Free · Open source · Windows & Linux x64

Notepad++ for your terminal.

Q: How do I install Guinea Note on Windows?

With Node.js 18 or newer, run npx guinea-note notes.md, or npm install -g guinea-note to get the guinea command. Without Node.js, download guinea-0.1.3-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.zip from GitHub Releases, check its SHA-256, unpack it and add the folder to your PATH. A winget package, cmm-cmm.GuineaNote, is in review.

Q: How do I install Guinea Note on Linux?

Download guinea-0.1.1-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl.tar.gz and SHA256SUMS from GitHub Releases, check them with sha256sum --ignore-missing -c SHA256SUMS, unpack the archive and copy guinea into ~/.local/bin. The static binary runs on Debian 11 and 12, Ubuntu 22.04, Alpine 3.20 and other x64 distributions. Versions 0.1.2 and 0.1.3 were released for Windows only, so Linux stays on 0.1.1 for now.

Q: Can AI coding agents use Guinea Note?

Optionally. Start the editor with --agent to let a local agent read open documents through the guineanote-agent JSON CLI or the guineanote-mcp MCP server; add --agent-write to allow edits and saves. Agent access is off by default, and sensitive paths such as .env stay blocked unless you allow them.

Guinea Note is a free, open-source text editor for the terminal, written in Rust. Tabs, one Find/Replace panel with regular expressions, line tools and session restore — and saves that keep your bytes exactly as they were.

> npx guinea-note notes.md

Install Guinea NoteWindows · Linux · step by step Source on GitHub

MIT License No Rust needed No modes to learn English & Tiếng Việt

Guinea Note editing a Rust file in a terminal: tab bar, syntax colors, bookmarks in the gutter and the status bar.

The real editor, captured from a terminal.

Install

Up and running in a minute.

Pick how you want to install. Every option runs the same binary as the GitHub Release (same SHA-256), and none of them needs Rust.

npm / npx Windows x64

If you have Node.js, npm fetches the native editor for you. Nothing is compiled on your machine.

Check that Node.js is 18 or newer
```
> node --version
```
No Node.js? Use the Windows .zip instead — it needs nothing else.
Run Guinea Note once, without installing
```
> npx guinea-note notes.md
```

Or install the guinea command for good

> npm install -g guinea-note
> guinea notes.md

On a Mac? Guinea Note is not released for macOS. Releases target Windows x64 and Linux x64 only.

Windows .zip portable

One folder with guinea.exe. No installer, no administrator rights, no Visual C++ runtime.

Download the archive (PowerShell), or download it in the browser

PS> Invoke-WebRequest https://github.com/cmm-cmm/GuineaNote/releases/download/v0.1.3/guinea-0.1.3-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.zip -OutFile guinea.zip

Check the SHA-256 — it must print True

PS> Invoke-WebRequest https://github.com/cmm-cmm/GuineaNote/releases/download/v0.1.3/SHA256SUMS -OutFile SHA256SUMS
PS> (Get-FileHash guinea.zip -Algorithm SHA256).Hash -eq ((Select-String windows-msvc.zip SHA256SUMS).Line -split ' ')[0]

Unpack it

PS> Expand-Archive guinea.zip -DestinationPath "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\GuineaNote"

Add it to your PATH (current user only)

PS> [Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("Path", [Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable("Path", "User") + ";$env:LOCALAPPDATA\GuineaNote\guinea-0.1.3-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc", "User")

Then open a new terminal window so it sees the new PATH.

Start editing
```
PS> guinea notes.md
```

Linux x64 static binary

One static (musl) binary that runs on any x64 distribution, with no dependencies.

Download the archive and the checksums

$ curl -LO https://github.com/cmm-cmm/GuineaNote/releases/download/v0.1.1/guinea-0.1.1-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl.tar.gz
$ curl -LO https://github.com/cmm-cmm/GuineaNote/releases/download/v0.1.1/SHA256SUMS

Check them — the line must end in OK

$ sha256sum --ignore-missing -c SHA256SUMS

Unpack and install

$ tar -xzf guinea-0.1.1-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl.tar.gz
$ install -m 755 guinea-0.1.1-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl/guinea ~/.local/bin/

If guinea is not found afterwards, add ~/.local/bin to your PATH.

