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Tessera
A second brain
Vol. 3 — 2026
ManifestoSpecsDownload

Think
in links.

Tessera is a note-taking system that stores what you know the way you actually know it — as a network, not a filing cabinet.

Abstract

Notes are cheap to write and expensive to find. Tessera inverts the cost: bidirectional links, on-device semantic search and daily resurfacing make retrieval the default outcome of writing anything down.

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12,480 notes indexed ●38ms median search ●6.2 links per note ●100% Markdown ●0 readable by us ●5 platforms ●1885 — Ebbinghaus ●
12,480 notes indexed ●38ms median search ●6.2 links per note ●100% Markdown ●0 readable by us ●5 platforms ●1885 — Ebbinghaus ●
Fig. 1

A single note and its neighbourhood. Solid lines are explicit links; dashed lines are unlinked mentions Tessera has detected.

ZettelkastenWeekly reviewForgetting curveMake It StickFeynman techniqueWhy we forget what we read
Section A
Five principles
01

Capture is cheap. Retrieval is everything.

Any tool can store a note. Almost none can give it back to you at the moment you need it. Tessera is designed backwards from retrieval: every feature exists to make old thinking findable.

02

Links, not folders.

A folder holds a note in one place. A link holds it in many. Type two brackets and the structure builds itself — bidirectionally, automatically, permanently.

03

Meaning over keywords.

You rarely remember the words you used. You remember what you meant. Search runs on device against meaning, in under forty milliseconds.

04

Plain text is the only format that lasts.

Your vault is a folder of Markdown files. Open it in any editor. Back it up with anything. Leave whenever you like — you won't need to.

05

Privacy is a feature, not a setting.

Sync is end-to-end encrypted. Indexes are built on your machine. There is no version of Tessera that can read your notes.

Section B

Specifications

Format
Markdown + YAML frontmatter
Search
Hybrid lexical/semantic, on device
Sync
E2E encrypted, CRDT-based
Platforms
macOS · Windows · Linux · iOS · Android
Import
Obsidian · Notion · Roam · Apple Notes · Evernote
Export
Always. It's a folder.
Price
$0 to 1,000 notes · $6/mo unlimited

“The first tool that made my old notes worth having.”

Maren Lindqvist — Historian, Uppsala

Start
remembering.

macOSApple silicon · Intel →Windowsx64 · ARM →LinuxAppImage · deb · rpm →MobileiOS · Android →
© 2026 Tessera
Set in Inter & JetBrains Mono
Printed on screen
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