Cursor and 
Obsidian had a babynuza is a fast, open-source Obsidian alternative for macOS, Windows and Linux: plain local markdown files, Vim keybindings, no bloat. Its optional AI panel is Cursor for writers, suggesting edits you accept one by one.
run this after install
xattr -cr /Applications/nuza.appmacOS blocks unsigned apps by default. Run this in Terminal to open it.
Honestly? We started building nuza just for fun, to see if we could completely replace our daily note-taking apps with something substantially lighter and faster. We wanted a tool that does exactly what you need it to do: nothing extra, no bloated plugins, and no sluggish startup times. It is brutally simple and just works right out of the box.
nuza is a native desktop application powered by Rust via Tauri. The frontend is extremely minimal, written in React and TypeScript, while the writing experience is driven by CodeMirror to provide flawless, native-feeling Vim keybindings.
nuza is entirely open source and community-driven. If you want to help us make the ultimate minimalist editor, pull requests are always welcome. Whether it's fixing a bug, tweaking the UI, or just starring the repository, jump into the GitHub and come build with us!
AI panel
Press ⌘L and ask an AI agent about the note you are writing. It is optional, and nuza keeps it on a short lead: edits come back as suggestions, and nothing is written to your notes until you accept it.
Ask it to rewrite a line and the answer comes back as proposed edits, drawn as a diff in the panel and in the note itself. Nothing changes until you say so.
Select some text and press ⌘L. Rephrase, Synonym, Explain this, Proofread and Improve writing work on exactly what you selected, and typing / lists every other action.
nuza runs no model and holds no key. It finds Claude Code, Codex or OpenCode on your computer and hands your question to it, on your own plan. Nothing to sign up for.
Choose the model for each vault, tell it how you like replies written, and give it a memory of things to keep in mind. Your instructions and memory go with every question.
Until you turn AI on there is no panel, and nuza never looks for or starts an agent.
On macOS and Linux the agent runs inside an operating system sandbox, out of your home folder and unable to write to your notes. On Windows there is no fence, and nuza says so.
Requests to run a command, change a file or delete one are turned down, and the panel tells you. It can only read your vault, through nuza.
The agent still passes your question to its own provider, under that provider's terms.
How the AI works, and what it is sentGallery
The editor, the sidebar, search, settings and both themes, exactly as they look on a desktop.
Benchmarks
nuza and Obsidian, side by side on the same 10,000-note vault. Medians of repeated runs, not the best one.
Memory
4x less264 MB
Idle memory
Twenty seconds after opening the vault, counting every process each app owns.
Startup
2.2x faster0.43 s
Launch to editor
From starting the app to the note being on screen, ready to type in.
Size
29x smaller9.3 MB
App on disk
The installed application, as it sits in Applications.
Measured on an M4 MacBook with nuza 1.1.0 and Obsidian 1.14.4, each on its own fresh profile and a copy of the same vault. Warm file cache. Startup was timed through the accessibility API, memory is the physical footprint reported by macOS. Obsidian also spends its first minutes indexing a large vault, which nuza does not need to. Your numbers will vary with your machine and your notes.
Testimonials
A few things people have said about nuza on X.
this one was so needed, nice.
Vardhman
@flcrom
so perfect, i will main drive nuza from now on
Ruben Veidt
@RubenVeidt
ts so good, i have ditched obsidian
saksham
@skshmgpt
bro out there building the best obsidian alternative 🗣️
Deepanshu Mishra
@dipxsyy
Tried it out a few days ago and really liked it. Good job
chidam
@Chidam333
wow i like printing ntoes
nexxel
@nexxeln
sick!
anirudh
@anirudhprmar
Damn!
Nasal Dragon
@nasaldragon
Releases
Every release of nuza and the commits that went into it, straight from the repository.