Notepad — local-first, optional Google Drive sync

Notes save to your local disk by default. No login needed. Click Connect Google Drive any time to start also syncing to a Drive folder called "Notepad Sync".

Run it

npm install
node server.js

Open http://localhost:3000

That's it — try it right now, no Google setup required. Create notes, edit them, they save to data/notes/ on your machine.

Enable Google Drive sync (optional)

You can add credentials right from the app now — no .env editing required:

1. Go to https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/credentials
2. Create a project (or use an existing one) and enable the Google Drive API (APIs & Services > Library > search "Google Drive API" > Enable).
3. Create credentials → OAuth client ID → Application type: Web application.
4. Under "Authorized redirect URIs" add: http://localhost:3000/api/drive/callback
5. Copy the Client ID and Client Secret.
6. In the app, click Google Drive settings in the sidebar, paste them in, and click Save.
7. Click Connect Google Drive, sign in, approve access.
8. Click Sync all now to push any notes you wrote before connecting. From then on, every save also updates the file on Drive.

Credentials are saved to data/credentials.json on your machine (gitignored) — never sent anywhere except to Google during the OAuth flow. Multiple people running their own copy of this app just paste in their own client ID/secret.

If you'd rather set credentials as environment variables instead, .env.example still works as a fallback — copy it to .env and fill it in; anything saved via Settings in the UI takes priority over .env.

Notes uses the drive.file scope — the app can only see files it creates itself, never the rest of your Drive.

How data is stored

• data/index.json — metadata for all notes (name, last updated, and the Drive file ID once synced)
• data/notes/<id>.txt — the actual note content, one file per note
• data/drive-token.json — your Google OAuth token, created after you connect

Project structure

server.js       Express app, wires local + Drive routes together
localStore.js   Local-first storage (works with zero configuration)
drive.js        Google OAuth + Drive API calls (only touched when connected)
public/         Frontend (plain HTML/JS, no build step)