parker (github.com/mlemos/parker)

The scratchpad for vibe coding.

A fast, minimal Mac editor for notes, code & markdown —
the serious scratchpad for working with AI, without the weight of Notes or VS Code.

Parker is a resident menu-bar app for macOS — summon it from anywhere with a global shortcut, jot or draft, dismiss it, and never lose a thought. It's built for the way people work with AI today: long prompts, task lists, quick snippets and throwaway notes that deserve something faster than Notes and lighter than VS Code.

It operates on a plain folder of files you own. No accounts, no database, no servers of ours — ever.

• Instant & fast — opens in a blink, zero lag while typing. No splash, no spinners, no "syncing…".
• Keyboard-first — summon with a global shortcut; almost everything is reachable without the mouse.
• Lightweight — a tiny native shell on Tauri, around 10 MB. All editor, no bloat.
• Never lose data — aggressive auto-save, always on, plus optional git backup as a safety net.
• Split & preview — split panes and live Markdown preview, side by side.
• Genuinely themeable — eight themes: Vercel Night & Day, GitHub Light & Dark, plus Playa, Playa at Night, Matrix and Blueprint.
• Your data, your rules — plain .md, .txt and code on disk, in a folder you choose.

Parker always writes straight to disk — plain files in a folder you own. Never a database, never a cloud you don't control. Sync it however you like (iCloud, Dropbox, whatever); Parker stays completely sync-agnostic.

Want it all in git? It's built in. Flip on git backup and every save is committed and pushed — fully versioned, with a history you can roll back. A safety net on top of your files, never where they live.

Provided as-is, with no warranty — use at your own risk and keep backups (its Git sync helps).

1. Download the latest .dmg from Releases. Requires macOS 12+ on Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3…) — the build is arm64 and does not run on Intel Macs.
2. Open the .dmg and drag Parker into Applications.

Parker is signed with an Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so it opens normally — no "damaged" warning and no Terminal workaround needed.

Prerequisites: Rust, Node and pnpm.

pnpm install       # install frontend deps
pnpm tauri dev     # run the app (compiles Rust the first time — be patient)
pnpm tauri build   # produce a distributable .app / .dmg

pnpm test                                   # frontend logic (src/lib)
cargo test --manifest-path src-tauri/Cargo.toml   # backend (note paths, writes, git parsing)

Both run on every push. They cover the pure logic on each side — the split layout tree, the to-do state machine, the markdown renderer, note-name validation, atomic writes, and the parsers that read git's output. UI components and the CodeMirror wiring are not covered yet.

Chosen for leveza (lightness) and a world-class editor component on a web stack, wrapped in a native Mac shell.

parker/
├─ src/          # frontend — React / TypeScript / CodeMirror
├─ src-tauri/    # backend — Rust (menu-bar app, file & session commands)
├─ public/       # static assets, app entry
├─ site/         # the landing page → getparker.dev (deploys to Vercel, root = site/)
├─ shared/       # contracts both apps read: to-do fixtures, design tokens (generated)
└─ ios/          # the iPhone companion (in progress) — ParkerCore is its UI-free Swift core

The Mac and the iPhone must paint a note the same way, so the tables that define it live once: shared/design-tokens.json is generated from src/lib by node scripts/export-design-tokens.mjs, and shared/fixtures/ drives the to-do grammar tests on both sides (pnpm test and swift test in ios/ParkerCore).

Issues and pull requests are welcome. For anything substantial, open an issue first so we can talk it through. Keep changes small, focused, and in the spirit of the app: fast, minimal, keyboard-first.

Built by Manoel Lemos — Website · X · LinkedIn · GitHub

MIT © 2026 Manoel Lemos.

_{Made for people who think before they type. · getparker.dev}