Blog·2 October 2026

Lede or Skein: one file or a folder

Two free Mac apps from me, one editor between them. Here is how to tell which one you want, and where each one stops.

I make two free Markdown apps for the Mac, and they look alike on purpose. Skein is the older one. Lede came later and uses the same editor. People reasonably ask which to install, and the answer is one question: do you have a file, or a folder?

The short answer

If you open a Markdown file now and then, such as a README, a report, or something an AI tool wrote, you want Lede. If you keep a folder of notes that link to each other and you want to find them again, you want Skein.

What they share

The editor. In both, a heading reads as a heading and bold reads as bold, and the markers hide by what the line says rather than by where your cursor is, so the text does not move under you as you type. Both have a Read view that draws tables, callouts and maths, and both have Focus and typewriter modes.

Both are native Mac apps written in AppKit, with no Electron. Both are free, with no account. Both leave your files as plain Markdown where you keep them, so nothing is locked into either app.

What Lede is

One document in one window. Double-click a .md file and it opens, edited where it lives, with no import and no library. A file opened and saved without an edit comes back byte for byte unchanged. It reloads a file that another app or an AI tool is still writing, and it previews in Finder with Space. I wrote about reading a file while an AI is still writing it separately.

Lede in Read mode: a ruled table of the faces, a Swift code block, a Note and a Tip callout as tinted panels, and inline and display maths — Lede: one file in one window. No sidebar, no folder tree, no backlinks, on purpose.

What Skein adds

Everything that comes from having a folder. Type [[ and complete a link to another note, and every note knows what points at it. One search covers titles and text across the whole folder. A local graph shows the neighbourhood around the note you are reading. Canvas boards hold notes, pictures and PDFs, joined by labelled arrows, and are saved as JSON Canvas. There are tabs, tags and properties, and version history that snapshots every save and stores it outside your folder.

A book chapter open in Skein with four tabs along the top, the active one marked by a single accent line: the vault's folders on the left, the note's properties as a table above the text, and the inspector on the right listing the nine notes that link to this one — Skein: the folder on the left, the note in the middle, and the notes that link to it on the right.

Skein also has an iPhone app that works over a folder, which Lede will never have. A one-file editor with a sync engine would be a different app.

Which one

You want to	Use
Read or tidy a Markdown file you were given	Lede
Watch a file that is still being written	Lede
Keep notes that link to each other and search them all	Skein
See what points at a note, or draw a canvas board	Skein
Keep a history of every save	Skein
Have your notes on your iPhone	Skein
Lay out a page and end with a Word file	Verso

Can I use both

Nothing stops you. A note in a Skein folder is an ordinary .md file, so you can open it in Lede from Finder, and a file you first met in Lede can move into a Skein folder later. I have not tested having the same file open in both at once, so I will not promise how that behaves.

Where each one stops

Lede has no vault, no links between notes, no search across a folder, no sync, and no page layout. Skein has no plugins at all, which is a trade I have argued for and which will feel bare if your workflow depends on community plugins. Neither exports a Word file. That is Verso.

Try one

Both are free and take a minute to try. Get Lede if you have a file open right now, or see what is in Skein if you have a folder. If you pick the wrong one, the files are still yours, and you can open them in the other.