# Tisty > Local memory and context for you and your AI agent: tasks, documents and ideas in Markdown on disk, over MCP for GitHub Copilot, Claude Code and Cursor. Free. An ordinary task list forgets the moment you tick the box, and your AI agent forgets the moment the session ends: six months later the same problem comes back and all you have is knowing you solved it once. In Tisty, what you solved stays, with its steps and its why, for you and for your agent. ## What it does ### Capture and plan - Type «call the bank at 3» in the quick capture, open from anywhere, and it is a task with its hour. - Today puts the urgent first: overdue only past its deadline, late when the day you planned slipped by. - Press Tab in the quick capture and it is an idea: a sticky note in Brainstorm, up to 140 characters, that you turn into a task or a document later. - Steps, parts and the Eisenhower matrix by its name: do, schedule, delegate, minor. ### Remember - A finished task goes to the archive whole: its page, steps, dated journal and files. - One search across open tasks, the archive and every document, even what you closed two years ago. - One living document per subject, with tables, diagrams, formulas, pages and its own PDF. ### Your agent - GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, Codex or Cursor connect over MCP and pick up where they left off. - An outline first, then one section: a fraction of what rereading your Markdown files costs. - It works your tasks as it works a document and sorts your ideas with you; ticking your steps, closing and the day stay yours. ### Your data is yours - Documents in Markdown and tasks in a log you can read, on your own disk. - Synced through your Google Drive, OneDrive or WebDAV server, encrypted with a phrase only you know if you want, or through a folder you already sync. - No account, no subscription, no telemetry. Free and open source. ## Real problems, real fixes What people actually run into after months of working with an AI assistant, and what happens instead when the memory lives in Tisty. - Developer. The problem: Every new session, you explain the project to your agent again. With Tisty: It asks what moved since last time, opens the task «Move payments to v2» with its ticked steps and reads what it noted yesterday: the webhook fails on old signatures, retrying ruled out. It carries on from there. - Developer. The problem: Your NOTES.md grew to 256 KB and the agent rereads it every time. With Tisty: It lives as documents split by subject, in pages. The agent reads the outline and the one section it needs, about 97% less than the whole file. - Anyone. The problem: You solved this eight months ago and cannot remember how. With Tisty: A search for «timeouts on save» brings back the archived task as it was left: its steps, its journal and the line saying the cause was a missing index. - PM. The problem: A month later somebody asks why it was decided that way. With Tisty: One living document per subject, «Checkout decisions», each decision dated with its why. The agent finds it and quotes it instead of reopening the debate. - QA. The problem: The same screen breaks again and nobody remembers last time's cases. With Tisty: The archived regression task keeps its cases as steps, with what was seen in each. - Handover. The problem: Context passed from PM to PO, or from developer to QA, pasted into a chat. With Tisty: You hand over the document through Folio: encrypted on your machine before it leaves, signed by you, gone on its own after the days without use you choose. - Business rules. The problem: What must not end up in somebody else's database. With Tisty: Tisty keeps it on your disk and sends it nowhere. What your agent reads goes where that agent goes, so pair it with one your company allows. - At home. The problem: The bank paperwork that comes back every year. With Tisty: Next year, the archived task tells you how you did it last time. ## A day with your agent What an agent connected to Tisty does with your tasks and documents, on a real piece of work. 1. It asks what moved since its last session, and who moved it, instead of rereading everything, with the tasks that press, overdue first. 2. It opens the task it was on which Tisty names for it. «Done when» says when it is finished, and the unticked steps say what is left. 3. It searches the archive first before proposing anything. If it was solved before, it starts from there. 4. It reads by the outline then only the section it needs, and keeps to the decisions and to what is out of scope. 5. It ticks each step and notes what it ruled out so the next session, or another agent, does not repeat the failed attempt. 6. It compacts the assistants' notes into one dated digest when a task's page grows long. The journal stays whole, and asking it to put the notes back brings them as they were, even after later ticks. 