Bamboo
Markdown notes with AI under your control
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Bamboo - Markdown notes with AI under your control

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Bamboo is a Markdown-first notes app for people who want a simple, portable workspace for ideas, documents, tasks, research, and personal knowledge. It combines a focused editor, collections, wiki links, web clipping, import/export, backups, and cross-device sync across iPhone, iPad, and Mac. AI is optional and controlled by you: connect supported providers, choose your model, and draft, rewrite, summarize, or brainstorm inside your notes.

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Hi Product Hunt! 👋 I built Bamboo because I wanted a notes app that feels simple and focused, but still powerful enough for long-term knowledge work. A lot of note-taking tools either lock your content into a proprietary system, feel too heavy, or add AI in a way that takes over the writing experience. Bamboo takes a different approach: your notes stay in Markdown, so they remain portable, readable, and easy to back up. You can write quick notes, long-form documents, tasks, research notes, meeting notes, reading highlights, and personal knowledge in one workspace. The AI features are optional and under your control. Bamboo Pro lets you connect supported AI providers, choose the model you want, and use AI to draft, rewrite, summarize, or brainstorm directly inside your notes. Bamboo is available on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, with Web Clipper support, collections, wiki links, import/export, backups, and cross-device sync. I’d love to hear how you manage your notes and knowledge today, and what you’d like Bamboo to support next. Thanks for checking it out!

I like that AI is optional and that I choose the model. One thing I could not find: can I connect a local model, like Ollama or LM Studio, or are only cloud providers supported? 

Maker

 Yes, local models are supported as long as they expose an OpenAI-compatible API.

In Bamboo, add a new provider with type “OpenAI Compatible”, then set the Base URL and model identifier manually. For example:

- Ollama:

- LM Studio: usually

One note: there is no special Ollama/LM Studio auto-discovery yet. It works through the generic OpenAI-compatible provider setup.

On iOS, “localhost” means the device itself. If the model is running on your Mac, use your Mac’s local network IP instead, for example .

 Thank you, that is perfect for me. Appreciate the clear steps, including the iOS localhost note :)

Johnny, keeping everything in plain text so my notes can move wherever I go is exactly the kind of quiet decision I appreciate. Notes that outlive the app they live in just feel right. The optional AI being there only when I want it is a lovely touch.

How does the cross-device sync actually work under the hood, and is my data ever routed through your servers or does it stay on my own iCloud/Drive setup?

Maker

  Bamboo syncs through iCloud, using your own Apple iCloud account. Your notes are not routed through our servers, and we don’t run a separate sync backend for your data. The goal is to keep sync native, private, and fully within your iCloud setup across iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

The wiki links and collections finally make my scattered notes feel like a real workspace instead of a graveyard of half-finished thoughts. Sync across Mac and iPad has been smooth so far, and the optional AI feels like a tool rather than the main event.

How does the sync actually work under the hood — is it your own backend or something like iCloud Drive, and is there any limit on the number of notes or storage before pricing kicks in?

Maker

 Bamboo uses iCloud for sync — not our own backend. Your notes are synced through your own Apple iCloud account, so they are not routed through Bamboo-owned servers.

There’s no Bamboo-specific limit on the number of notes or storage before pricing kicks in. Storage and sync capacity depend on your available iCloud storage. Bamboo’s pricing is for Pro features, not for charging you based on note count or storage usage.

The Markdown-first core plus import/export and wiki links is what makes this feel safe to actually commit to. When I export, do wiki links come out as portable [[note]]/relative-path Markdown that still resolves in another editor, or do they only work inside Bamboo? Same for web clippings, are they stored as clean Markdown or wrapped HTML?

Maker

 Notes and web clippings are stored as Markdown. Wiki links are preserved as [[Note Title]] style links in Markdown/TextBundle exports, so they remain readable and portable in editors that support wiki links. Bamboo does not yet rewrite them into relative links automatically. Web clippings are extracted into Markdown with source metadata, not saved as wrapped full-page HTML.

The wiki links work way smoother than expected, feels almost like Obsidian but lighter. Also appreciate that the AI is opt-in instead of shoved in my face.

Finally ditched Notion for something that just gets out of the way. The wiki links and markdown purity feel exactly how a notes app should in 2025.

Curious how the cross-device sync actually works under the hood, is it your own backend or something like iCloud Drive, and what happens to my notes if you ever shut down the service?

Maker

 Bamboo uses iCloud for cross-device sync, not our own backend. Your notes sync through your own Apple iCloud account, and they are not routed through Bamboo-owned servers.

You can also use Bamboo offline. Since Bamboo is not tied to a required backend service that we operate, your notes are not locked behind our servers. And because Bamboo is built around Markdown/plain text portability, your content remains exportable, so you can keep, back up, or move your notes if needed.

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