koruworks/mono

# Koru is a private, local-first AI workspace
Koru is an open-source, local-first workspace for thinking, writing and working
with AI. Documents, files and terminal sessions, including your shells and AI
coding agents, open as tabs in one native window. Your work stays on your own
devices, works offline, and syncs directly between them, with no cloud server
holding your data.
## What can you do with Koru?
Write and organize: documents with headings, tables, checklists, code,
images and attachments, nested in a tree, with full-text search, #tags and
named versions you can compare.
Work with AI on your terms: open Claude Code, Codex, Gemini and other
coding agents as tabs beside your documents, and let any MCP client, including
a local model, read and edit your workspace through Koru's built-in MCP server.
Bring your notes with you: import from Evernote (.enex), Notion,
OneNote, Google Docs, Markdown and TextBundle, and export to Markdown or
TextBundle at any time.
Speak instead of type: Koru Voice dictates on your own device; your audio
never leaves it.
Keep it yours: free, no account required, and open source under the
MPL-2.0.
## What is Koru an alternative to?
Koru is a private, local-first alternative to cloud note-taking and document
apps. Your documents, files and AI agents stay on your own devices, work
offline, and sync directly between them, with nothing stored on someone else's
server.
Evernote alternative: your
notes live on your own devices instead of Evernote's cloud, and they're fully
available offline.
OneNote alternative: you don't
need a Microsoft account or OneDrive, because devices sync peer-to-peer.
Notion alternative: it's built
to work offline first, and it syncs device to device instead of through a
cloud server.
Google Docs alternative: your writing stays private on your devices, with
no Google account and no cloud storage.
## Does Koru work offline?
Yes. Koru stores every workspace on your own devices, so you can read and write
without an internet connection (an AI agent still needs whatever connection its
own model needs). When your devices reconnect, they sync directly with each
other, peer-to-peer. No cloud server stores your data, and sync traffic is
end-to-end encrypted, including when a relay has to forward it between networks.
## How does Koru sync without a server?
Koru stores each workspace as a Loro snapshot. Loro is a
CRDT (conflict-free replicated data type), so two devices editing the same
workspace always end up in the same state without a server to coordinate them.
If you only use one device, Koru never exchanges an operation, so the sync
option costs you nothing.
## How is a Koru workspace structured?
A Koru workspace is a tree of typed nodes: documents, tasks, contacts and
images. Their attributes are stored as structured data rather than plain text,
and each view, such as a list, a table or a document, is a projection over that
one model.
## What is Koru built with?
The Koru desktop app is written in Rust. It uses
parley for text layout,
vello for GPU rendering, winit for
windowing, and iroh for device-to-device sync. The iOS
and Android apps are native Swift and Kotlin, built on the same contracts.