Skerry keeps every note as a plain Markdown file on your own device, sealed with
a key that never leaves your hands. No account to make. No server to trust. No company that can lose
your words or be made to hand them over. Not even us.
macOS and iOS. One email when it lands, nothing else.
Notion, Evernote, Apple Notes, even Bear once it syncs. Your words sit on someone
else's servers, in a format only their app can open, under terms they can change. They can read them,
lose them, or be made to hand them over. Skerry is built so none of that is possible.
The cloud notes app
Skerry
Where your notes live
Their servers
Your device
The format
A database you can't open
Plain Markdown, in your folder
Who can read them
The company and whoever compels it
Only you, with your key
Account required
Yes
None
If the company folds
Your notes are trapped
They were always your files
Plain files
Yours forever
Every note is a real Markdown file in a folder you control. Delete Skerry and your
words are still there, readable in any editor.
Sealed
Locked with your key
Encrypt a note or the whole library with a master key only you hold, plus a recovery
code only you keep. Title, file name, and body all become ciphertext.
No server
No account, no cloud
Nothing to sign up for. Your notes and your key never touch our machines, because we
do not have any.
How it works
Three steps, then it is yours.
1
Open a folder
Point Skerry at any folder and it becomes your library. Every note is a real Markdown file
inside it, readable with or without Skerry.
2
Seal what matters
Encrypt one note or the whole library with a key only you hold. The title, tags, and file
name are sealed along with the body.
3
Back it up anywhere
Send an encrypted snapshot to iCloud, a NAS, or your own bucket. Nothing touches our
servers, because we do not have any.
What it does
Everything a notes app should, none of the leash.
01
Markdown that stays out of the way
Live highlighting that hides syntax around the cursor, inline images, tables,
footnotes, callouts, task lists, and wiki links with backlinks between notes.
02
Find it instantly
Full-text search with operators like @todo and #tag, folder and tag scopes to narrow a
search, a jump-to-anything palette, Spotlight results, and search inside attachments through
on-device OCR. Unlocked, your encrypted notes join the results too.
03
Encrypt a note or lock it
Choose ciphertext with a passphrase, or a simple gate behind Face ID when you only
need a lock.
04
Encrypted sync and backups, your storage
Real multi-device sync and sealed snapshots through iCloud Drive, a NAS over WebDAV,
or S3 storage. Edits from your devices merge as they sync, and what leaves your
device is always ciphertext.
05
Export and print
Markdown, HTML, Rich Text, PDF, or Word, or copy straight to the clipboard. Print
from your phone or your Mac.
06
One format, forever
An open, documented file format any future app can read. The format is the contract,
not the app.
07
Move in from anywhere
Import from Bear, Obsidian, Apple Notes, an Evernote export with its attachments, or
a Day One journal. Everything arrives as plain files you own.
08
A recovery code, only yours
Turn on encryption and get a one-time code that unlocks your notes if you forget the
passphrase. Lose both and no one can help, by design.
09
Locks itself
Auto-lock re-seals the vault after a set idle time, so stepping away never leaves your notes
open on screen.
10
Capture from everywhere
A share sheet clipper that turns pages into Markdown, home and lock screen widgets,
menu bar quick capture on the Mac, and dictation from your wrist.
11
On-device magic
Voice memos transcribed on your device, a document scanner with searchable pages,
translation, and summaries from on-device intelligence. Nothing is sent anywhere.
12
Every version, kept
Notes remember their history. Browse earlier versions, restore any of them, and undo
the restore itself.
Backup
Your notes go straight to your own storage.
Point Skerry at storage you already have and it keeps encrypted snapshots there.
Every backup is sealed before it leaves your device, so the server only ever holds ciphertext, even for
notes you never encrypted yourself. Restore pulls a snapshot back and decrypts it in place.
Files & iCloud
Any folder you can reach
iCloud Drive, a Dropbox folder, an external disk, or anywhere in the Files app. Pruned to the
newest snapshots automatically.
Network
Your NAS over WebDAV
Synology, a home server, or any WebDAV endpoint on your own network. Your box, your bytes, your
control.
Object storage
S3 and iDrive e2
iDrive e2, Backblaze B2, Amazon S3, or any S3-compatible bucket. Your keys, your bucket, sealed
before upload.
Always encrypted · Automatic or on demand · Newest snapshots kept, the rest pruned
The moat
An encrypted note gives up nothing.
Seal a note and the file becomes an opaque envelope. Its title, tags, dates, and body
are encrypted together, the file takes a random name, and it drops out of the search
index. On a synced drive or a stolen backup, all anyone learns is that a note exists.
AES-256-GCM or ChaCha20-Poly1305, your choice
Argon2id key derivation, memory-hard against GPU guessing
Title and file name are ciphertext, not just the body
No plaintext ever written for a sealed note
A decoy passphrase and an erase-after-failures option
Don't trust us. Read the code. The encryption and the file format are open source
and documented, byte for byte, with a plain-language threat model that says exactly what
Skerry protects against and what it cannot. The app stays ours; the security you rely on
is public.
A random 256-bit key encrypts your notes. That key is sealed by your passphrase with 600,000
rounds of PBKDF2, so guessing is punishingly slow.
Change your passphrase and only the wrapper changes, never the notes. Your recovery code is a
second, independent way to the same key.
What we can see
Nothing at all
No account, no server, no analytics. Skerry has no way to see your notes, your key, or that you
exist.
Your passphrase lives in the Keychain behind Face ID and never leaves your device.
The threat model
Built for the worst day
A lost or stolen device. A synced drive someone else can reach. A breached backup. A subpoena to
a company that holds nothing.
In every case a sealed note is an opaque envelope. All anyone learns is that it exists.
Questions
The things people ask first.
How do I sync between my Mac and iPhone?
Use any file sync you already trust: iCloud Drive, Dropbox, or a NAS. Skerry rides on top of
it and never needs its own account. Encrypted notes stay encrypted the whole way, at rest and
in transit.
What if I forget my passphrase?
You get a recovery code the moment you turn on encryption. It is shown once, held only by you,
and unlocks your notes on any device. Lose both the passphrase and the code and no one can help,
because that is the point.
What happens if Skerry the app disappears?
Nothing happens to your notes. They are plain Markdown in an open, documented format. Open them
in any editor, forever. There is nothing to export and nothing to rescue.
Is my backup really encrypted, even on someone else's storage?
Yes. Every backup is sealed on your device before it leaves. iDrive, Backblaze, a NAS, or iCloud
only ever hold ciphertext, even for notes you never encrypted one by one.
Do you track me?
No. There are no accounts, no analytics, and no servers anywhere in Skerry. It could not track
you if it wanted to.
The name
A rock, and the bird who stands on it.
A skerry is a small rocky island. Too little to build a house on, big enough to stand on
and weather a storm. Across the North Atlantic they are where seabirds nest, out of reach
of the tide.
That is the whole idea: your notes live on a rock that is yours. Plain files on your own
device, not adrift in someone else's cloud.
And the puffin? Meet Skelly. Puffins come back to the
same rock every year, carry everything they need, and answer to no one. Skelly stands watch
on the skerry and holds the only key. Fitting, for an app whose one job is keeping your
words yours.
Coming soon
Be there when Skerry lands.
No spam, no account. One note from Skerry when it is ready to stand on.
