Freewrite
https://github.com/farzaa/freewrite- Category
- Productivity
- Rank
- No. 784Tools index
Previous survey · No. 768 ·
- Pricing
- Open Source
- Type
- APP
- Builder
- farzaa
- GitHub
- 1.4k stars
- Latest release
- v1.5
- Date
About
Minimalist distraction-free writing app for macOS — built by Farza Majeed to just write, no formatting.
What it does
Freewrite turns writing into a timed, forward-moving exercise. It opens ready for typing, saves entries automatically, and can disable backspace to discourage editing mid-thought. A history sidebar collects text and video journals, while local transcription makes recorded thoughts searchable and reusable.
Why it's ranked here
Its strongest idea is constraint, not feature breadth. Timers, hidden controls, automatic saving, and optional backspace blocking reinforce continuous writing. Local plain-text storage and open source code add practical ownership. Video journaling and transcription extend the same thinking method without turning the app into a general document editor.
What's good
Entries remain accessible as plain UTF-8 text on the user's machine. Video recordings receive thumbnails and optional local speech transcripts. The app also includes adjustable session lengths, fullscreen focus, several font choices, dark mode, PDF export, and chronological history. Camera, microphone, and speech permissions are checked before recording starts.
Tradeoffs
This is intentionally poor at conventional note-taking and polished document production. It omits spellcheck and presents no formatting workflow. Video recording requires camera, microphone, and speech-recognition permission. The Chat action passes an entry to ChatGPT or Claude through a query parameter, so AI reflection is not an embedded local model.
How to use it well
Use it for short planning sessions, emotional processing, idea exploration, or spoken video logs. Pick one prompt, start a timer, enter fullscreen, and keep moving without corrections. Keep another editor or knowledge system for structured notes, collaboration, formatting, and finished documents.
Technical notes+
freewrite/ContentView.swift concentrates entry state, autosaving, history, export, timer, theme, AI prompt construction, and video coordination in one large SwiftUI view. Text entries live under ~/Documents/Freewrite/ as UUID-and-timestamp-named Markdown files. Video assets use per-entry directories containing a MOV file, thumbnail.jpg, and optional transcript.md. freewrite/VideoRecordingView.swift uses AVFoundation and Speech, with separate session and speech queues; recording setup requires camera, audio, and speech authorization. freewrite/VideoPlayerView.swift wraps AVPlayerView and persists mute and volume preferences. freewrite/freewrite.entitlements enables the app sandbox plus camera, audio input, speech recognition, and user-selected file access. freewriteTests/freewriteTests.swift and the UI test files contain generated example tests rather than meaningful behavioral coverage.
Observed
- License
- MIT License; bundled Lato font uses the SIL Open Font License 1.1.
- Primary language
- Swift 5.0 with SwiftUI, AppKit, AVFoundation, AVKit, PDFKit, and Speech.
- Platform
- Native macOS application with a documented minimum of macOS 14.0.
- Install surface
- A built application is offered through the project website; source builds use Xcode.
- Interface
- Desktop graphical application. No CLI, reusable library, MCP server, or public API is shown.
- Storage
- Text, video, thumbnails, and transcripts are stored locally under the user's Documents directory.
- Test structure
- Unit and UI test targets exist, but the supplied tests are generated placeholders.
Read from README.md, freewrite/ContentView.swift, freewrite/freewriteApp.swift, freewrite/VideoPlayerView.swift, freewrite/VideoRecordingView.swift, freewriteTests/freewriteTests.swift, freewriteUITests/freewriteUITests.swift, freewriteUITests/freewriteUITestsLaunchTests.swift, LICENSE, AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md, freewrite/default.md, freewrite/freewrite.entitlements, freewrite.xcodeproj/project.pbxproj, freewrite/fonts/OFL.txt.
What it can do
Provide distraction-free writing environment
User opens the application → Clean, minimalist writing interface
Create plain text documents
User typing → Unformatted text document
Save written content
Text content → Saved document file
Block formatting options
User attempts to format text → Text remains unformatted
Enable focused writing sessions
User begins writing → Distraction-free writing session
Tags
Tech Stack
Comments (0)
No comments yet
Editorially curated, with community endorsements as a secondary signal. Corrections welcome.