Your life in a single file
SEO Note

SEO Note 2.1 quick start

This page is for the current build, SEO Note 2.1. If you came from the classic 1.3.34 Win32 program, most of what you know carries over: the tree on the left, the editor on the right, one file holding everything. What changes is the file itself, and a handful of features the classic build never had.

Three builds ship from this site. SEO Note 2.1 is the current one: an Electron app (about 121 MB installer) for Windows 10/11 64-bit and Linux x64, with Markdown, the tree editor, AI talking to a model you connect — a local one or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint, a web clipper and git sync of the file. For Android 6.0 and newer there is a release-signed APK (~10 MB) of the same interface; on the phone notes live as a folder of Markdown files on the device, and passwords, sync, the clipper and AI answer there with an explicit refusal. The classic build 1.3.34 (~2.5 MB, Win32) stays on the download page for Windows 7, 8 and 32-bit PCs, where 2.1 does not install; its notes file is .seo. All three work offline with no account: pick your build, or read how 2.1 and 1.3.34 differ.

Install

  1. Download SEO-Note-Setup-2.1.2.exe (127 361 709 bytes, about 121 MB) from the download page. Verify it if you want: the page publishes the SHA-256 of every file it offers, and certutil -hashfile SEO-Note-Setup-2.1.2.exe SHA256 reads it back.
  2. Windows will warn you, because the installer is not code-signed: More info → Run anyway.
  3. The installer is an assistant, not a one-click silent install, and it installs per user, so it does not ask for administrator rights and you can change the folder.
  4. Start SEO Note from the Start menu or the desktop shortcut.

On Linux the same version ships as an AppImage and a .deb; the steps are on the Linux install page.

The file is already there

On first start 2.1 creates a notes file for you, so the program opens on something rather than on an error dialog. That file is notes.seonote — a SQLite database in your per-user data folder (%APPDATA%\seonote-electron on Windows, ~/.config/seonote-electron on Linux). It is one file, it is your data, and it is the thing you back up.

Nothing about it is locked to that folder. File → Save as… puts the same file wherever you want — a working directory, a USB stick, a synced folder. File → File properties… shows the path of the file you have open, with buttons to copy the path and to reveal the file in the file manager. File → Recent vaults and File → All vaults… move between the files you keep.

Five keys, then stop

Inserta note inside the selected one
Shift+Inserta note next to the selected one
F7a folder
F2, Deleterename, move to trash
Ctrl+Kcommand palette: everything else, by name

Save with Ctrl+S; global search is Ctrl+Shift+F, search inside the note you are editing is Ctrl+F. If you forget a binding, the native menus print the key next to each item, and the palette finds a command by name — that is the intended way to learn this build, rather than memorising a list. Bindings are yours to change: F9 opens settings, where the accelerators can be rebound.

A first tree that survives a week

  • Inbox — everything unsorted lands here, dated, no thinking.
  • Two or three project folders — active work only.
  • People and Reference — the two things projects keep pointing at.
  • Archive — under Reference, for anything you no longer touch.

Four top-level folders is enough to start. A folder you keep meaning to fill later is a folder you will search through forever.

What a note is in 2.1

A note has one of four bodies: plain text, rich text, HTML and Markdown. Most people settle on Markdown and plain text and leave rich text for notes pasted from Word. Notes can carry tags, checkboxes, links to other notes, an icon and a colour, and the PARA or any other layout is just folders — the program does not force a method on you.

