Notetime: Minimalistic notes where everything is timestamped

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Per-line timestamping & use cases

  • Many find every-line timestamps surprisingly valuable for:
    • Reconstructing events (incidents, experiments, debugging, meetings, interviews).
    • Personal logs, journaling, and “what was I doing then?” reconstruction.
    • Time tracking and billing for contractors; some want to “cache out” their brain and replay it later.
  • Several people admit to being “obsessed” with timestamps and feel validated by a tool built around them.

Comparisons to existing tools / “just press F5”

  • Multiple comments note that Notepad (F5), Sublime Text, Obsidian, org-mode, vim, Zim, jrnl, shell scripts, chat-to-self, and AutoHotkey/etc can already add timestamps.
  • Skeptical view: this is easily emulated with existing editors or plugins; what’s new?
  • Counterpoint:
    • Integrated, automatic, per-line timestamps without extra keystrokes.
    • Simple, Apple Notes–like UX, not requiring customization or technical setup.
    • Works on mobile and across platforms; Obsidian/Sublime users are seen as a different audience.

Implementation & privacy model

  • Current public version:
    • 100% client-side React app.
    • Data stored locally in a browser SQLite DB.
    • Backend only serves the app and creates anonymous users.
  • Private version (not yet public) includes cross-device sync with Google/Apple sign-in and server storage; author is cautious due to privacy concerns.

Feature requests and design debates

  • Strong demand for:
    • Export (txt, csv; bulk and per-note) and backups; some want encrypted options.
    • Self-hosted and/or open-source server; offline desktop apps.
    • Improved keyboard navigation; configurable timestamp granularity (hide seconds).
    • Possible edited-timestamp field vs preserving original timeline; some prefer immutable timestamps.
    • Search/filter by timestamp, and potentially timestamp-at-line-start time vs at-enter.
    • Per-line “context tags” that persist across subsequent lines.
    • Support for images and non-text content.
  • Minor issues raised: delete not persisting after reload, Firefox blank page (SecurityError), broken Terms/Privacy links, tag-creation UX, infinite single-thread behavior.

Ecosystem and community responses

  • Many share their own timestamped-note setups (CLI tools, editors, cron jobs, logging workflows).
  • One commenter open-sourced a similar app (Go + React + SQLite + Docker).
  • Others built iOS Shortcuts to approximate the behavior.
  • Meta-observation: lots of powerful DIY solutions exist, but there’s a large audience that won’t customize tools, so a polished, minimal app fills a real gap.