7. It says what it did and how it knows when the work is done. You review it and close it. 8. It leaves a summary after reading a long document, for the next agent to choose by. A change to the document marks it stale. Your tasks tell your agent what is left and how far it may go; your documents tell it what was already decided. What it learns stays written down for next time. ## What it costs your agent Tisty knows what each answer costs, and keeps cutting it. Measured on a 256 KB Markdown work log, against an agent that rereads the whole file every session: - Picks up the work, with nothing new: spends about 1%, 99% less - Picks up and opens the task it was on: spends under 3%, 97% less - Looks for something solved months ago: spends about 3%, 97% less - Looks up one subject: the outline and one section: spends about 3%, 12% at worst, 88–97% less Where the saving comes from: - No single write carries more than 64,000 characters, so a long log is kept as subjects in pages. - No read brings more than about 12,000 characters unless the agent asks for a document whole to carry elsewhere; past that, a document comes back as its outline. - A task's page comes whole only while it is short, about 4,000 characters; past that come its sections and the agent's latest note, and its journal is counted by size, not by number of notes. - The outline says what each section weighs before anything is opened. - Picking up again brings only what moved, and what is finished costs nothing until it is searched. Connecting costs something too: the description of Tisty's tools weighs about a sixth of that log, a third less than it did, and a test keeps it from growing. An assistant that loads tools only as it uses them does not pay it whole; one that loads every tool each session saves 72–83%, and below some 50 KB of notes a plain file is cheaper. Counted in characters, with the JSON each answer carries included. ## What stays on your disk No database to export from and no format to decode. This is what Tisty keeps in its folder, as it looks after a few months of use. ```md # Rina's vet visits #rina #vet > [!TIP] > Bring her record book: the vet stamps it every time. ## 12 March 2026 - [x] Weigh her before the appointment - [ ] Ask about the tick tablet Weight: ==11.4 kg=={green} ::heart red:: ``` ```text .tisty/ ├─ data/ │ ├─ docs/ your documents, one .md each │ │ ├─ 2hq2p1ax-0003.md │ │ └─ … │ ├─ store/ your tasks, one folder per computer │ │ └─ dev_2hq2p1ax/ │ │ ├─ 000001.tisty │ │ └─ active.tisty │ └─ attachments/ the files you attached ├─ config/ └─ cache/ ``` In your user folder on Windows; on a Mac, in Library/Application Support/tisty. Settings › Your data opens it. ```jsonl {"v":18,"ts":"2026-03-02T14:05:11Z","op":"task.add","id":"01KJ…","d":{"title":"Find out how to sync with OneDrive",…}} {"v":18,"ts":"2026-03-12T09:40:27Z","op":"task.log","id":"01KJ…","d":{"body":"Large files go up in pieces",…}} {"v":18,"ts":"2026-03-14T18:02:55Z","op":"task.done","id":"01KJ…"} ``` Abridged. Every change to a task is one more line that only adds: cat, grep and jq read it. Any editor opens them, and they stay where they are even if you uninstall Tisty. And when someone else needs to read one, Folio shares a document through an encrypted link that expires on its own. https://tisty.cl ## Privacy Local-first by design. The files are yours and readable without Tisty running. - [Privacy policy](https://www.tisty.app/privacy/) ## Install Free and open source (AGPL-3.0-only) for Windows and macOS. No account. - Microsoft Store: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9pgvwxd8x93n - winget: `winget install rgdevment.Tisty` - Homebrew: `brew tap rgdevment/tap && brew trust rgdevment/tap && brew install --cask tisty` - Direct download: https://github.com/rgdevment/Tisty/releases - v1.47.1, Windows installer (.exe, 23.1 MB): https://github.com/rgdevment/Tisty/releases/download/v1.47.1/tisty-installer-1.47.1-windows-x86_64.exe - v1.47.1, macOS on Apple Silicon (.dmg, 30.2 MB): https://github.com/rgdevment/Tisty/releases/download/v1.47.1/tisty-installer-1.47.1-macos-aarch64.dmg - v1.47.1, macOS on Intel (.dmg, 32.5 MB): https://github.com/rgdevment/Tisty/releases/download/v1.47.1/tisty-installer-1.47.1-macos-x86_64.dmg - Requires Windows 10 (1809) or later, or macOS 13.3 or later. ### The first time you open Tisty It asks two things: your language, and where your copies should go, a folder to sync through or nowhere beyond this computer. Then it sets up your starting lists and writes you a guide, an ordinary document of yours to read, edit or throw away, that shows from the inside what a document can hold. - [Start here, in the docs](https://www.tisty.app/docs/#start-here) ## Connect an assistant Its MCP server comes inside the app, listed in the MCP Registry as `io.github.rgdevment/tisty`. With Tisty installed, Settings › Assistants connects the assistants it finds; by hand: - Claude Code: `/plugin install tisty --marketplace rgdevment/mcp-plugins` - Gemini CLI: `gemini extensions install https://github.com/rgdevment/mcp-plugins` - Any other client, such as VS Code or Cursor: `npx -y tisty-mcp` Also listed at: - [GitHub MCP Registry](https://github.com/mcp/rgdevment/tisty) - [npm](https://www.npmjs.com/package/tisty-mcp) - [Glama](https://glama.ai/mcp/servers/rgdevment/Tisty) - [MCP Market](https://mcpmarket.com/server/tisty) - [M8ven](https://m8ven.ai/mcp/rgdevment/tisty) The door is open when you install Tisty, and Settings › Assistants closes it with one click. While it is closed, everything an assistant tries is refused. It can: - Pick up where it left off: what