Documentation
Everything ForkLeaf does, and how
ForkLeaf is a Markdown editor whose storage is a GitHub repository you own. These pages cover how to use it, how it behaves when the network disappears, exactly what it stores about you, and how to run your own copy.
Start here
Writing
The editor
Rich text, split and source view, the formatting bar, images, and the slash commands.
Diagrams
Every Mermaid diagram type, the visual builder, the source editor, and how they are stored.
Properties & front matter
Titles, tags and custom fields, and how they map onto YAML in the file.
Reading a note
Following links, the hover card that says where they go, reading a linked file, reading and citing a PDF, and locking a note so reading it cannot change it.
The citation link format
How a quotation from a PDF is written into a note, field by field — a relative path plus a standard fragment, so other tools can read and write the same links.
Exporting
Markdown, PDF, HTML, Word, plain text and JSON — all produced in your browser.
Keyboard shortcuts
Every shortcut in the app, in one table.
What notes-as-commits gets you
Replay, blame, runnable blocks, review as a pull request, links to files, freshness, publishing from a private notebook, and capturing sources — with where each button is.
Everyday features
The / menu and All tools
Every block and every feature, grouped, one keystroke away — and the same list as buttons.
Templates, today's note & weekly review
Notes you write often, a note for every day, and a weekly look back.
To-dos
Check boxes with due dates, and one list of every open to-do in the notebook.
Flashcards
Question :: Answer cards, both-way cards, multi-line cards and fill-in-the-blanks, with spaced repetition.
Canvases
Cards, notes and links placed freely and joined with arrows, saved as JSON Canvas.
Ask your notebook
Questions answered with passages quoted from your own notes, and where each came from.
Meeting notes
Decisions, action items and open questions, gathered from what was written or said.
Worth revisiting
A few older notes each day, chosen for what you are working on.
Graph, board, table & focus
The notebook as a map, a board or a spreadsheet — or nothing but the note.
Saving from the web
The extension, share sheet and bookmarklet, and the repository that files every save by kind and month.
Running code, with input
Run bash, Python and JavaScript blocks — including programs that ask for input.
Voice notes
Record into a note, with an optional transcript.
Encrypted notes
Seal a note so only its passphrase can read it.
Importing from Obsidian & Notion
Bring a vault or an export across, links and pictures included.
GitHub
Signing in
Which permissions ForkLeaf asks GitHub for, what it uses them for, and how to revoke them.
Repositories & workspaces
The notes repo, connecting and disconnecting repositories, publishing a note as a page, branches, subdirectories and switching between them.
Syncing & commits
How edits become commits, what the status bar means, offline behaviour and commit squashing.
Conflicts
What happens when two devices edit the same note, and how to resolve it.
Connect
Browser extension
Install Save to ForkLeaf in Chrome, Edge, Brave or Arc, and save pages, quotes, links and pictures with one click.
The assistant beside your notes
Claude, OpenAI, Gemini or a model on your own machine, in a column next to the note — with your own key, kept in your browser.
Connect an AI assistant (MCP)
Let Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor or any MCP client search, read and write your notebook — step by step.