Your Second Brain,
for you and your AI.
EMDEE keeps your notes in plain markdown, and lets Claude, ChatGPT, and other AI agents extend your thinking safely. Version-guarded writes. Multi-agent aware. Yours forever.
Free forever for local use · Cloud sync + team sharing coming soon
What is EMDEE?
.md is right there in the name. Everything you write is a plain markdown file.Your knowledge as plain markdown files in a folder you own — no proprietary format, no lock-in. A built-in MCP server lets Claude, ChatGPT, and other AI agents extend it safely: every write is version-guarded, multi-doc operations are atomic, and the graph structure is enforced by the tools.
Think like the greats — with the load lifted.
Einstein, Da Vinci, Feynman, Kobe. None of them held it all in their heads — they externalised the load so their first brain was free to do the actual work.
“Never memorise something that you can look up.”
“Learning never exhausts the mind.”
“What I cannot create, I do not understand.”
“The most important thing is to inspire people to be great in whatever they want to do.”
EMDEE is that externalised load — for the era where your AI reads it alongside you.
How EMDEE compares
| EMDEE | Obsidian | Notion | Logseq | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plain markdown files | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Built-in MCP server for AI | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Multi-agent safe writes (OCC) | ✓ | — | — | — |
| Local-first (offline) | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Web renderer + graph view | ✓ | ✓ | partial | ✓ |
| Free tier | local + npm free | full app free | limited | full app free |
| Open source | planned | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
Built for AI-native knowledge work
MCP-native
Every read and write tool is exposed to Claude, ChatGPT, and other agents via the Model Context Protocol.
Multi-agent safe
Universal version-guards prevent two agents from silently overwriting each other.
Local-first
Your Second Brain lives on your disk as plain markdown. Cloud sync is optional.
Portable
No proprietary format, no lock-in. Export as a zip of .md files any time.
Three ways to start
Cloud (fastest)
Sign in with Google. Hosted Second Brain instantly. Your agents connect via MCP HTTP. Free tier includes local + limited cloud.
npm CLI (local)
Install the emdee CLI. Full MCP server on your machine. Runs entirely offline. Free forever.
Desktop app
Native macOS / Windows / Linux app with graph view, editor, and offline sync. Coming soon.
Common questions
How is EMDEE different from Obsidian?
Obsidian is optimised for humans typing. EMDEE adds a built-in MCP server + version-guarded writes so AI agents can extend your Second Brain safely. Use both if you want.
Do I need to sign up?
No. The npm CLI runs fully offline with no account. Sign-in only unlocks the cloud vault, sync, and sharing.
Which AI agents work with EMDEE?
Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, Continue.dev, and any MCP-compatible client. ChatGPT via connectors.
Is my data safe?
Local mode: your data never leaves your disk. Cloud mode: per-user namespace on Supabase, only you (and explicit shares) can read it. Export as a zip of .md files any time.
Is EMDEE open source?
Open-sourcing the primitives is on the roadmap. The npm package and CLI are already public. See the GitHub for the current source.