nvALT
nvALT is a free, lightweight note-taking app for macOS that stores plain-text notes in a folder of files on disk and provides instant full-text search across them. Users type queries into the search box at the top to instantly find and create notes, with a split-pane interface showing search results on the left and the full note content on the right. It is favoured by writers, developers, researchers and power users who want a fast, simple, distraction-free tool for capturing ideas, technical cheatsheets and reference material without the overhead of a database or proprietary file format. nvALT is a fork and successor to the earlier Notational Velocity project.
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1 suggestionnvALT has been discontinued and is no longer maintained by its developer. The app will not run on macOS 28 (September 2028) when Apple removes Rosetta 2 support, since no native Apple Silicon build was ever officially shipped. While a community member posted a working Apple Silicon build on GitHub in 2022, the main project remains unmaintained and using an unofficial fork carries the risk of incompatibility with future macOS versions and no ongoing security or bug-fix support. The official successor, nvUltra, was in development by the original author Brett Terpstra but has similarly stalled. For a maintained alternative that covers the same workflow, consider The Archive, which provides a similar instant-search plain-text note system with an active developer and confirmed Apple Silicon support. Alternatively, Obsidian (free with optional sync) and Bear offer modern native Mac note-taking with search, sync and formatting features, though both move beyond nvALT's minimal plain-text design. If you have a substantial archive of nvALT notes, all of these apps can import from plain-text folders, making migration straightforward.
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