moved since last time, who moved it, and the task it was on - Start, wrap up or brainstorm with one command in Claude Code or GitHub Copilot in VS Code, and mention a document with @ - Work any task the way it works a document, yours too: its description, page, title, list and open steps - Jot ideas on Brainstorm and sort them with you, marking old ones with a ◆ for you to delete or keep - Read a long document by its outline and one section - Compact a long document, which you undo or keep with one click - Mark a document that had its day, for you to delete, put away or keep - File a task with its steps, date and list - Add to a task's journal - Write documents, correct a passage and file them in folders - Read and search everything, the archive included - Say a task is done, or should not be done, yours too, for you to confirm It never: - Closes or deletes a task - Ticks a step of yours or finishes a task of yours - Moves a day you set - Deletes a document, or renames or empties a folder - Takes an idea off Brainstorm except by filing it or turning it into a task ## Share what you know with Folio When somebody else needs what you know — your PO, the QA joining the project, another team — Folio by Tisty hands them one of your documents as a link, whether they use Tisty or not. It is a service apart from the app, with a server of its own, and it keeps what you share without the key to read it. - The key travels in the link. Tisty encrypts the document before it leaves. The key goes in the link, after the #, which browsers never send, so Folio stores only bytes it cannot read. - Read in a browser, with no account. Whoever receives the link opens it in any browser. Nothing to install and nothing to sign up for. - Gone on its own. After the time without use you choose, 15 days at most, the link stops working and the copy is deleted. Your document stays in your Tisty, and you can stop sharing whenever you want. - It says who signed it. The page shows which key signed the document. Tisty's official documents are signed by rgdevment, shown as verified: that says who signed, not that the content is safe. - What should not be there gets reported. Anyone with the link can report what should not be there, from the same page where they read it. The app has no server and collects nothing; Folio does run one. It keeps the encrypted copy until it expires and counts reads without keeping who read. After a serious report or an order, a document stops being served and may be kept for up to 180 days, or as long as the order asks. To learn about Folio, visit its home: https://tisty.cl - [Terms of use](https://github.com/rgdevment/Folio-by-Tisty/blob/main/docs/TERMS.md) - [Privacy policy](https://github.com/rgdevment/Folio-by-Tisty/blob/main/docs/PRIVACY.md) - [Security policy](https://github.com/rgdevment/Folio-by-Tisty/blob/main/docs/SECURITY.md) - [How to share, in the docs](https://www.tisty.app/docs/documents/#sharing) ## Documentation - [Overview](https://www.tisty.app/docs/) - [Installation](https://www.tisty.app/docs/installation/): Tisty runs on Windows and macOS. There is no Linux build today and no mobile app. - [Keyboard shortcuts](https://www.tisty.app/docs/keyboard-shortcuts/): If another program already holds the capture shortcut, Tisty takes another one and tells you which in Settings. - [Tasks](https://www.tisty.app/docs/tasks/): Tisty keeps two kinds of things, and telling them apart is most of using it well. - [Natural language](https://www.tisty.app/docs/natural-language/): It is rules running on your machine: no model, no request, no cloud. It reads English and Spanish, following the language you chose. - [The spread and reminders](https://www.tisty.app/docs/spread-and-reminders/): A month button is there for looking, not for dealing: the same days laid out as a grid. Press a day and you land on it in the river. - [The archive](https://www.tisty.app/docs/archive/): It stops being a reminder of what to do and becomes the record of how something got solved. - [Assistants and MCP](https://www.tisty.app/docs/assistants-and-mcp/): Tisty is the memory your AI agent keeps between sessions. GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or any assistant that speaks MCP files its work here… - [What an assistant may do](https://www.tisty.app/docs/mcp-permissions/): What an assistant may do is deliberately small. Finishing, dropping and deleting are always yours. - [MCP tools reference](https://www.tisty.app/docs/mcp-tools/): The tools tisty mcp offers an assistant. The assistant picks them on its own; this list is so you know what it can reach. - [Documents](https://www.tisty.app/docs/documents/): Documents live beside the tasks, for reference material that has no date and never gets ticked. They are plain Markdown files, and search reads them too. - [The Markdown editor](https://www.tisty.app/docs/markdown-editor/): A document in Tisty is text of yours, kept as a plain .md file, that you write here and can read with anything else. - [Convert to and from Markdown](https://www.tisty.app/docs/convert-to-and-from-markdown/): Import the .docx from Import a document in the tree, or copy from Word and paste into a document. - [Pages, page breaks and PDF](https://www.tisty.app/docs/pages-and-pdf/): A