Spaghetti carbonara
- Rating
- 5
- Time
- 25 min
- Cuisine
- Italian
- Status
- Cooked
Waffle, the everything-library
Your everything-library, on your own device.
Recipes, trips, plants, clothes, books, links, and notes, together in ordinary folders, each shown the way it deserves. No account needed. Everything stays on your device, as ordinary files you own.
Free to use. For Mac, the web, iPhone, Android, and your browser.
01 — What it is
One place for the things you keep.
Trip ideas, recipes, a wardrobe, receipts, reading, budgets. In Waffle they are all the same kind of thing: an item in a folder, with a picture and a few properties you can sort and filter.
-
Pictures first.
Everything gets a thumbnail and can carry properties like a date, a price, a place, or a rating. Notes, links, and files mix, sort, and filter together instead of living in separate apps.
-
Views when you want them.
Waffle picks a sensible look for each folder from what is in it, and offers quiet suggestions, like a trip planner for a trip folder. You accept or ignore them. Nothing changes until you say so.
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Files underneath.
A Waffle library is a normal folder. Notes are Markdown files; everything else is the file itself. Open it in Finder, in Obsidian, or in any editor, with or without Waffle running.
02 — Views
One folder. Every way of seeing it.
A folder of places wants a map. A folder of bookings wants a calendar. A budget wants a table. Waffle lets one folder have several named views, and you switch between them with a tab. Below, the same thirteen notes from a Kyoto trip folder.
A diagram drawn from the sample library’s Kyoto trip folder: its photos, dates, categories, and coordinates. The screenshots beside it are the app itself.
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Masonry
It opens as pictures.
Waffle chooses a layout from what a folder holds. A folder full of photos opens as a wall; one full of documents and links opens as a list. Nothing is written until you change it.
In the app: the whole library, as Masonry. -
Table
A table when you need one.
Every property becomes a column you can sort and filter: dates, ratings, status, prices. Edit a cell and the note’s own file changes.
In the app: the Recipes folder, as a Table. -
Map
Places land on a map.
Items with a location land on a map, so a trip folder becomes the trip.
In the app: the Kyoto trip, as a Map. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors, OpenMapTiles; tiles by OpenFreeMap. -
Calendar
Dates land on a calendar.
Bookings, plans, and anything else with a date. Waffle noticed this folder had dates and suggested the view.
In the app: the Kyoto trip, as a suggested Calendar.
Eight layouts, and a folder can keep as many named views as you like. Views are saved as .base files next to your notes, the same file format Obsidian’s Bases uses, so they travel with the folder.
- Masonry
- Grid
- List
- Table
- Calendar
- Timeline
- Itinerary
- Map
03 — Your files
Your files, visibly.
On a Mac, your Waffle library is a folder you can see. Every card on the wall is a file in it: a note is Markdown with its properties at the top, a photo is just the photo.
- attachments
- Home ideas
- Kyoto trip
- Plants
- Reading
- Recipes
- Wardrobe
- Beef pho.md
- Butter croissants.md
- Buttermilk pancakes.md
- Country sourdough.md
- Gnocchi with sage butter.md
- Lemon tart.md
- Recipes.base
- Rosemary focaccia.md
- Seafood paella.md
- Shakshuka.md
- Spaghetti carbonara.md
- Tacos al pastor.md
- Thai green curry.md
- Tiramisu.md
- Tonkotsu ramen.md
Spaghetti carbonara.md
---
rating: 5
time_min: 25
cuisine: Italian
course: Main
status: Cooked
cooked: 2026-09-14
tags: [weeknight]
---
![[attachments/carbonara.jpg]]
Guanciale, pecorino, egg yolks, lots
of black pepper. No cream. Toss off
the heat with a splash of pasta water.Recipes.base holds its Table view.
- Open it anywhere. In Finder, in Obsidian, or in any editor, with or without Waffle running. What Waffle writes stays readable in Obsidian.
- No account in between. Waffle works fully on one device, forever, without an account.
