Log in
Toggle sidebar
FoldingText
Plain text that works as hard as you do.

One editor. Everything you need.

For Mac users who love plain text. FoldingText is the markdown text editor with productivity features. Unlike other editors, FoldingText does outlining, todo lists, and more.

FoldingText3

A ground-up reimagining of plain-text productivity on the Mac
Faster, More powerful
Unmistakably FoldingText
Requires macOS Tahoe (26) or later
Download Now
Plain Text

No lock-in. Your files are plain text, readable anywhere, forever.

Outlining

Fold and focus sections to tame even the longest documents.

Live Formatting

Markdown rendered in real time as you type. No preview pane needed.

To-do Lists

Manage tasks right inside your documents. Check them off as you go.

Extensible

Scripts, themes, and plugins. Make it yours.

Scheduling

Plan your day with built-in date handling and timeline views.

Writing

A distraction-free writing environment that gets out of your way.

Planning

Organize projects, brainstorm ideas, and structure your thinking.

Note-taking

Capture ideas fast in plain text. Search, tag, and find them later.

Loved by writers and makers

“An incredibly easy-to-use combination of plain text based tools.”

PW

Pierre Wizla

“It seems kind of crazy until you start to use it for a bit. Then, it seems like magic.”

PR

Patrick Rhone

“Mac Gems: FoldingText is a unique and versatile text editor.”

JB

Jeffery Battersby

FoldingText 3 is here

You probably remember FoldingText. Maybe you missed it.

The original was beloved, then quiet for years. In 2021, DoubleDog Software acquired the project. Five years later, FoldingText 3 ships — same philosophy, brand-new codebase, ready for the next decade.

It’s still a plain-text editor for people who think in outlines. Your document is plain text. Your structure is the indentation. Your tools get out of the way. What’s changed is everything underneath.

What’s new

A modern editor core. The whole CodeMirror 5 layer is gone. FoldingText 3 runs on CodeMirror 6, which means real incremental syntax, instant folds across 10k-line documents, and a render pipeline that doesn’t choke on huge documents or deeply wrapped lists.

Native macOS, native feel. Built in SwiftUI for macOS 26, with Liquid Glass throughout — translucent sidebars, morphing panels, the toolbar that gets out of your way when you’re typing and reappears when you’re not.

Modes you actually use. Todo, schedule, stopwatch, clock — each one a tiny language layered on top of plain markdown. Tag a list with @today and it filters. Drop @start(09:30) on a step and the schedule mode does the math.

Sync that respects the file. Settings and your installed extensions ride iCloud through CloudKit. Your documents stay where you put them — Dropbox, iCloud Drive, a folder on a USB stick, wherever. The editor doesn’t own your text.

A theme system that’s actually a theme system. ~80 color tokens, every one of them addressable. The built-in Theme Creator gives you a live preview while you tweak. Export it as a .ftplugin and it’s instantly shareable.

For developers

FoldingText has always been extensible, and 3 makes it official:

npm install -g @foldingtext3/sdk
create-plugin my-extension
create-theme my-theme

Plugins are vanilla JavaScript in .ftplugin folders — manifest, main.js, optional CSS. Hook into the editor’s lifecycle (addInit, addTreeChanged, addClockTick, addCommand) and ship. The full extension API, types, and skill files install with the SDK. Plugins distribute through extensions.foldingtext.com or anywhere else you can host a folder.

— DoubleDog Software