01 · Vault
One local source of truth
Notes, boards, decks, tasks, calendars, memory and transcripts resolve back to the same owned workspace.
Now scroll · the rest is the why
In one breath
Replace fragmented tools with
one vault + agentic AI
Notes, sketches, tasks, calendars, boards, decks, plugins and vault-backed agents all work over the same local data. Zettly isn't trying to be a calmer Notion; it's the workspace where thinking, planning, presenting and automating stop living in separate apps.
The actual bet
Zettly is not another editor with chat glued on.
The product only works if the foundations are shared: local data, many surfaces, agent tools, and receipts for every mutation. That is the thing we are selling.
02 · Surfaces
Different lenses, same objects
A note can become a board card, a deck widget, a graph node, an AI citation, or a task source without becoming a copy.
03 · Agents
Tools that know the room
Agents read the vault, route skills, delegate to specialists, call MCP, and propose changes with visible state.
04 · Review
Power with receipts
Dry-runs, confirmations, side-effect logs, transcripts, permission decisions and undo make autonomy inspectable.
Inventory check
Trade-in ledger · what Zettly replaces
Workspace · v0.x
- 01 · note-takingNotionObsidianApple NotesMarkdown notes, hybrid canvases, knowledge graph, vault
- 02 · tasks & calendarTodoistThingsRemindersTask hub (5 views) + Calendar (4 views)
- 03 · whiteboardingMirotldrawExcalidrawHybrid canvas + boards with embeds
- 04 · design & decksCanvaKeynoteFigma slidesCanvas-native decks, diagrams, boards, player + PDF export
- 05 · AI workspaceChatGPTNotebookLMNotion AIMulti-agent runtime with Vault RAG, agent memory, skills + tools
- 06 · automationn8nZapierShortcutsPlugins, MCP, schedules today; workflow engine on the roadmap
- 07 · dev surfaceCursorVS CodeObsidian TemplaterPlugins, scripts, and an NL plugin builder (roadmap)
Total surfaces consolidated · 7
Subtotal · one workspace · ∞ thinking
Feature map
Nine pillars · one vault
What Zettly actually does.
Each pillar maps to one work mode: write, draw, plan, present, compose, connect, ask agents, extend, and own the vault. Every pillar is live in the app today; a few sub-capabilities still ship under a roadmap pill on the deep-dives.
- DrawHybrid canvasInk, shapes, diagrams and rich text on one infinite surface.
- ComposeBoards & embedsProject surfaces that link to the real things, not screenshots.
- PresentDecks & presentationsSlide decks built on the same canvas engine as your boards and diagrams.
- ConnectKnowledge graphBacklinks and tags weave a force-directed map of your thinking.
- AskAgents, memory & toolsVault-backed agents that can reason, delegate and act with reviewable changes.
- PlanTasks & calendarTasks lift out of notes; calendar drags them into the week.
- WriteNotes — Markdown firstCodeMirror Markdown for notes; Lexical rich text inside canvas shapes and text boxes.
- ExtendPlugins & MCPA real plugin runtime, a curated marketplace, and MCP for outside tools.
- OwnLocal-first & privateYour notes live on your machine. No account required.
One object, many lives
The magic is not more apps. It is fewer copies.
Zettly treats productivity surfaces as views over shared objects. A launch note should not be copied into a board, pasted into slides, summarized into chat, then lost in a task app. It should travel.
Hop 01
Markdown note
Hop 02
Task index
Hop 03
Board widget
Hop 04
Deck slide
Hop 05
Graph node
Hop 06
Agent context
noteLaunch narrative
FormatBI— heading— list
tasksThis week
Todo
Ship docs site
Apr 30
Plugin sandbox audit
Apr 28
Calendar sweep
May 2
In progress
Plan launch narrative
Apr 25
Deck outline v2
Apr 26
Review
Bench canvas perf
—
Graph backfill
Apr 29
Done
Recruit alpha cohort
Apr 10
Release notes draft
Apr 8
graphLocal subgraph
calApr 22 — Apr 28
May 12, 2026 — May 18, 2026
MonthWeekDay
12 Tue
13 Wed
14 Thu
15 Fri
16 Sat
17 Sun
18 Mon
All day
8 AM
9 AM
10 AM
11 AM
12 PM
1 PM
2 PM
3 PM
webmodelcontextprotocol.io
spec.txt
Bridge for outside tools — same vault permissions.
Tasks & calendar
Same markdown line. Table, Kanban, Timeline, Matrix, Workload — then the week.
@zettly/parsing reads the same markdown task line the hub uses. Chrome matches the app; week grid matches in-product time views, with demo events plus the sample line’s due overlay.
Same task line lives in markdown; @zettly/parsing turns it into fields every hub view reads (drag cards here is demo-only — vault stays source of truth).
