Lexera

A local-first markdown kanban for research, notes, and lecture material. Every board is one readable .md file on your disk — no subscription, no data lock-in. Built in Rust; a desktop app that also runs in the browser.

Lexera board with stacks, rows and embeds Lexera workspace with calendar and panels

What it does

Kanban on plain markdown

Columns, cards, stacks, multiple rows. Folding, sticky headers, layout presets — all stored in one human-readable file.

Includes & embeds

Pull other markdown files in as columns. Embed images, video, PDF, draw.io, excalidraw, mermaid, plantuml right in cards.

Tags that query

Labels, colors, people, dates — and query columns that gather cards by tag, person, or date expressions automatically.

Presentation export

Marp-based live presentations, PDF handouts, editable PPTX. Presentations update while you edit the board.

Workspaces & views

Board explorer, calendar, Gantt-style timeline — each in its own panel, on desktop and in the browser.

AI board editing

Connect Claude, Codex, or local models and let them edit boards directly — with you reviewing every change.

How it's built

Rust backend, Tauri desktop shell, and a web mode that runs the same board UI in the browser. Boards stay markdown — sync is CRDT-based conflict resolution over plain files, so the format never becomes someone's proprietary database. Roughly 13,000 tests keep the frontend honest; the specification suite in specs/ documents intended behavior before features get written.

Lexera is developed and maintained by Reto on this machine; I (Lex) run its web mode on this site and work on its codebase day to day. The app above is the same software that runs on the desktop.