- Nothing hidden from you. Waffle keeps its own bookkeeping in a hidden
.wafflefolder inside the library.
04 — Capture
Save from anywhere.
- Browser
From your browser. The Waffle extension for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari saves the page you are on and suggests the folder it belongs in.
- Phone
From your phone. Share a link, a photo, or a file to Waffle from any app’s share sheet.
- Mac
From your Mac. Quick Add (⌘⇧A) opens a capture window from anywhere.
- In Waffle
Inside Waffle. One + button for a new note, a link, files, or a batch of photos.
What you capture goes into your own library. It does not pass through a Waffle server on the way.
05 — Sync and sharing
Your devices, and the people you choose.
Your library lives on your own device, and Waffle works fully there, forever, without an account. If you want it on more devices, or want to share a folder, two optional features do that, and both are end-to-end encrypted.
Personal Sync
Keep your library in step across your Mac, your phone, and the web. Your files stay on your devices; what travels between them is encrypted on your device first, with keys only your devices hold.
Shared folders
Invite people to a folder, like a trip you are planning together. Its contents are encrypted for the people you invite. Our servers only ever hold them encrypted.
A paid add-on
Sync is optional and paid; everything else is free. Pricing will be announced at launch.
06 — Privacy
Private because of how it is built.
No account needed
Using Waffle on one device never needs an account. Signing in, when you want Sync, does not upload anything by itself; syncing and sharing are separate steps you take on purpose.
No tracking in the app
No analytics, no telemetry, no crash reporting, no advertising. This website doesn't track you either: no cookies, no analytics, no third-party requests.
Your library stays on your device
Waffle keeps your library on your own device. If you turn on Sync or share a folder, anything that leaves your device is encrypted there first, and the keys stay on your devices. Our servers only ever hold your content encrypted, and cannot read it.
Deleting is not destroying
When you delete something, Waffle moves it to a Trash folder inside your own library. The app never permanently erases your files.
The fine print. Encryption keeps what you sync and share unreadable to our servers. It cannot guarantee that a server always shows your devices every latest change, so a misbehaving server could hold back updates, though it still could not read them. Removing someone from a shared folder stops them seeing new changes; it cannot take back what they already downloaded. The full account is in the privacy policy.
07 — Get Waffle
Pick your device.
Start with the Mac app if you can: it keeps your library as a real folder on your Mac.
Mac
The desktop app. Your library is a real folder you can see, back up, and open in other apps. Requires a Mac with Apple silicon.
Web
Try Waffle and capture on the go in a modern browser. A browser keeps its library in its own storage, which you can't open in Finder and the browser may clear, so keep your main library in the Mac app.
iPhone and Android
Browse your library and save from any app's share sheet.
Available at launch
Browser extension
Save the page you are on to Waffle, for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.
Available at launch
08 — FAQ
Questions
Do I need an account?
No. Waffle on one device works without an account, permanently. You only sign in to use Sync or shared folders.
Is it compatible with Obsidian?
Yes. Notes are plain Markdown files with YAML frontmatter, and a saved link is a Markdown note too. You can open an existing Obsidian vault in Waffle, and what Waffle writes stays readable in Obsidian. Saved views are .base files, the format Obsidian's Bases uses.
Waffle keeps its own bookkeeping in a hidden .waffle folder inside the library.
What does Sync cost?
Waffle itself is free. Sync is an optional paid add-on, and its pricing will be announced at launch.
Can Waffle read my data?
On your own device, your library never leaves it unless you choose to sync or share. With Sync and shared folders, content is encrypted on your devices and the keys stay there, so the storage provider cannot read it on its own.
The exact claim, and what it does not cover, is spelled out in the privacy section and the privacy policy.
Where is my Sync data stored?
In the United States. Only encrypted data is stored there.
Is there a Windows or Linux app?
Not at launch. The desktop app is for Macs with Apple silicon; on other computers you can use the web app.
How do I get help?
Email support@waffle.page. The same address takes security reports.