Skip to content
Mimir Docs
Esc
↑↓navigate↵open⌘Jpreview
On this page

Why Mimir

Who Mimir is for, what you get from it, what sets it apart from other note-taking apps, and what it leaves to other apps.

Mimir is a bullet outliner built around a daily journal. It does fewer things than most note-taking apps, on purpose.

This page covers who Mimir is for, what sets it apart, and what it leaves to other apps. For Mimir next to one specific app, see Mimir compared.

Who it’s for

Mimir suits you if you recognize yourself here:

  • You tried other note-taking apps and spent more time configuring them than writing in them.
  • You want your notes on your own device, with sync that needs no setup.
  • You’d rather have an app that behaves the same every time than one you can extend and customize.
  • You write every day, and your notes connect through links rather than folders.

If you enjoy tinkering with your tools, need database-style queries over your notes, or want to edit notes together with a team, Mimir feels limiting. See What it leaves to other apps.

What you get from it

You spend less time managing your tools. There’s nothing to set up before you write, so you open Mimir and start typing. And you learn it once: when you know bullets, indenting, [[ links, and the journal, you know most of Mimir. When Mimir updates, the parts you already use stay where your hands expect them.

Your notes stay put. They’re in one file on your device, and Mimir opens them without a network. No plugin can stop being maintained, and no subscription can lapse.

It’s well designed

Mimir feels stable and calm on every device. It responds the moment you act, behaves the same way every time, and shows you what it did. Mistakes are easy to undo.

Nothing in it is there for show. There’s almost nothing on screen but your notes, and the care goes into details you might never notice.

It opens ready to write

Mimir opens on today’s journal entry, with the caret in an empty line. There’s no account to create, no welcome screen, and no settings screen. There are no folders, tags, types, or fields to configure. Everything you write is a bullet, and a page comes into existence the moment you link to it with [[.

Your notes live on your device, so Mimir works fully offline from the first launch. Writing, linking, and search never wait on a network.

Your notes stay yours

All your notes are in one SQLite database file on your device, which any SQLite browser can open. On a Mac, you can export every page as a Markdown file at any time. See Where your notes live.

Mimir saves as you go. There’s no save button, and every change is one undo step, including deleting and moving bullets.

Mimir has no ads, analytics, or tracking. Your notes stay on your device unless you turn on Cloud Sync, which encrypts them first. See the privacy policy.

Sync with no account

Mimir is free on every device, with every feature. Cloud Sync is the one paid feature, and it’s a one-time purchase. Nothing is sold inside the app on a phone or tablet.

To turn on Cloud Sync, paste your license key. To add another device, enter the eight words Mimir gives you. There’s no account, email address, or password. Cloud Sync encrypts your notes on your device before it sends them, and Mimir’s servers can’t read them.

If you edit the same bullet on two devices while they’re offline, Mimir keeps both versions. When the devices reconnect, the other version appears as a new bullet above yours, and Mimir never asks you to pick one. See Sync across devices.

Typing [[ links to a page. Every page lists what links to it, with the text around each link. Where you typed a page’s title without linking it, Mimir underlines it, and one click turns it into a link. See Pages & wikilinks.

What it leaves to other apps

Mimir is where you write and link your own notes. It leaves a few things to other apps:

  • Mimir has no plugins or themes. It works the same for everyone, and the same on all your devices.
  • Mimir is for one person. You can share a copy of bullets as a read-only web page that anyone with the link can read, but nobody else can edit them.
  • Mimir has no AI inside the app. An AI assistant can still read and add to your notes through the mimir command or mimir:// links.

Where it runs

Mimir runs on Mac, iPhone, and iPad. Writing, linking, search, and Cloud Sync work the same on each, and gestures for indenting, moving, selecting, and undoing make it feel at home on a touchscreen. Backing up, exporting, and pop-out windows are only on a Mac. See Getting started.

Last updated on