Start editing
```
$ guinea notes.md
```

Linux is on version 0.1.1. Versions 0.1.2 and 0.1.3 were released for Windows only while the Linux build checks are paused; the Linux archive moves forward when they resume.

winget in review

The Windows Package Manager package cmm-cmm.GuineaNote is waiting for review in microsoft/winget-pkgs.

Install, once the package is accepted
```
> winget install cmm-cmm.GuineaNote
```
Update later
```
> winget upgrade cmm-cmm.GuineaNote
```

Until the review is done these commands find nothing. Use npm or the Windows .zip today.

Cargo build from source

For Rust developers: Cargo builds a tagged release with your own toolchain (Rust 1.98 or newer; on Windows also the MSVC build tools).

Build and install the editor

$ cargo install --git https://github.com/cmm-cmm/GuineaNote --tag v0.1.3 --locked guineanote

Optional: Agent access (guineanote-agent, guineanote-mcp)

$ cargo install --git https://github.com/cmm-cmm/GuineaNote --tag v0.1.3 --locked guinea-agent

Which one should I pick?

Way	Best for	You need	Platforms	Version
npm / npx	Developers who already have Node.js	Node.js 18+	Windows x64	0.1.3
Windows .zip	Any Windows PC; offline, no admin rights	Nothing	Windows x64	0.1.3
Linux archive	Any x64 distribution, servers, containers	Nothing	Linux x64	0.1.1
winget	Windows users who manage apps with winget	winget	Windows x64	in review
Cargo	Rust developers building from source	Rust 1.98+	Windows, Linux	0.1.3

Check that it works: guinea --version prints guinea 0.1.3 (guinea 0.1.1 on Linux).

Quick start

Open. Edit. Save.

If you have used Notepad++, you already know most of it. There are no modes: you type, and the usual keys do the usual things.

Open a file

A missing path is created when you save. Several files open as tabs, and guinea alone reopens your last session.

$ guinea notes.md

Edit like Notepad++

Ctrl+S saves, Ctrl+F finds, Ctrl+Z undoes, Ctrl+D duplicates a line. Your BOM and line endings stay as they were.

Find any action

F2 lists every action with its key — or why it is unavailable right now. F1 shows the keyboard guide and Ctrl+Q quits.

A quick tour

Real screens, not mock-ups.

Every image is rendered from the editor running in a terminal.

Find/Replace panel with a regular expression, a $1 replacement and the list of matches. — **Find/Replace with regex**Match case, whole word and regular expressions with `$1` replacements (Ctrl+F, Alt+R).

Markdown source beside its formatted read-only preview with a task list and a callout. — **Split preview**Markdown beside its source, with a contents sidebar (F8).

The F2 action list filtered to line tools, each with its key. — **F2 action list**Every action, its key, or why it is unavailable right now.

Vietnamese interface with the tab manager open. — **Vietnamese interface**The tab manager (F12) in Vietnamese; switch with F10.

Features

The Notepad++ toolbox, in a terminal.

Fast on big files, careful with your bytes, and every action reachable from the keyboard.

Tabs and session restore

A one-row tab bar, a tab manager (F12 / Ctrl+P) to filter, switch, save and close tabs, and the next start reopens your files, carets and active tab.

Find/Replace with regex

One panel for both, linear-time regular expressions, $1 / ${name} replacements, Mark All. Replace all is one Undo step.

Line and text tools

Sort, remove duplicate or empty lines, trim trailing spaces, UPPER / lower / Title case, line comments, move and duplicate lines.

Your bytes, exactly

Strict UTF-8 with the BOM and LF / CRLF / mixed newlines kept as they were. Atomic saves, a conflict check when another program changed the file, and invalid encodings, binary files and symlinks refused rather than damaged.

Crash recovery

Unsaved tabs are checkpointed about once a second into a private store and come back as drafts after a crash.

Readable previews

Markdown, JSON, CSV/TSV, XML, TOML, YAML, INI/ENV and notebooks, side by side or in a linked read-only tab (F8).

Fast on big files

Long lines and big tools run in the background; keys typed meanwhile are queued, never dropped. Every interaction over 50 ms is investigated before a release.

Keyboard first

Every mouse action has a key, and the labels on screen come from the keymap itself. The mouse is optional.

English and Tiếng Việt

The whole interface in both languages: --language vi, or F10 Settings, which remembers your choice.

