4.2 KiB
Faro
A lighthouse for your knowledge. Local-first snippet and knowledge management for developers.
Faro is a desktop app for capturing, organizing, and retrieving developer snippets: code, CLI commands, and notes. The core philosophy is dump-first, organize-later: zero friction on capture, smart retrieval when you need it.
Built with Tauri v2 + Svelte 5.
Philosophy
- Dump first, organize later. Capture friction kills the habit. Retrieval is the product.
- Local-first. Your snippets live on your machine. No accounts, no cloud, no sync.
- Intentional minimalism. Every feature cut is a feature that doesn't need maintaining.
Features
Quick Note
Global hotkey (Ctrl+Shift+Space by default) opens a focused floating window — anywhere, anytime, even when Faro's main window isn't focused. Paste your snippet, add a title and tags, save. It auto-detects the content type and language on save. No mode-switching, no navigation, no friction.
Full-Text Search
FTS5-powered search across all snippet titles and content. Results update as you type.
Auto Content Detection
highlight.js inspects content on save and automatically classifies it as code, cli, or text, plus detects the specific language (Rust, Python, bash, SQL, etc.) and creates system tags. You can override the type manually.
Three-Panel Layout
Left panel — timeline navigation, tag browser with inline filter, new snippet button, settings access.
Center panel — full-text search bar, snippet list with type icons and 2-line previews, tag chips (user tags and auto-detected language tags are visually distinct).
Right panel — snippet content, directly editable in place. Explicit save keeps accidental edits from destroying data.
Tag System
Two tag sources coexist on each snippet:
- User tags: whatever you type in the tags field
- System tags: auto-detected language labels (e.g.
rust,python,bash)
Both are browsable from the left panel. Clicking a tag filters the center panel to matching snippets.
Themes
Dark (default), Light, and Nord.
Keyboard Shortcuts
Main Window
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
Ctrl+F |
Focus the search bar |
Ctrl+N |
New snippet |
↑ / ↓ |
Navigate the snippet list |
Quick Note Window
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
Ctrl+Enter |
Save snippet |
Esc |
Discard and close |
Global (system-wide)
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
Ctrl+Shift+Space |
Open Quick Note (configurable) |
 |
Settings
Open via the gear icon in the bottom-left corner.
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Global hotkey | The system-wide shortcut that opens Quick Note. Default: Ctrl+Shift+Space. |
| Editor font size | Code area font size, 10–24px. Previews live. |
| Quick Note stay open | When enabled, Quick Note clears and stays open after saving instead of closing. |
| Theme | Dark / Light / Nord. Previews live before saving. |
Tech Stack
| Layer | Technology |
|---|---|
| Backend | Rust (Tauri v2) |
| Frontend | Svelte 5 + TypeScript |
| Database | SQLite via rusqlite + FTS5 |
| Language detection | highlight.js |
| UI font | IBM Plex Sans |
| Editor font | JetBrains Mono |
Platform targets: Windows (primary), Linux (secondary). No macOS.
Building from Source
Prerequisites:
- Rust toolchain (stable)
- Node.js 18+
- pnpm (
npm install -g pnpm) - Tauri v2 system dependencies — see the Tauri prerequisites guide for your OS
Install dependencies:
pnpm install
Run in development:
pnpm tauri dev
Build a release binary:
pnpm tauri build
The installer/binary lands in src-tauri/target/release/bundle/.
Name & Identity
Faro — Spanish/Portuguese for lighthouse. A reference tool that helps you find things. The purple accent aligns with dusk and lighthouse imagery, which is either a happy accident or destiny, depending on how dramatic you're feeling.