HyprScribe

Why this exists

Because I hate having to quit writing just to decide where to save something or how to name it. Have you ever had an awesome idea you just absolutely had to write down, and failed to save it, only to be hit by a power outage or a system crash a few minutes later?

Sometimes text doesn’t need a name — it just needs to be written to disk and kept safe, until I decide what I'm going to do with it.

“But wait.. Couldn’t I just use Obsidian or Logseq for that?”

Absolutely — and they’re excellent tools.

Obsidian and Logseq are full-featured knowledge systems. They shine when you want to build long-lived notes, link ideas together, and grow a structured personal knowledge base over time.

HyprScribe is intentionally not that.

This app is designed for the small, disposable thoughts — the fragments, logs, scratch notes, and half-formed ideas that don’t belong in a permanent vault. The kind of writing that would eventually clutter a larger system.

Using a tool like Obsidian for everything is a bit like writing grocery lists, phone messages, and napkin math in a formal notebook. It works — but it adds weight where none is needed.

HyprScribe is closer to a physical scratch pad: write freely, close the page, and move on. If something matters later, you can keep it. If not, it quietly disappears into archive without demanding organization.

Different tools for different layers of thought.

The interface

HyprScribe’s interface is intentionally minimal. There are very few controls, and most of them behave exactly as you would expect from a native desktop application.

At the top of the window, a single + button opens a new tab. Tabs allow you to work on multiple ideas in parallel without forcing you to decide how they relate to one another.

The application menu contains only a handful of options:

• Make the current window size persistent across app restarts
• Export the current tab to a plain text file

That's it...

All other window controls — minimize, maximize, and close — are handled by your desktop environment in the standard way.

A small status bar at the bottom of the window provides quiet feedback about what the application is doing, without interrupting your workflow.

When you close a tab, its contents are archived, not deleted. Archived tabs are moved to an archive folder and can be recovered manually if needed. Nothing is removed automatically.

Aside from switching between tabs, there are no hidden controls, gestures, or modes to learn. The interface stays out of the way and lets you focus on writing.

What HyprScribe does

• Open the app and start typing
• Saves text immediately on every change - no save button required!
• Export text to a custom plaintext file/location when you're ready
• Use tabs for parallel ideas
• Close a tab to archive it
• Everything stored locally as plain text
• You manually move/delete your data when ready

What HyprScribe deliberately does not do

• No cloud sync
• No accounts
• No telemetry
• No background services
• No plugins, themes, or vaults
• No Electron or web stack

The ENTIRE project: source, binary, DB, scripts: ~286 KB

Source small enough to read, small enough to understand, and small enough to trust.

I am a total data privacy NUT. I ENCOURAGE you to read the source. Always know how your data is being handled! If you trust Linux, C# Mono, SQLite, and GTK Sharp with your data, then you can trust this software with your data.

Installation

HyprScribe is Linux-only. It runs locally and requires Mono, SQLite, and GTK# 3.

Dependencies

Arch Linux

pacman -S mono sqlite gtk-sharp-3

Ubuntu

sudo apt install mono-devel sqlite gtk-sharp3

Install HyprScribe

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/metalxxhead/hyprscribe.git

2. Navigate to the project directory:

   cd hyprscribe/

3. Build the project:

   scripts/build.sh

4. Run the application:

   scripts/run.sh

You may optionally create a desktop shortcut or launcher to start HyprScribe more easily.

Your data

HyprScribe stores all user data locally on your system. Nothing is synced, transmitted, or stored anywhere else.

All text created by the application lives inside a single user_data directory. Within that directory, files are organized into two folders:

• current_tabs — text from tabs that are currently open
• archived_tabs — text from tabs that have been closed

The database used by HyprScribe does not contain any user-written text. It exists only to manage application state and metadata. Your actual content is always stored as plain text files.

There are no hidden caches, shadow copies, background backups, or secondary storage locations. If you can see the user_data folder, you can see everything the application knows about your writing.

If you delete the user_data directory, HyprScribe returns to a freshly installed state. No data remains elsewhere on the system.

This design is intentional. You should never have to wonder where your text lives, how it is stored, or how to remove it.

License