# Notepatra

> Native C++/Rust code editor for the AI era. A fast, lightweight Notepad++-class editor for Linux, macOS, and Windows with local-first AI assistance. Free forever, GPL-3.0, no telemetry in the current release.

Key facts:

- Native Qt5 + QScintilla C++17 application with a Rust core (file I/O, search, diff, formatters) — not Electron; ~12 MB bare binary.
- Syntax highlighting: 82 language lexers covering 238 file extensions, with Light, Dark, and Monokai themes.
- Robust encoding support: UTF-8/16/32 with BOM detection and round-trip, plus heuristics for BOM-less UTF-16 (PowerShell / SQL Server exports).
- Rust-powered search and replace, project-wide search, and a ComparePlus-style side-by-side file compare with word-level diff.
- AI assistance is local-first: works with Ollama, llama.cpp, OpenRouter, Ollama Cloud, OpenAI, and Azure OpenAI. Cloud is optional; nothing leaves the machine unless a cloud backend is explicitly configured.
- Data-analyst tools (Full edition): DuckDB/SQLite queries, CSV analysis, charts, SQL formatting.
- Noter: a built-in text-only meeting-notes tool with templates, checklists, note-bound reminders, and PDF/Markdown export.
- Editions: Lite (small, core editing) and Full (data tools); features like font packs are downloaded on demand to keep the base binary small.
- Large-file friendly: opens multi-hundred-MB files with automatic safeguards.

## MCP (new in v0.1.118)

- From v0.1.118 Notepatra ships notepatra-mcp, a stdio JSON-RPC 2.0 Model Context Protocol server (protocol revision 2025-06-18; 2025-03-26 and 2024-11-05 also accepted) that connects AI assistants to the running editor over a local socket. Since v0.1.119 the sidecar also supports Windows over a named pipe.
- Works with Claude Desktop, Claude Code, OpenAI Codex CLI, the OpenAI Agents SDK, and any spec-compliant stdio MCP client; cloud-only connector surfaces (ChatGPT connectors, claude.ai web connectors) cannot reach a desktop editor.
- Exposes 35 tools in three tiers (v0.1.119): read (18: tabs, selection, search, Noter notes, reminders, read-only Git status/diff/log/show/branch, npd validation, read-only SELECT SQL), act (9: open, compare, format, navigate, open note), and write (8: insert/replace/edit/save, create/append note, set reminder, export diagram) — every write requires the user to click Approve on a card inside the editor (120-second auto-deny, no headless bypass). find_in_tab and search_project take an optional regex flag. run_sql is SELECT-only and, on the Full/DuckDB edition, runs in an engine sandbox (file materialized in-memory, then enable_external_access=false) so it cannot read host files. Also publishes open tabs and Noter notes as MCP resources plus 3 prompts.
- Privacy: stdio + local socket only; notepatra-mcp itself makes no network connections.
- [MCP documentation](https://notepatra.org/mcp.html): tool reference, per-client setup, security model, FAQ.

## Downloads

- [Official website and installers](https://notepatra.org/): one-line install scripts for Linux/macOS/Windows and direct downloads.
- [GitHub Releases](https://github.com/singhpratech/notepatra/releases): all signed release artifacts with SHA-256 checksums.

## Documentation

- [User documentation](https://notepatra.org/docs.html): features, shortcuts, AI backends, editions, FAQ.
- [Enterprise notes](https://notepatra.org/enterprise.html): licensing (GPL-3.0), privacy posture, deployment.
- [Security policy](https://notepatra.org/security.txt): vulnerability reporting.

## Source & Community

- [Source code](https://github.com/singhpratech/notepatra): GPL-3.0, C++/Rust, contributions welcome.
- [Issue tracker](https://github.com/singhpratech/notepatra/issues): bug reports and feature requests.