Opt-in Agent access

A JSON CLI and an MCP server let a local coding agent read and edit open documents — only when you start with --agent.

Keyboard essentials

The keys you already know.

The full keymap, terminal conflicts and alternatives are in KEYBOARD_SHORTCUTS.md.

SaveCtrlS

Open fileCtrlO

New tabCtrlN

Close tab / quitCtrlW/CtrlQ

Undo / redoCtrlZ/CtrlY

Find / ReplaceCtrlF/CtrlH

Next matchF3

Go to lineCtrlG

Duplicate / move lineCtrlD/Alt↑↓

Toggle bookmarkCtrlF2

Tab managerF12

PreviewF8

Keyboard guideF1

Every actionF2

Settings (language)F10

Copy / pasteCtrlC/CtrlV

Previous / next tabF6/F7

Close dialog, cancelEsc

Platforms

Where it runs, honestly.

A platform is called supported only after the editor has run natively on it.

Platform	Status
Windows x64 (Windows Terminal, conhost)	Released, 0.1.3. Verified on Windows 11 with ConPTY, and by CI on an elevated runner.
Linux x64 (static musl)	Released, 0.1.1. Verified in a Debian 12 container; runs on Debian 11/12, Ubuntu 22.04 and Alpine 3.20. CI runs the tests on Linux for every change.
macOS	Not released and not tested.
ARM64, real Linux terminal emulators, SSH and tmux	Not verified yet.

FAQ

Questions, answered.

What is Guinea Note?

Guinea Note is a free, open-source text editor for the terminal, written in Rust. It works like Notepad++: tabs, one Find/Replace panel with regular expressions, line tools, bookmarks and session restore, with no modes to learn. The command is guinea.

How do I install Guinea Note on Windows?

With Node.js 18 or newer, run npx guinea-note notes.md, or npm install -g guinea-note to get the guinea command. Without Node.js, download guinea-0.1.3-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.zip from GitHub Releases, check its SHA-256, unpack it and add the folder to your PATH (step by step). A winget package, cmm-cmm.GuineaNote, is in review.

How do I install Guinea Note on Linux?

Download guinea-0.1.1-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl.tar.gz and SHA256SUMS from GitHub Releases, check them with sha256sum --ignore-missing -c SHA256SUMS, unpack the archive and copy guinea into ~/.local/bin (step by step). The static binary runs on Debian 11 and 12, Ubuntu 22.04, Alpine 3.20 and other x64 distributions. Versions 0.1.2 and 0.1.3 were released for Windows only, so Linux stays on 0.1.1 for now.

Do I need Rust or Node.js to use Guinea Note?

No. The release archives are self-contained native binaries. Node.js 18 or newer is needed only to install through npm, and Rust 1.98 or newer only to build from source with cargo install.

Is Guinea Note free?

Yes. Guinea Note is free and open source under the MIT License. The source code is on GitHub at github.com/cmm-cmm/GuineaNote.

Does Guinea Note change my file's encoding or line endings?

No. Guinea Note edits UTF-8 and keeps the BOM and the original LF, CRLF or mixed newlines; bytes you did not edit are saved exactly as they were. Saves are atomic and stop with a conflict if another program changed the file. Other encodings, binary files and symlinked files are refused rather than damaged.

How is Guinea Note different from Nano or Vim?

Guinea Note is not modal: you type text directly and use familiar keys such as Ctrl+S, Ctrl+F, Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Q. It is modeled on Notepad++ rather than Nano or Vim, with tabs, a Find/Replace panel and line tools. F2 lists every action with its key.

Does Guinea Note run on macOS?

No. Releases target Windows x64 and Linux x64 only; macOS is not released and not tested.

Can I use Guinea Note in Vietnamese?

Yes. The interface is available in English and Vietnamese. Start it with guinea --language vi, or switch the language in Settings (F10); the choice is remembered.

Can AI coding agents use Guinea Note?

Optionally. Start the editor with --agent to let a local agent read open documents through the guineanote-agent JSON CLI or the guineanote-mcp MCP server; add --agent-write to allow edits and saves. Agent access is off by default, and sensitive paths such as .env stay blocked unless you allow them.

Try it in one line.

Windows with Node.js 18+. Other setups: see all install options.

> npx guinea-note notes.md

All releases Read the full guide

Version 0.1.3 · released 15 November 2026 · page updated 15 November 2026