sync.
- An optional paid platform — an at-cost, opt-in web layer for managed convenience (a hosted web editor and services), sold on the web and signed into with your own account. The editor stays free everywhere; this is a co-op, not a profit center.
Later — the generative deep end (OSS builds only): a sandboxed terminal tab running Claude Code, so Prose can help change its own codebase and open a pull request.
The full, living plan — waves, tracks, and sequencing — lives in docs/roadmap.md. The project board is the live queue.
License
MIT — do whatever you want with it.
Prose is part of solo.ist — tools for the personal software era.