Features worth switching on, in the order people usually need them

  • Password on the file, or on one note. The whole file can be encrypted, and single notes can be sealed with their own password. Both use Argon2 key derivation. A sealed note leaves the search index of the file — its text is not merely hidden from a search, it is not stored in the index at all. See what not to paste anywhere before trusting any tool with a secret.
  • A lost password cannot be recovered — by anyone. There is no reset link, no master key and no back door, and the author does not have your file. Argon2 is deliberately slow precisely so that guessing a forgotten passphrase is not practical. That is the whole point of encryption, and it is also its cost: treat the passphrase the way you treat a disk-encryption key. Set it only once a backup copy of the file exists, keep the passphrase in a password manager or written down somewhere separate, and take the backup before you encrypt, not after.
  • Import of what you already have. Classic .seo files, Evernote .enex, Google Keep JSON export, TreePad and KeyNote .knt. The .seo route is the one to read carefully: what arrives, what converts, what does not.
  • Web clipper. A local receiver on 127.0.0.1 behind a token, plus a clipboard watcher. Clips arrive in your Inbox. A browser extension or a script can post a selection to it, and since 2.1 the extension itself ships inside the installer instead of being downloaded separately.
  • AI that talks to your own model. Any OpenAI-compatible endpoint, LM Studio or Ollama included; the key is kept in the system keychain, not in the settings file, and nothing goes to a service you did not name. Summaries, rewrites, questions answered from your own notes, and a Socratic breakdown of a note you are unsure about.
  • Sync without a cloud account. Your own git repository, or WebDAV, or an S3-compatible bucket — last writer wins, with backups kept. It is a copy of the file between machines, not a shared editing session.
  • An MCP server, so an AI agent can read and write your notes while the program is running.
  • Four interface languages — English, Russian, Turkish, German — and a portable mode: a Data folder next to the program, for carrying the whole thing on a stick.
  • What 2.1 added on the desktop. A demo vault of fifteen notes (ten notes and five diary days), so a first start shows something real instead of an empty pane; a bank of diary questions that picks one for the day and counts the days you answered in a row; a gallery of nine ready note structures to begin from; export of a whole folder to Markdown with the links still working; and the vault library opening on its own after the splash screen, until you tell it not to.

Honest limits

2.1 is heavier than the classic build: about 460 MB on disk after installation is the runtime, not your notes (454 180 KB, measured on the built package), and Windows 10/11 64-bit or Linux x64 is the supported desktop range — Windows 7, 8 and 32-bit machines stay on 1.3.34. There is an Android build now, but it is the same renderer over a folder of Markdown notes on the phone, not this program on a smaller screen: per-note history, passwords and encryption, sync, the clipper and AI answer there with a named refusal, and moving a desktop .seonote file onto the phone is not finished. There is no web version and no collaboration: two machines can hold the same file through sync, but one of them should be the one you are editing on. Importing an old .seo file is implemented and tested on Windows only. And the desktop installers are not signed yet, so the first start of a new build will always show the SmartScreen warning.

Next steps

Mini FAQ

Does SEO Note 2.1 need an internet connection? No. Creating, editing, searching and exporting notes all work with the cable unplugged, and the program has no account and no server of its own. The network is only used by features you turn on yourself: an AI endpoint you point it at, sync to your own git repository, WebDAV or S3, and the browser clipper, which listens on 127.0.0.1 on your own machine. Nothing in 2.1 asks a server about new versions.

Where is my SEO Note 2.1 file stored? In your per-user application data folder, as notes.seonote: %APPDATA%\seonote-electron on Windows, ~/.config/seonote-electron on Linux. You can move it anywhere you like with File → Save as…, and File → File properties… shows the current path with buttons to copy it or open the folder.

How do I back the file up? Copy it. The program also keeps the last 10 versions of the file it saves, as rolling backups next to it, which covers a bad edit but not a dead disk. For a real backup, copy notes.seonote to another drive, or use File → Export → full backup (JSON) if you want a readable dump next to the binary file.

Why does Windows warn me before the installer runs? Because the Windows and Linux installers are not code-signed yet. SmartScreen says "Windows protected your PC" for any unsigned download; choose More info → Run anyway. If you want proof the file is ours before you run it, compare its SHA-256 against the table on the download page. The Android APK is the one build we do sign, with our own release key.

Does SEO Note 2.1 update itself? No — nothing is installed behind your back, and that is a decision, not a missing feature. One detail we would rather tell you than have you discover: the 2.0.0 build used to ask GitHub at startup, and once a day, whether a newer release exists. No update feed is published, so that question came back empty — no file was fetched, nothing was installed. That query is gone in 2.1.2: the program sends nothing at startup now. Updating means coming back to the download page and installing a new build over the old one. Your notes file is not touched by that, and it stays readable by the same version you already have.