Frequently asked questions

AS Notes is a personal knowledge management (PKM) system built directly into VS Code and compatible editors such as Cursor, Windsurf and Antigravity. It turns plain Markdown files into a connected, searchable knowledge base using [[wikilinks]], backlinks, tasks and daily journals — without ever leaving your editor.

Anyone who already works in VS Code and wants their notes, documentation and tasks to live next to their code. It's especially popular with software developers, technical writers and researchers, but it works just as well for general note-taking, wikis and personal journals.

No. Although AS Notes runs inside VS Code, you don't need to write any code to use it. If you can install a VS Code extension and type in a document, you can use AS Notes. Developers do tend to get the most value, because their notes can sit alongside the projects they relate to.

Install it from the VS Code Marketplace, or from the Open VSX Registry for editors like VSCodium, Cursor and Windsurf. Search for “AS Notes” in the Extensions panel, click Install, and you're ready to start. The Free edition needs no account.

Visual Studio Code and editors built on the same foundation, including Cursor, Windsurf, Antigravity and VSCodium. If your editor can install extensions from the Marketplace or Open VSX, AS Notes will run in it.

Wikilinks let you reference any note by name using [[double bracket]] syntax. As you type [[ AS Notes suggests existing notes and creates the link instantly. Backlinks then show you every note that links to the one you're viewing, so you can see how an idea connects to the rest of your knowledge base — the network grows naturally as you write.

Yes. AS Notes has built-in task management using inline tags for priorities, due dates and waiting states. Tasks live inside your notes where the context is, and a dedicated task panel collects them across your whole workspace. Pro adds a Kanban board for a visual overview.

The journal gives you a dated note for each day with a single command or shortcut. It's ideal for daily logs, standups and capturing fleeting thoughts that you can later link out to longer-lived notes.

Yes — static site publishing is included free. AS Notes can turn your notes, complete with working wikilinks, into a static HTML site you can host anywhere. It's a simple way to share documentation, a wiki or a digital garden.

Outliner mode lets you write and reorganise notes as collapsible, nested bullet points — similar to tools like Logseq or Workflowy. It's great for structured thinking and quickly rearranging ideas. Outliner mode is part of the Pro Editor licence.

Yes. Type / in a note to bring up commands for inserting links, formatting, dates, tasks and more, so you can capture and structure information quickly without reaching for the mouse. Page aliases also let a single note be found under several names.

Obsidian is an excellent standalone app, but it's a separate application you switch to. AS Notes lives inside the editor you already use, so your notes sit next to your code and project files with no context switching. Both use plain Markdown and wikilinks, so the core writing experience is familiar. If you spend your day in VS Code, AS Notes keeps everything in one window; if you'd rather have a dedicated standalone notes app with a large third-party plugin market, Obsidian may suit you better.

Logseq is an outliner-first, block-based tool built around daily notes. AS Notes offers an outliner mode (Pro) and a daily journal too, but it's document-first: your notes are ordinary Markdown files you can edit any way you like, inside VS Code. If you want the outliner workflow without leaving your editor — plus the option of plain document editing — AS Notes gives you both.

Foam is a free, open-source VS Code extension that helped pioneer wikilink note-taking in the editor, and we admire it. AS Notes covers the same core idea but ships as a polished, actively maintained product with features Foam largely leaves you to assemble: a fast SQLite-powered index, a backlinks panel, task management, a daily journal, slash commands, static publishing, and Pro extras like a Kanban board, outliner mode and encrypted notes. If you want something that works fully out of the box with ongoing support, AS Notes is designed for that.

Dendron brought powerful hierarchical, schema-based notes to VS Code. AS Notes takes a simpler, link-first approach: you connect notes with wikilinks rather than maintaining strict naming hierarchies, which many people find faster for everyday capture. AS Notes is also actively developed, with a Free edition and an affordable one-time Pro licence.

Almost certainly. Because AS Notes stores everything as standard Markdown with [[wikilinks]], notes from Obsidian, Foam and most other Markdown-based tools work with little or no conversion. Just open your existing notes folder in VS Code with AS Notes installed and it will index your links and backlinks. Tools that use a proprietary or block-database format may need an export to Markdown first.

Yes. The Free edition is free forever and includes wikilinks, backlinks, page aliases, task management, the daily journal, Markdown editing tools, slash commands, static site publishing and the SQLite-powered index. No account is required to use it.

Pro Editor is a one-time payment of $18 for a lifetime licence — not a subscription. It adds advanced Markdown editing tools, a Kanban board, outliner mode, encrypted notes and all future Pro editor updates, on top of everything in the Free edition.

No. The Pro Editor licence is a single one-time purchase that you own for life, including future Pro editor updates. A separate, optional subscription for cloud sync and AI features is planned for the future.

Yes. Once signed in, you can purchase multiple Pro licences in a single transaction from the pricing page — just set the quantity you need.

Payments are processed securely by Stripe, which supports major credit and debit cards. We never see or store your card details.

If Pro isn't right for you, get in touch within a reasonable period of your purchase and we'll do our best to help. You can reach us at [email protected].

On your own machine. Your notes are plain Markdown files in folders you control. AS Notes does not upload, read or collect the contents of your notes.

No. We never collect the notes, files or other content you store in AS Notes. The only data we hold relates to your account and licence — such as your email address for transactional email and licence validation. See our Privacy Policy for full details.

None. Every note is a standard .md file. There's no proprietary database or sync format, so your knowledge base works with Git, grep and any tool that reads text. If you ever stop using AS Notes, your notes remain exactly as they are.

Yes — AS Notes is designed to be Git-friendly. Because notes are plain text files, you can version, branch, diff and back them up with Git just like code.

Encrypted notes, a Pro feature, let you protect sensitive notes so their contents are stored in an encrypted file rather than plain text — useful for credentials, private journals or confidential material.

Because your notes are ordinary files, you can already sync them with any tool you like — Git, Dropbox, iCloud or OneDrive. A dedicated cross-device sync option, alongside optional AI assistance for summarising and expanding notes, is on our roadmap. Until then, file-based sync covers most needs.

Read the documentation at docs.asnotes.io, or get in touch via the contact page. We welcome feature requests and feedback.