Notepatra

The first code editor built for the AI era.

C++ + Rust · ~13 MB bare native executable · Zero Electron · 238 file types · 82 language lexers · Local AI formatters · MCP server

MCP: notepatra-mcp now ships a prebuilt signed Windows sidecar and a one-click Claude Desktop bundle — connect Claude Desktop, Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, and any MCP client to the running editor. 49 tools (Git, read-only SQL, saved-connection queries, charts, Noter notes); every write human-approved in-window; nothing leaves your machine.

Website · Download · MCP · Features · The Story · Install · Plugins · AI · Contributing · Security · Changelog

The Story

I'm Prateek Singh. A developer who spent years on Linux wanting a small, fast, free native code editor that could fix things in seconds — broken JSON, messy SQL, tangled HTML — and finding only Wine hacks or bloated Electron editors eating 500 MB of RAM to show a text file.

Every text editor told me to pick two of three: fast, powerful, native. Vim is fast and native but cryptic. Modern Electron editors are powerful but heavy. The truly tiny native ones either don't have AI or don't run cross-platform.

So I built Notepatra.

Not a port. Not a wrapper. Something new — for everyone.

I asked: what would a small native code editor look like if it was built today, in 2026, when AI is part of every developer's workflow, and ran natively on Linux + macOS + Windows from one codebase?

The answer: a tiny native executable — ~13 MB bare (~13.4 MB on Linux x64) on every platform — with a Rust-powered core, Scintilla editing engine, and local-first AI integration (cloud backends optional). v0.1.129 downloads: 4.7 MB Linux x64 (tarball, Qt from the system), 28.0 MB on macOS (DMG with bundled Qt), 32.8–43.9 MB on Windows (MSI/zip/setup.exe with bundled Qt DLLs). An editor that can fix your broken JSON with regex in milliseconds — and when regex isn't enough, it asks your AI to figure it out — local by default, six cloud backends one click away when you want a frontier model. No telemetry. No subscription. No mandatory API key.

Notepatra started on Linux — because that's where the gap was. But great tools shouldn't have borders. Notepatra runs on Linux, Windows, and macOS. Same codebase. Same features. No one gets left behind.

Notepatra is what I wish had existed — on every platform.

Features

Editor — Battle-tested basics done right

• 238 file extensions mapped to 82 language lexers — Python, C/C++, C#, Java, Kotlin, JavaScript, TypeScript, Rust, Go, Swift, Dart, Solidity, Zig, Vala, Hack, Julia, R, Protobuf, F#, HCL/Terraform, Thrift, GraphQL, GDScript, Nim, Cython, Mojo, Crystal, Elixir, Scala, Groovy, Apex, SQL (6 dialect presets), HTML, CSS, JSON, JSON5, YAML, TOML, Markdown, Bash, Fish, Nushell, Fortran, VHDL, Verilog, MATLAB, LaTeX, BibTeX, Jinja, Liquid, Twig, Dockerfile, DotEnv, Gitignore, and more. Rust / Go / Swift / Kotlin / TypeScript / PowerShell ship as Notepatra-local lexers (not just C-family fallbacks)
• Tabbed editing — drag, reorder, middle-click close, double-click empty area for new tab
• Tab right-click menu — Close, Close All BUT This, Close All to the Left/Right, Close All, Save, Save As, Rename, Copy Full Path, Copy Filename, Copy Directory Path, Open Containing Folder, Open Terminal Here, Read-Only toggle, Color Tag (7 named colors + custom + Remove)
• 3 themes — Light, Dark, Monokai (Settings > Theme)
• Session persistence — close Notepatra, reopen tomorrow, same files, same cursor positions, same window size
• Crash recovery — if Notepatra crashes (it shouldn't, but life happens), your unsaved work is recovered on next launch
• File change detection — someone else edits your file? Notepatra asks: reload or keep yours?
• 2 GB file support — memory-mapped I/O via Rust; files up to ~1.86 GB load fully, larger open truncated + read-only
• Double-click word highlight — double-click any word, all occurrences light up in orange
• Ctrl+B brace matching — jump between matching {} [] (), highlights both braces + selects everything between
• Macro recording — Start Recording (Ctrl+Shift+M), Stop, Playback (Ctrl+Shift+P), Run Multiple Times, Save/Load macros
• Code folding, bookmarks, auto-complete, indent guides, line numbers
• Custom scrollbars — clean, modern, rounded

Search — Find anything, anywhere

• Project Search (Ctrl+Shift+G) — recursive search across file names AND file contents in any text-based file. Any size, any language (Python, SQL, C/C++, JS/TS, Rust, Go, HTML, JSON, YAML, Markdown, logs, config). Streams line-by-line so a 2 GB log searches the same as a 2 KB script. Each match shows exact line:col coordinates — double-click to jump the caret to the character.
• 5-tab Find/Replace dialog — Find, Replace, Find in Files, Mark, Go to
• 3 search modes — Normal, Extended (\n, \r, \t, \xNN), Regular expression
• Find All in Current Document — results appear in bottom panel, double-click any result to jump to that exact line
• Find All in All Opened Documents — search across every open tab at once
• Replace All in All Opened Documents — one click, every file updated
• Find in Files — search entire directories recursively with file filters
• Mark All — highlight every occurrence with visual indicators
• Aho-Corasick search engine (Rust) — faster than regex for literal patterns

Plugins — The real power

Every plugin opens in its own tab. Real UI, not just a menu click.

JSON Tools (inbuilt)

HTML Tools (inbuilt)

Bracket Tools (inbuilt)

SQL Formatter (inbuilt)

• Format with UPPERCASE or lowercase keywords
• Configurable indent width
• Supports T-SQL, PL/SQL, MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite