Think at the speed of thought
Cortex is the note-taking app that works as a second brain. Capture in a keystroke, connect without folders, and recall anything before you finish typing its name.
No account needed · Press ⌘N to capture your first thought
Project: Aurora
Launch plan — second brain positioning
The landing page should sell [[compounding knowledge]], not features. Pull the quote from [[Mara Ellison interview]] and link it to the [[positioning doc]].
✓Draft hero headline
Wire the graph preview to real backlinks
Ship to the waitlist
Trusted by deep-work teams at
Features
Built like a power tool, tuned like an instrument
Everything in Cortex exists to shorten the distance between having a thought and keeping it forever.
Instant capture
One global hotkey summons the quick-capture panel from anywhere. Zero friction, zero lost thoughts.
Backlinks everywhere
Every note knows what points at it. Context assembles itself while you type.
On-device AI
Summaries, auto-tagging, and semantic search run locally. Your thoughts never train someone else's model.
Offline-first
Planes, basements, dead zones — Cortex works the same. Sync resolves conflicts when you reconnect.
End-to-end encrypted
AES-256 with keys only you hold. We couldn't read your second brain if we wanted to.
API & export
A full local API and one-click Markdown export. Script your brain, leave whenever you like.
“I’ve tried every notes app since 2010. Cortex is the first one that feels like it’s on my side of the keyboard — it surfaces the note I need before I remember writing it.”
Your second brain is one hotkey away
Free up to 1,000 notes. Pro is $8/month — less than the notebook you’ll stop buying.
Download CortexmacOS · Windows · Linux · iOS · Android