| note.md | Roam Research | |
|---|---|---|
| Where your notes live | Plain markdown files on your disk | Proprietary graph database in the cloud |
| Price | Free, open source | From $15/month |
| Daily notes & outlines | Yes — .note.md outline files | Yes — where the pattern was born |
| [[Wikilinks]] & backlinks | Yes, one namespace across the vault | Yes, plus block references and queries |
| Block-level citations | Yes — ((file#b-xxxxxx)), edit-resilient | Yes — block refs, deeper (embeds, queries) |
| AI agents | First-class: plain files + AGENTS.md, agents read your annotations | None built in |
| Reading & annotating AI documents | Core workflow — sidecar .note.md | Not a focus |
| Development pace | Active | Famously quiet since ~2021 |
| Offline / longevity | Files readable in any editor, forever | Export required; app needed to read the graph |
The honest take
Roam invented the daily-notes-plus-backlinks way of thinking in 2020, and credit where due: if you use block references, embeds, and datalog queries heavily, Roam still goes deeper than note.md does. Nothing here pretends otherwise.
But Roam made one bet that aged badly: your graph lives in their database, behind their subscription, at the mercy of their roadmap — and that roadmap has been quiet for years. Meanwhile the world flipped. Agents write markdown by the megabyte, and the tools that matter now are the ones that read and write plain files. A browser-tab graph can't be your agent's memory. A folder of markdown can.
note.md keeps what made Roam great — the outline editor, daily notes, one big [[namespace]], instant search — and rebuilds it on files. Your vault opens in any editor today and in fifty years. And it adds the thing Roam never had: your agents as first-class citizens, reading your annotations before they write another word.
Migrating from Roam
Export your graph as JSON (Roam supports full export), and note.md's Roam importer (on the roadmap, converter available) turns pages into wikipage/ outline notes and daily notes into dailynote/yyyy/yyyy-MM-dd.note.md — rewriting date links like [[July 10th, 2026]] to the canonical [[2026-07-10]] and reporting any broken links. Your three years of notes become three years of agent-searchable context.
Choose one
- Stay with Roam if block references, embeds, and queries are load-bearing in your workflow, and you're comfortable with the subscription and the pace.
- Choose note.md if you want Roam's writing feel on files you own, your notes to double as agent memory, and reading AI output to be a first-class act.
FAQ
Can I import my Roam Research graph into note.md?
Yes — export your graph as JSON from Roam, and convert pages to wiki notes and daily notes to dated outline files. Date links are rewritten to the canonical [[yyyy-MM-dd]] form and broken links are reported.
Does note.md have block references like Roam?
note.md has stable block IDs: every top-level block gets a b-xxxxxx id you can cite from anywhere as ((file#b-xxxxxx)). It covers citation and navigation; Roam-style transclusion/embeds are not a goal.
Is note.md free?
Yes. note.md is free and open source (Apache-2.0). Roam Research starts at $15/month.