MiaoYan is a lightweight, native Markdown note-taking app for macOS, built to give programmers and writers a fast, distraction-free environment for text. It is fully local-first, meaning your notes live as plain Markdown files on your machine rather than in a proprietary cloud, which appeals to privacy-conscious users. The app focuses on a minimalist three-column layout (folders, note list, editor) with syntax highlighting, dark mode, and typography tuned for Chinese and English writing. Beyond basic editing, MiaoYan supports presentation and PPT-style modes, letting you turn Markdown documents into slide-like views directly inside the app. It also adds power-user features like automatic document typesetting, internal links, LaTeX math, Mermaid and PlantUML diagrams, and Markmap mind-map rendering. Under the hood, it is implemented in Swift as a native macOS application, which keeps it snappy and lighter than Electron-based note apps.
Features
- Local-first, privacy-friendly storage using plain Markdown files
- Minimalist three-column UI with syntax highlighting and full dark-mode support
- Presentation and PPT modes to turn notes into slide-style views directly from Markdown
- Advanced content support including LaTeX, Mermaid, PlantUML, Markmap, and image uploads
- Automatic typesetting, internal links, and keyboard-driven editing for fast writing
- Native Swift macOS app with better performance than typical web-wrapper editors