Notes

Notes are plain markdown (.md) files in a folder on disk — colour-coded by folder, openable in any other editor, and yours to keep. Atlas stores nothing about them anywhere else.

Three modes

• Source — the raw markdown, exactly as it’s stored.
• Live — a preview that hides the markup as you write, so formatting renders inline without leaving the editor.
• Reading — a clean, fully rendered view for reading back.

Press ⌘E to cycle between them.

Math, code and tables

The editor renders live KaTeX math, syntax-highlighted code blocks, and proper tables — all fully offline. Nothing is sent anywhere to typeset an equation.

If you write a lot of maths, the Σ symbol picker in the toolbar is faster than remembering LaTeX: browse or search symbols by category and insert one at the caret. Atlas wraps it in $…$ for you, or drops it in bare if you’re already inside a math block.

Definitions

Wrap a word or phrase in double colons — ::entropy:: — or use the toolbar’s :: button, and Atlas fetches its definition: a free dictionary first, with your configured AI model as a fallback for phrases and terms the dictionary doesn’t know. The term renders in blue with an underline; hover it to read the definition in a small card.

Defined terms collect into a Glossary, so a course’s vocabulary accumulates as you write instead of becoming a separate chore.

Linking things together

• [[wiki-links]] to any note, subject or task by title, with autocomplete as you type,
• #tags that group related items,
• @mentions to reference a task or subject inline.

Every note has a backlinks panel showing what points at it, and every link you write becomes an edge in the graph.

Templates

A _templates folder in your vault holds reusable note structures — a lecture-note skeleton, a Cornell-notes layout, whatever you build. Templates expand {{date}}, {{time}} and {{title}} when a note is created from them, so a new note arrives already titled and dated. Your daily note works the same way.