page is a document like any other — the same .md file on disk, the same way out — with one difference: it says which document it belongs to. - [Diagrams](https://www.tisty.app/docs/diagrams/): How each kind of diagram is written is in the Tisty Markdown guide: diagrams, formulas and widgets. - [Widgets](https://www.tisty.app/docs/widgets/): A code block whose language is widget is drawn as a fixed view: HTML and CSS, and nothing else. - [Sync and backup](https://www.tisty.app/docs/sync-and-backup/): Tisty always works on this computer. To reach your work from another one, tell it where to leave the copies — and the rest it does on its own. - [Privacy](https://www.tisty.app/docs/privacy/): This page is a summary. The full policy, including the parts that are not reassuring, is PRIVACY.md, and the security reasoning is in SECURITY.md. - [Command line](https://www.tisty.app/docs/command-line/): Since 1.31, Tisty has no command line. The window is the way in, for your tasks and your documents alike. - [FAQ](https://www.tisty.app/docs/faq/): Answers to: Is Tisty free? Does it need an account or a connection? Where is my data kept? What happens to my notes if Tisty disappears? - [Every page in one file](https://www.tisty.app/llms-full.txt) ## Guides - [Markdown notes you can read even if the app disappears](https://rgdevment.dev/guides/notes-you-can-read-without-the-app/): Most note applications keep your writing in a format only they understand. How to find out what you would actually keep, and how to stop depending on it. - [Let an AI assistant read your notes without uploading them](https://rgdevment.dev/guides/let-an-assistant-read-your-notes/): The usual way to let a model work with your notes is to hand them over. There is another: leave them where they are and open a door. - [Give your AI coding agent memory that lasts between sessions](https://rgdevment.dev/guides/ai-agent-memory-between-sessions/): GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, Codex and Cursor forget everything when a session ends. Why Markdown files fall short, and a memory your agent reads by section. - [Share a document with someone who does not use Tisty](https://rgdevment.dev/guides/share-a-document-with-someone-without-tisty/): Sending a copy is easy; getting it back is not. How to hand someone a document to read, encrypted, with no account and an end of its own. ## Tisty Markdown Every word a Tisty document understands, one page each: CommonMark and GitHub's additions, plus the few of Tisty's own. For writing by hand, from a script or from an assistant. - [Tisty Markdown](https://markdown.tisty.app/) - [Its summary for assistants](https://markdown.tisty.app/llms.txt) - [The whole language in one file](https://markdown.tisty.app/llms-full.txt) - [Markdown de Tisty](https://markdown.tisty.app/es/) ## Questions - What happens to my notes if Tisty disappears? Nothing. Your documents are Markdown files any editor opens, and your tasks a log of JSON lines that cat, grep or jq read. Both stay on your disk. - How is it different from Obsidian, Notion or Todoist? Tisty keeps tasks and documents in one store and one search on your own disk, and finishing a task keeps everything it gathered instead of hiding it. Each of the others is stronger at something, and the comparison says where. - How do I give my AI agent a memory between sessions? Connect Tisty over MCP: GitHub Copilot in VS Code, Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and Gemini CLI take one line. The agent then starts each session by asking what moved since its last one and which tasks press, then opening the task it was on, files its work as tasks with steps and a journal, and keeps what it learns in documents, on your machine, behind a door you close with one click. - Does it replace CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md or a memory-bank folder? It sits beside them. Instructions that rarely move, such as how to build and the conventions, stay in the files your repository hands the assistant. Progress, decisions, what was ruled out and what is left go in Tisty, dated, searchable and read a section at a time. - Can I draw diagrams? Yes. A mermaid block draws it, and mind maps, database schemas, freeform diagrams with every Mermaid shape and class diagrams are also drawn by hand in a window of their own, saved as the same text, shown on the page as you drew them and exported as PNG, JPG or SVG. ## Optional - [Pricing](https://www.tisty.app/pricing/): free in full, no paid tier - [Support](https://rgdevment.dev/support/) - [News](https://www.tisty.app/news/): articles on what is new, newest first - [News feed](https://www.tisty.app/news.xml) - [What's new](https://www.tisty.app/changelog/): every release, newest first - [RSS feed](https://www.tisty.app/changelog.xml) - [Source code](https://github.com/rgdevment/Tisty) - [Tisty vs Notion, Obsidian, Todoist: notes, tasks, AI memory](https://www.tisty.app/compare/): what it does that Notion, Craft, Todoist, Logseq, Obsidian and Joplin do not - [Español](https://www.tisty.app/es/): La memoria de trabajo tuya y de tu agente de IA. - [Ayuda en español](https://www.tisty.app/es/ayuda/) - [More tools by rgdevment](https://rgdevment.dev/llms.txt)