DEV Community: HellterEnjoy

I built Lilo: quick notes when you need them, a full workspace when you don’t

HellterEnjoy — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 00:42:38 +0000

I wanted a notes app that did not make every small thought feel like opening an entire workspace.

So I built Lilo.

It starts as a compact, always-on-top window where I can capture something quickly. When I need more context, it expands into a complete Markdown workspace with folders, daily notes, backlinks, tags, attachments, templates, search, and a knowledge graph.

The important part for me is that the notes remain ordinary local Markdown files. There is no account, proprietary database, or required cloud service.

Version 0.2.0 is now available for Windows, Ubuntu 22.04+, and Arch Linux.

View Lilo on GitHub

Lilo is built with Rust and egui. It is still young, so feedback about the workflow and interface would be genuinely useful.

So I built Lilo — a compact Markdown widget.

HellterEnjoy — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 18:30:48 +0000

I got tired of having to choose between launching heavy note-taking apps just to write down two sentences and using dumb scratchpads with zero structure.

So I built Lilo — a compact Markdown widget.

The main idea was to have something always within reach that opens instantly and builds a connected knowledge graph between ideas without hogging system memory. Built it entirely in Rust, so it runs fast and lightweight, while your notes simply stay as local .md files.

Decided to open-source it in case anyone else finds it useful:

github.com/HellterEnjoy/Lilo

Lilo 0.1.9 — Daily Workflow Preview

HellterEnjoy — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 07:39:54 +0000

I’ve just released Lilo 0.1.9, focused on making everyday note-taking faster without moving away from plain Markdown files.

This update adds:

📅 Daily Notes with custom folders and date formats
⚡ Quick Capture to Daily Notes, Inbox, or timestamped notes
📝 Reusable Markdown templates with variables like {{date}}, {{title}} and {{cursor}}
⌨️ A keyboard-first Command Palette
🔎 Structured search by tags, folders, links and titles
🧘 Zen mode, editor zoom and collapsible sidebars
📑 Heading outline, word/character counts and improved editor spacing
🎨 Native application branding

The existing Markdown vault structure stays untouched, so upgrading doesn’t require migrating your notes.

Lilo is built with Rust + egui and runs on Windows and Linux.

GitHub: https://github.com/HellterEnjoy/Lilo

I built a compact Markdown notes app in Rust

HellterEnjoy — Sun, 16 Aug 2026 02:32:53 +0000

I've been building Lilo — a small desktop notes app built with Rust + egui.

It stores notes as regular Markdown files and adds [[wiki links]], backlinks, search, and a visual knowledge graph. It also has an always-on-top mode, so I can keep it around while coding.

Windows and Linux builds are available.

GitHub: https://github.com/HellterEnjoy/Lilo

It's still an early project, so feedback is very welcome.