DayStream

A fast, native macOS app that turns a plain markdown vault (Logseq-compatible) into one endless, scrollable stream of daily notes. No cloud, no lock-in — just .md files on disk.

Author: Subhaditya Mukherjee

What it does

• Daily-notes stream — every dated note in journals/, newest first, with a month calendar sidebar for quick navigation. Notes for new days are created automatically (launch, Today button, calendar clicks, midnight rollover). One window, no tabs — re-opening just brings it back.
• Outliner editing — Enter continues bullets, Tab/Shift-Tab indent/outdent, /todo//doing//later//done slash commands, TODO-family markers with live syntax highlighting. Saving (⌘S or closing the editor) auto-formats: consistent tabs and - bullets, collapsed blank runs, and blank lines between different block kinds (text, lists, [[wikilink]] groups, code fences).
• Markdown code blocks — fenced ```/~~~ blocks render as monospaced cards (with the language label from the info string), stay byte-identical through auto-formatting, and get their own highlighting in the editor.
• Task timing — captured tasks record added:: timestamps; completing one stamps completed:: and the stream shows how long it took next to the finished task.
• Task syncing — checking a task rewrites matching tasks in every other note (journals and pages alike).
• Recurring tasks & deadlines — daily / weekly / once tasks (Settings → Recurring) seed themselves at the top of the due day's note, duplicate-checked so they never double up. Deadlines pin in the sidebar with countdowns and jump to their day.
• Carry forward — one click copies all unfinished tasks from previous days into today's note, preserving structure.
• [[Wikilinks]] & pages — typing [[ suggests existing page names; pages open as a rendered view with Logseq-style Linked References; date-shaped links ([[Aug 18th, 2026]]) jump to that day.
• Search — ⌘F opens the search bar with the caret ready; one bar across every journal and page, hits jump to their day or page, Esc closes.
• Keyboard-first — ⌘N appends a fresh todo to today and drops the caret in it; ⌘F finds; a system-wide shortcut (⌥T by default, recordable in Settings → Shortcuts) opens DayStream from any app with a new todo ready to type.
• Git backup — commit and push the vault to its git remote in one click (Settings → Advanced), or automatically on a daily/weekly schedule (off by default, weekly suggested).
• Image & file drops — dropped images are copied into assets/ and embedded with relative markdown links.
• Live on disk — external edits are picked up via file watching; the vault is safe to use from other tools at the same time.

A sample note

- TODO Ship the parser fix
  added:: 2026-08-19 09:12
  - [[Parser Notes]] has the failing cases
- DONE Reply to Alice about the review
  added:: 2026-08-19 08:40
  completed:: 2026-08-19 10:02

- [[Gym]] log — 45 min, easy pace

- Snippet from yesterday's debugging:
  ```sh
  git log --oneline -5
  ```

What the pieces do: TODO/DONE markers render with checkboxes; added:: / completed:: properties power the duration badge (1h 22m) next to finished tasks (these are automatically added); [[Parser Notes]] opens a page with every mention of it (Linked References); code fences render as monospaced cards; blank lines between different block kinds are kept by auto-format.

App screenshots

A bunch of things redacted for my privacy since I use this everyday ;p

Requirements

• macOS 15+
• Xcode 16+ (to build)

Building

The project is generated with XcodeGen from project.yml:

./scripts/build_and_install            # Debug build → ~/Applications → launch
./scripts/build_and_install release    # Release build
./scripts/build_and_install test       # Build + run unit tests

The script installs XcodeGen via Homebrew on first run if needed.

Vault layout

DayStream expects either:

• a vault root containing journals/ (a Logseq vault works as-is), or
• the journals/ directory itself.

Recognized journal filename formats: yyyy-MM-dd.md (current convention, used for new files), yyyy_MM_dd.md, and dd-MM-yyyy.md (legacy). Legacy formats can be migrated in one click: Settings → General → Maintenance → Migrate legacy filenames — originals are copied to backup/ first. There is also a standalone script:

./scripts/migrate_filenames /path/to/vault           # dry run
./scripts/migrate_filenames /path/to/vault --apply   # backup + rename

Documentation

• Full usage guide & FAQ (GitHub Pages): https://subhadityamukherjee.github.io/DayStream/
• This README renders on the repo home page.

Branching & releases

• develop — active development. CI (GitHub Actions) builds and runs tests on every push/PR.
• main — stable. Version tags (v1.0.0, …) live here; each tag builds a DayStream-macOS.zip and publishes a GitHub Release automatically.

Project structure

Sources/
  App/        App entry point, app model, settings, global quick add, setup
  Model/      Vault store, block tree parser, journal dates, carry-forward, wiki names
  Views/      Stream, day sections, block rows, calendar, pages, settings
  Editor/     AppKit-based markdown editor with outliner behaviors
Tests/        XCTest suites for parsing, carry-forward, wiki names, vault behavior
scripts/      build_and_install, migrate_filenames
docs/         GitHub Pages site source

See .agents/ and AGENTS.md for contributor/agent instructions.