Markdown files outside the vault

TypeFire is a capable lightweight Markdown editor for any .md or .txt file on your Mac. A plain text file is markdown, it just has no formatting in it, so .txt files in your vault are listed, searched and edited like any other note. Nothing is converted and nothing is rewritten.

• ⌘O opens a file picker.
• + New → Open Markdown File does the same.
• Double-click a .md file in Finder, once TypeFire is your default handler.

File → Open Recent lists the last ten files you opened from outside your vault. Notes in your vault are not listed there: they already have the list, the search and pins in the app.

Markdown and plain text open on the file itself. RTF, Word and HTML open on their converted text as an unsaved document, and the original file is never touched: writing markdown back into a file that was saved as something else would change what that file is.

In the editor window: ⌘⇧F to find in the file, ⌘⇧N for a new blank file, and Save as note to bring the file into your notes vault. That last one appears only for a file that is not already in the vault, and it opens the new note in the main window.

The window follows the file. If something else writes the file while it is open here, an AI agent, a script, another editor, the window picks up the new text on its own, as long as you have not started typing in it. From your first keystroke your text wins, and the disk is left alone until you save. Double-clicking a file that is already open brings its window to the front and catches it up the same way.

Task items

- [ ] is a checkbox. Typing [] or [ ] at the start of a line and then a space makes one too; [x] makes a ticked one.

Code blocks in a file

Type ``` and a space: the block opens with its closing fence in place and the caret inside it. A language name goes right after the backticks, ```js, and a space after the name does the same. While you are not on them, the fence lines shrink to the block's edge, so a block starts and ends on its code. Typing after the closing fence lands on the line below it.

Pictures in a paste

Paste from Google Docs, Notion or a web page and any picture in it is copied into the vault's attachment folder and the link rewritten to the copy, so the note keeps its images after the source is gone. The paste does not wait for the downloads: the link points at the source until the copy arrives, a second or two later.

Files in a note

Copy a file in Finder and paste it into a note. A copy of the file goes into the vault's attachment folder and the note gets ![[name.ext]], drawn as a card with the file's name. The card sits under the line while you are on it and takes the line's place when you are not. Click the card to open the file in the app that owns it. Several files pasted at once become one card per line.

Following links

Click a [[link]] and the note opens. A link to a note that does not exist yet creates it and opens it: [[Roadmap]] lands in the same folder, [[Projects/Roadmap]] lands in Projects from the top of the vault, making the folder if needed. A title with a character a filename cannot hold (: * ? " < > | / \) is saved without it, and the link is rewritten to match the file, so it keeps working. When a link, an embed, the hover card or a backlink brought you to a note, a back arrow appears to the left of the title and takes you to the note you came from, as many steps as you followed. Opening a note from the list, the graph, Clips or search clears the trail, so the arrow only appears when there is somewhere to go back to.

A note inside a note

![[Q4 review]] embeds that note: its title and text appear in a panel with a bar down the left, the way Obsidian shows one. The chevron folds the panel to a single row and back, and the choice is kept in the note as ![[Q4 review|collapsed]], so it survives a reopen. Clicking the small name at the top shows the link's markdown for editing; the expand control at the right opens the note. Text in the panel can be selected and copied. Resting the pointer on any [[link]] shows the same preview in a card, with the same control.

Paste a markdown file from Finder and the app asks whether to keep it beside the note you are in (it becomes a note of its own) or to file it with the attachments. A file that is already in the vault, unchanged, is embedded without a copy.

Saving, and when you need to

A file in your notes vault saves itself, in this window exactly as in the main one. There is no Save button for it and nothing to remember. Version history covers anything you want back.

A file outside your vault has a Save button, and it shows an orange dot the moment there is something unsaved. ⌘S saves it.

Open the same note in both windows and they stay in step. Type in one, and the other catches up within a second. Neither will interrupt you mid-sentence: whichever window you are actively typing in holds its ground until you settle.

There is no View / Edit toggle. Markdown formats as you type and the file underneath stays plain markdown, so there are no two modes to switch between.

Make TypeFire the default in Settings → General → Markdown editor → Set as Default.