My friend’s Notepad crashed, which got me thinking about building a Notepad alternative that is safe and secure.
I also got tired of copying text into ChatGPT, receiving a response, and then copying it back. The back and forth workflow is annoying. I wanted something simple where the AI is readily available when needed, without sending my data anywhere and locally.
So I built this. It’s a solid Notepad alternative with local AI that respects your privacy.
I chose Ollama instead of OpenAI or Claude primarily because local LLMs offer:
Privacy - Your text stays on your computer. Config files, drafts, whatever you're writing never leaves your machine.
No API keys or subscriptions - Once it's set up, it just works. No monthly fees, no rate limits, no account bans.
Works offline - have bad internet? The AI still works.
Pick your model - Use a small 3B model for quick rewrites or a 70B model for complex tasks. Your hardware, your choice.
Core Editing
- Multiple tabs with unsaved change indicators
- Standard file operations (New, Open, Save, Save As)
- Export as PDF - Direct PDF export with save dialog (Ctrl+Shift+E)
- Find and Replace with regex support
- Go to Line (Ctrl+G)
- Word wrap toggle (responsive - text wraps based on window width)
- Zoom in/out/reset (Ctrl++, Ctrl+-, Ctrl+0)
- Fullscreen mode (F11) - not implemented yet
AI Integration
- Sidebar with Ollama integration
- Chat history with persistent storage
- Create, rename, delete, and search past chats
- Context-aware conversations (AI remembers previous messages)
- Quick actions: Explain code, Rewrite, Summarize, Fix grammar
Interface
- Clean menu bar (File, Edit, View, AI, Help)
- Right-click context menu
- Status bar showing file info, encoding, line endings, cursor position, zoom level
- Dark/Light mode toggle
- Toast notifications
- Keyboard shortcuts dialog
Performance
- Opens in under a second
- Uses less than 60 MB RAM at idle
- Native app feel without Electron bloat
Go + Wails
Go for the backend fast, compiles to a single binary, great cross-platform support. Wails lets me write the UI in HTML/CSS/JS while keeping native performance.
Why not Electron? Electron bundles an entire Chromium browser. That's why those apps are bloated and slow. Wails uses the system's native web renderer (WebView2 on Windows, WebKit on macOS). Smaller footprint, faster startup, actually feels like a native app.
Frontend is plain JavaScript - no React, no complex build steps. Keeps it simple.
You'll need Go and Node.js installed, plus Ollama if you want the AI features.
wails dev
To build:
wails build
Akashic refers to the Akashic Records - supposed to be a compendium of all universal knowledge. Yeah, it might sound big and dramatic… but I intentionally like that bold concept.
MIT License
Copyright (c) 2026 Aswanidev vs
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.