- [ ] Ship docs site @due(2026-04-30) @priority(1) #urgent
To doDue 2026-04-30P1#urgent
| Pri | Due | Tags | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ship docs site | Todo | Apr 30 | #urgent | ||
| Plan launch narrative | In progress | Apr 25 | #launch | ||
| Bench canvas perf | Review | — | #perf | ||
| Recruit alpha cohort | Done | Apr 10 | — | ||
| Plugin sandbox audit | Todo | Apr 28 | #security | ||
| Deck outline v2 | In progress | Apr 26 | #deck | ||
| Calendar sweep | Todo | May 2 | #calendar | ||
| Graph backfill | Review | Apr 29 | #graph | ||
| MCP smoke tests | Todo | May 4 | #mcp | ||
| Release notes draft | Done | Apr 8 | #docs |
A real engine
The shape of your thinking, force-directed.
Backlinks, tags and embeds weave a knowledge graph you can physically learn — like a city you walk every day. Click any node to focus.
- Local subgraph mode for the current note.
- Filters by tag, group, depth and orphan status.
- Themed via @zettly/theme — re-tints with the workspace.
NotesBoardsTasksTagsPluginsReferences
Autonomy with brakes
Agents can act because the workspace keeps receipts.
Zettly does not ask you to trust a black box. It turns agent learning into artifacts you can read, diff, approve, reject, version and undo.
Human in loop
- 01
Propose
Skills, schedules, memory and plugin ideas land as drafts, not invisible behavior.
- 02
Validate
Manifests, tools, permissions and injected text are checked before anything activates.
- 03
Preview
Write-capable tools return dry-run plans and visible mutation summaries first.
- 04
Revert
Snapshots, side-effect logs and per-row undo keep changes reversible.
Made for real work
Who builds with Zettly.
Research & writing
Read, sketch, link — never lose the thread.
Capture papers, ink in margins, surface backlinks across years of notes, and let the AI bring you back into a topic you parked six months ago.
Read the dossier ↗Three workflows
01Keep sources next to your notes
Add PDFs or files to the vault, capture quotes and questions in Markdown beside them, and ink diagrams or sketches on the hybrid canvas when you need to reason visually.
02Trace an idea across notes
Open the local subgraph around any note to see neighbours, backlinks and shared tags — no manual indexing.
03Ask your vault
Vault RAG over your library plus agent memory from past sessions lets agents cite the notes and decisions they used.
Plugins · marketplace
One install away from yours.
Sandboxed runtime. Permission prompts. SHA-256 verified
install. Build your own with create-zettly-plugin.
Pomodoro Timer
Official · Zettly
A classic focus timer that lives where you write. Place it as floating, status bar, dock, sidebar, or right panel.
- 25/5 default cycle, customizable
- Notifies via the host scheduler — survives navigation
- i18n out of the box (en / es)
FocusTime-trackingUI placements
Install ref
zettly plugin install @zettly/plugin-pomodoroBackground AI
Official · Zettly
Beta
Idle-time AI enrichments — tags, links, summaries, entities, duplicates — with a human-in-the-loop review tab.
- Runs on idle frames; never blocks the editor
- All suggestions land in a review queue first
- Respects per-plugin permission grants
AIEnrichmentBackground
Install ref
zettly plugin install @zettly/plugin-background-intelligenceSpaced Review
Community · Community
Coming
Surfaces notes tagged `#review` on a SM-2 spaced-repetition schedule, right in your daily note.
- SM-2 with manual override
- Reads tags via @zettly/parsing — no schema lock-in
- Plays nice with agent skills
LearningDaily note
Install ref
zettly plugin install spaced-reviewGitHub MCP bridge
Community · Community
Coming
An MCP client that exposes GitHub issues, PRs and Actions to the Zettly assistant.
- Open / triage issues from the chat
- Per-repo permission scopes
- Streamable HTTP + SSE (see @zettly/mcp-server docs)
MCPGitHubDev tools
Install ref
zettly plugin install github-mcpKanban Pro
Community · Community
Coming
Adds swimlanes, WIP limits and aggregated views on top of the built-in task hub.
- Swimlanes by tag, assignee or custom field
- WIP limits and aggregated effort
- Embeds as a board card
TasksKanban
Install ref
zettly plugin install kanban-proWeb Clipper
Community · Community
Coming
A browser extension companion that drops clean markdown into Zettly with one keystroke.
- Distills articles to clean markdown
- Captures images as content-addressed assets
- Auto-tags via the background AI plugin
CaptureBrowser
Install ref
zettly plugin install web-clipperBuilt in public
A monorepo of composable packages.
Zettly is built from packages we publish on npm and develop in the open. You can use the whole app, or peel off the parts you need.
Ship with the monorepo
- Packages Build with Zettly's libraries. Drop a canvas, a graph, an editor or the parsing utilities into your own React app. →
- Docs Read the architecture, write your first plugin. Concepts, plugin development, MCP, contributing — all in one place. →
- Open source AGPL-3.0 on GitHub. Issues, PRs, RFCs, plans — the whole project ships in the open. ↗
Take it home
One vault. Yours first. Agents optional.
Desktop and web today; mobile shells in progress. No account required — your vault stays local-first until you opt into cloud models, plugins, MCP or (later) sync.