Markdown notes for iPhone and iPad

Notes, with the tasks inside them.

Write anything. When a note needs a next step, add a checklist: it shows up in Tasks and on a kanban board built for one person, with a limit you set on how much can be in progress. Every note is a plain Markdown file on your device, in the same format Obsidian uses, so any Markdown editor can open it.

For iPhone and iPad.
No ioths account required.

See the example

In half a minute

Writing a note, adding a checklist, starting work on the board, and choosing where notes live.

What ioths does differently.

The task lives in the note.

Add a checklist to any note and it becomes a task note. Its card shows how far along it is, and the Tasks screen gathers every open item from across your notes.

A kanban board for one.

Open and done follow your checklists; you flag what you are working on. A work-in-progress limit that you set stops you starting more than you meant to carry.

Notes that turn into work

A checklist with a due date, the note on the board, the work-in-progress limit stopping a fourth note, every open task grouped by due date, and all three lanes with the iPhone held sideways.

Plain files, in storage you choose.

Every note is a Markdown file with frontmatter Obsidian understands. Keep them on the device, or use a Files folder, GitHub, GitLab or OneDrive.

Private, offline, no account.

Everything works without a network and without an ioths account. Analytics are off unless you turn them on, and nothing is sold or used to train a model.

Plain Markdown, yours

A new note and the Markdown file behind it, then search, sorting by due date, a tag filter, the light and dark appearance, and where notes are stored.

Capture from wherever you are.

Type, dictate, take a photo or record a voice note. Share a web link and it becomes a note named after the page; share a PDF and it is converted to Markdown on the device. Moving from Google Keep? Import a Takeout export, checklists and labels included.

Already use Obsidian?

ioths is not trying to replace it. Use it as the phone side: write into a folder of your vault, and keep that folder’s tasks on a board with a work-in-progress limit, with no plugins to set up. Obsidian reads the notes as they are. Writing into a vault folder is part of Full Unlock; see how it works.

PDFs become notes

A PDF shared from Files to ioths, converted to Markdown on the device and reviewed before saving, then the saved note and the Markdown file behind it.

For iPhone and iPad.
No ioths account required.

Keep the task with its context.

The example below starts with a question about a changed deadline. The next steps appear in the same note, beside the reason for doing them.

Fig. 01 / From note to taskioths

The board shows how far the checklist has got.

# Why are we reviewing this again?

We changed the deadline, but kept the
original scope. Is that still workable?

#delivery

The question is still open.

The note records what changed and what remains uncertain. That is enough to come back to, even before there is an answer.

In the library

Why are we reviewing this again?#delivery

# Why are we reviewing this again?

We changed the deadline, but kept the
original scope. Is that still workable?

- [ ] Compare scope with the deadline
- [ ] Raise the trade-off at the review

#delivery

There is something to check.

A checklist makes the follow-up explicit. Its open items also appear in Tasks, alongside items from other notes. The original question stays where it was written.

In Tasks

Compare scope with the deadline
Raise the trade-off at the review

# Why are we reviewing this again?

We changed the deadline, but kept the
original scope. Is that still workable?

- [x] Compare scope with the deadline
- [ ] Raise the trade-off at the review

#delivery

One item done; one still open.

Mark the note in progress to put it in the board’s In Progress lane. The work-in-progress limit caps how many notes carry that status. You choose the limit.

On the board

Open

In progressWhy are we reviewing this again? 1/2

Done

ioths

For iPhone and iPad.

Using the app

There’s no ioths account to create. Notes stay on your device unless you choose an external storage destination.

Free to use on your device. Full Unlock is a one-time purchase, not a subscription: US$14.99 in the United States and €17.99 in the euro area, with equivalent prices set by the App Store elsewhere. It adds Files, GitHub, GitLab and OneDrive storage, and export.

Usage analytics are off unless you turn them on; they never include note content, titles, or tags. Nothing is sold or used to train an AI model. Read the Privacy Policy.

Questions or feedback? Contact support

Why I made it.

I built ioths for myself because the notes apps I had tried never quite fitted, either in what they did or how they felt to use.

The result is fairly specific: somewhere to write on the phone, keep the file, and add tasks without copying the thought into another tool.

A note, dissolving into cells.

The icon nods to Conway’s Game of Life: a grid of cells that changes by a few fixed rules.

The rules, in full

Conway’s Game of Life is played on a grid of square cells. Each cell is either alive or empty. To find the next generation, count each cell’s neighbours: the eight cells that touch it, diagonals included. Then apply four rules.

Loneliness. A living cell with fewer than two living neighbours dies.
Survival. A living cell with two or three living neighbours stays alive.
Crowding. A living cell with more than three living neighbours dies.
Birth. An empty cell with exactly three living neighbours becomes alive.

Every cell is judged at the same moment, using only the current generation. The whole grid then changes at once. The mathematician John Conway devised the rules in 1970.

The field here is finite: the left and right edges join, as do the top and bottom, so a pattern that leaves one side returns from the other. It starts from the R-pentomino, five cells that take 1,103 generations to settle on an unbounded grid. On a small, wrapped field they unfold differently, so use Step to follow the first few generations.