Why Orviss
- Two ways in: by project and by date
- Notes, files, web pages and emails in the same folder
- Plain Markdown, stored on your local disk
- An outboard brain that AI agents can read and write
- Progress tracking with Mermaid Gantt charts
- On Mac, iPhone, iPad and Windows — sync and share with Orviss Pro
Articles about Orviss
How-tos, examples and news about Orviss.
Orviss 2.0: share each project, with roles for every person and files up to 10 GB
Orviss 2.0 is here: sync across your devices and share projects with an Orviss account
Using Orviss for meetings and daily reports: one folder per day for meeting notes, daily reports, and weekly reports
Using Orviss to write articles and papers: from gathering sources to PDF export and writing with AI
Orviss, the project notes app, is now available for Windows
Orviss, a project notes app for Mac, is now available
What Orviss can do
Sync your devices, share your projects
With an Orviss account and Orviss Pro, your whole Orviss folder syncs across your Mac, iPhone, iPad and Windows PC, and you can share any project with people on other accounts. Sync and sharing pass the files in your projects themselves through the cloud — up to 10 GB per file — and on every device they stay ordinary files you can open without Orviss.
- Choose a role for each person: co-owner, editor or viewer
- People you share with only need a free Orviss account
- Edits on different lines are merged; when they clash, both versions are kept
- Keep working offline — changes are sent when you’re back online
Project-based information management
A project is a folder. It starts with an overview note — goal, background, people, where things stand, next steps — and everything that belongs to the project goes inside: files, notes, web pages, emails. Unfinished items in the project's notes surface under Next Up, and finished projects move to the archive.
- The overview template is yours to edit
- Unchecked tasks, empty headings and projects you haven't touched in a while are surfaced automatically
- Folder contents shown as a tree; drag to rearrange
Calendar-based notes, day by day
One folder per day. Open a date and the events from your calendar, the journal you wrote, the notes and files you changed and the photos you took come together on one page. Write today's journal from a template, add a memo, drop in the files and emails that arrived that day — and one folder tells you what happened.
- Create and edit calendar events in place
- Several journal templates, with placeholders such as {{date}}
- Calendar and photo access are optional
Everything about a task, in one place
What sets Orviss apart is that a folder can hold more than Markdown. Drop files from the Finder as they are. Drop a page from Safari and it becomes a “URL – title.md” note with the title and link. Drop a message from Mail and it becomes a “Mail – subject.md” note with the sender, date, body and attachments — plus a link back to the original message. On iPhone and iPad, the share sheet does the same.
- Keep Word files, PDFs and images as they are
- Web pages become notes with a title and URL
- Emails become Markdown with body and attachments, linked to Mail
- They are all just files, so the Finder works too
A local second brain for your AI agent
Everything Orviss manages is plain Markdown and ordinary files on your local disk — no database, no proprietary format. Point an AI agent such as Claude Code, Codex or Cursor at your Orviss folder and it can read your days and projects as context, write summaries and drafts, and even update a Gantt chart. Whatever the agent changes shows up in Orviss right away.
- Folders are named by date and project, so an agent never gets lost
- The “URL – ” and “Mail – ” naming lets links and emails be read as context
- No API keys, no integrations to set up — just share the folder
Markdown notes with Mermaid Gantt charts
The Markdown editor with live preview handles tables, task lists and images, and renders Mermaid diagrams as you type. The project overview template comes with a Gantt chart, so tracking progress is a matter of adding a line. Flowcharts for procedures, timelines for history, mind maps for ideas — combine Markdown and Mermaid and the uses keep growing.
- Ten diagram types one click away: flowchart, sequence, class, state, ER, Gantt, pie, mind map, timeline and Git graph
- Drag headings and diagrams in the outline to rearrange a note
- Live Markdown, plain Markdown or rich text — and PDF export
Thoughts without a home go on stickies
The stickies in the bottom-left corner are for ideas that don't belong to a project or a day yet. Each sticky is a file; drop a .md into the Stickies folder and it appears. The journal, note and project overview templates are ordinary .md files in the Orviss Settings folder too, so you can shape them to the way you work.
Wherever you are
Orviss runs on Mac, iPhone, iPad and Windows. With an Orviss account and Orviss Pro, your Orviss folder syncs across all of them; without Orviss Pro, you can keep the folder in iCloud Drive to use it on your Mac, iPhone and iPad, or in iCloud Drive or OneDrive to share the same Orviss folder with the Windows version. Today and Stickies widgets, Shortcuts for appending to the journal or creating notes, and a Share extension that saves web pages and emails. On supported devices, Apple Intelligence helps summarize the day or draft a note from a short description — on device.
How it works
- Choose where to keep it iCloud Drive, your Documents folder or any folder on your Mac. Orviss puts nothing but plain files there.
- Create a project, open today A project starts as a folder with an overview note; a day starts as a folder with a journal.
- Gather what belongs Drop files, web pages and emails into the folder. On iPhone and iPad, send them from the share sheet.
