Local-First Knowledge Graph
Your engineering memory, indexed at native speed.
Capture architecture decisions, postmortems, and terminal snippets into a local SQLite graph with sub-millisecond semantic recall.
Interactive Graph Sandbox
Query your architecture graph in real time.
Filter ADRs, postmortems, and RFCs below, or commit a new markdown node to see how Cortex builds bidirectional backlinks.
Enabling Write-Ahead Logging with mmap_size=268435456 allows concurrent background embedding indexing without blocking editor keystrokes.
Commit an Engineering Note
Insert a new markdown node and test instant bidirectional graph linking.
Engineered like a database, edited like plain text.
No proprietary cloud blobs. Cortex indexes your existing folder of Markdown files using an embedded Rust + SQLite engine.
Filesystem-Native Markdown + SQLite Index
Every note is a standard `.md` file on your local drive. Edit with Cortex, Neovim, or VS Code simultaneously while the background file-watcher updates graph edges in under a millisecond.
AST-Aware Code Block Indexing
Tree-sitter parses fenced code blocks across 40 languages so you can search by function signature, struct name, or SQL table.
Git-Backed Branching & Blame
Snapshot your knowledge base alongside code releases. Diff architectural assumptions across quarters with native Git history.
git log --graph --oneline notes/adr/
Zero-Knowledge Peer Sync
Keys never leave your hardware keychain. Sync encrypted CRDT deltas across macOS, Linux, and iOS without exposing plaintext to any server.
Measured in microseconds, not spinners.
Sample performance metrics recorded on a 100,000-note local engineering vault.
0.24 ms
Sample benchmark across 100,000 local Markdown files on Apple M3 Max.
18 ms
Sample telemetry from native Rust + WebGPU shell with zero Electron overhead.
42 MB
Sample resident set size with 25,000 bidirectional graph edges loaded.
100% CRDT
Deterministic block-level merges over Git or end-to-end encrypted relay.
Built for staff engineers and systems teams.
Read why infrastructure teams standardize their runbooks and ADRs in Cortex.
“Cortex is the only second brain that respects how systems engineers actually work. Every postmortem, SQL snippet, and RFC lives in plain Markdown with instant graph queries.”
“Searching fifty thousand architecture notes takes less than a millisecond offline. It feels like ripgrep and a knowledge graph had a child.”
Initialize your local Cortex graph today.
Download the native binary for macOS (Apple Silicon & Intel), Linux AppImage, or Windows.
Or install via Homebrew: brew install --cask cortex-notes