- Write in Markdown and Mermaid Update the Gantt chart in the overview and jot tasks in your notes — they line up under Next Up automatically.
- Let your AI read it Open the Orviss folder in the AI agent you already use for summaries, drafts and updates grounded in your own records.
- Sync and share when you need to With an Orviss account and Orviss Pro, the folder syncs across your devices, and you can invite people to a project.
Orviss — questions and answers
Where are my notes and files stored?
In a folder you choose, as plain Markdown files and the original files — iCloud Drive (synced across devices), the app's Documents folder, or another folder on your Mac. You can open it in the Finder at any time. If you sync with an Orviss account, copies of your files are also kept in the cloud so they can reach your other devices and the people you share with.
Which AI agents can I use?
Any agent that can read and write files in a folder — Claude Code, Codex CLI, Cursor and the like. Just open the Orviss folder with it. Orviss needs no special setup or API key, and whatever the agent changes shows up immediately.
What happens to an email I drop in?
The original stays in Mail. Orviss saves a Markdown note with the sender, date, body and attachments, plus a link that opens the original message.
Can I use another editor?
Yes. Notes are ordinary .md files, so any Markdown app can read and write them. Orviss notices the change and reloads.
Do I need an account?
Not to use Orviss on one device: every feature works without an account. To sync your devices or share projects, create a free Orviss account in Settings. Sync and sharing need Orviss Pro, but people you share with only need a free account.
Which devices does it run on?
Mac (macOS 26 or later), iPhone and iPad (iOS 26 or iPadOS 26 or later) and Windows (Windows 11 version 22H2 or later). Orviss is free on all of them, and an Orviss Pro plan works on every device logged in to the same Orviss account, wherever you subscribed. Widgets and Shortcuts are supported. Access to Calendar and Photos is optional and used only to show the day’s events and photos.
Can I sync between my Mac, iPhone and Windows PC, or share with other people?
Yes, with an Orviss account and Orviss Pro. Your whole Orviss folder syncs across your Mac, iPhone, iPad and Windows PC, and you can share a project with other people, choosing co-owner, editor or viewer for each person. People you share with only need a free Orviss account. To sync with your Orviss account, keep the Orviss folder outside iCloud Drive and OneDrive.
How large a file can I sync or share?
Up to 10 GB per file on Orviss Pro 10 and above, and up to 5 GB on Orviss Pro and Orviss Pro 5. Total storage ranges from 50 GB to 1 TB depending on the plan. On iPhone and iPad, very large files stay in the cloud until you open them.
Is Orviss a Markdown notes app?
Yes. Every note is a plain Markdown file in an ordinary folder on your disk, so you can open it in another editor, search it with any tool and back it up like any other file.
Can I draw a Gantt chart in a note?
Yes. Write a Mermaid gantt block in a project overview note and Orviss renders it as a chart, so the schedule lives in the same Markdown file as the rest of the project.
Can I keep files and emails together with my notes?
Yes. Drop a file, a web page or an email into a project or day folder and it sits next to the notes for that task, in one place.
How do I let Claude Code read my notes?
Open your Orviss folder (the storage location you chose in Settings, such as the Orviss folder in Documents) as the working folder in an AI agent like Claude Code. Your notes are ordinary Markdown files, so no plugin or API key is needed, and files the AI writes appear in Orviss right away. Be mindful of what you let an online AI service read.
Can I write daily reports and meeting notes in Orviss?
Yes. Each day has one journal, which you can start from a template such as Meeting Day. Select an event in the calendar and click Create a memo to get meeting notes with the event’s name and time. See “Using Orviss for meetings and daily reports” for details.
How is Orviss different from Obsidian?
Both keep your notes as local Markdown files. Obsidian is an editor you can extend freely, with links between notes and a large plugin ecosystem. Orviss is organized around projects and days: ordinary files, web pages and emails sit in the same folders as your notes, and calendar events and a daily journal are built in. You can even open the same folder in Obsidian and use both.
How is Orviss different from Bear?
Bear is a Markdown-friendly notes app for Apple devices that keeps your notes in its own database (you can export them as files). In Orviss, notes are ordinary .md files from the start, so the Finder, other apps and AI agents can read them as they are. Orviss also runs on Windows and keeps files and emails alongside your notes.
How is Orviss different from Notion?
Notion is a cloud workspace for sharing pages and databases with a team, and your data is stored on Notion’s servers. In Orviss, your notes are plain files on your own devices, and no account is needed to use it. Even when you sync or share projects with Orviss Pro, every device keeps ordinary files you can open without Orviss. For a team wiki and databases, Notion fits; for keeping your own work records at hand — and sharing a project when you need to — Orviss fits.
How is Orviss different from Day One?
Day One is a dedicated journaling app that keeps entries in its own format and syncs them through its own service. Orviss’s journal is an ordinary Markdown file in a folder for each day, right next to that day’s meeting notes, documents and project notes.
