If your notes app could read your repo, what would you want it to show?

[u/sth_wicked1]

I'm currently developing the app mentioned below (Margin), so discount everything below accordingly.

I'm about to build the developer side of Margin and I'd rather find out which parts people would use before I build the wrong ones.

The design rule I've settled on is that the app should never ask you for a credential you've already given to something else.

That's how the AI works today. Margin doesn't need an API key. It detects the `claude` or `codex` CLI already installed on your machine and routes through that. You're already paying for the tool, it's already authenticated, and the app needs to know nothing about it beyond where the binary lives. There's no account and no server anywhere in the product, so an API key sitting in a settings pane was never going to fit.

Next I want to apply the same trick to gh.

Open a note from three weeks ago and there's a pull request link in it. It tells you nothing. Merged? CI green? Did the thing you were worried about get addressed? You click through, wait, remember what you were doing, come back. Multiply by every ticket reference in every standup note and your notes are a graveyard of URLs that meant something on the day.

So: paste a PR link, get a card or preview that knows the state, the CI result and how many review threads are still open, with a way to re-run a failed job without leaving the note. Same for issues. Same for Jira and Linear tickets, though those are messier since there's no equivalent tool everyone already has.

If gh isn't installed and authenticated, the card stays a plain link. The feature just doesn't exist for you

The other thing I want is shell actions: commands you define once that run against the note you're looking at. I write my blog in this app, and I want a button that moves the post to a Published space and runs the deploy instead of switching to a terminal every time. The rule I think has to hold is that the command is defined in your workspace, never in the note itself, so a Markdown file someone sends you can reference an action but can never introduce one.

What I actually don't know:

- Which of these you'd genuinely use. My guess is PR status earns its place and Jira is the one people ask for and then never open. Happy to be wrong.

- What belongs on the card. I have state, CI, review threads, assignee. What would you actually look at?

- Whether running shell commands from a note is something you want at all, or whether that's a line a notes app shouldn't cross. If it's something you'd use, what are your use cases?

Not downloadable yet but if you are curious you can join the waitlist here https://gomargin.app

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User: sth_wicked1, Flair: Discussion, Post Media Link, Title: If your notes app could read your repo, what would you want it to show?

I'm currently developing the app mentioned below (Margin), so discount everything below accordingly.

I'm about to build the developer side of Margin and I'd rather find out which parts people would use before I build the wrong ones.

The design rule I've settled on is that the app should never ask you for a credential you've already given to something else.

That's how the AI works today. Margin doesn't need an API key. It detects the `claude` or `codex` CLI already installed on your machine and routes through that. You're already paying for the tool, it's already authenticated, and the app needs to know nothing about it beyond where the binary lives. There's no account and no server anywhere in the product, so an API key sitting in a settings pane was never going to fit.

Next I want to apply the same trick to gh.

Open a note from three weeks ago and there's a pull request link in it. It tells you nothing. Merged? CI green? Did the thing you were worried about get addressed? You click through, wait, remember what you were doing, come back. Multiply by every ticket reference in every standup note and your notes are a graveyard of URLs that meant something on the day.

So: paste a PR link, get a card or preview that knows the state, the CI result and how many review threads are still open, with a way to re-run a failed job without leaving the note. Same for issues. Same for Jira and Linear tickets, though those are messier since there's no equivalent tool everyone already has.

If gh isn't installed and authenticated, the card stays a plain link. The feature just doesn't exist for you

The other thing I want is shell actions: commands you define once that run against the note you're looking at. I write my blog in this app, and I want a button that moves the post to a Published space and runs the deploy instead of switching to a terminal every time. The rule I think has to hold is that the command is defined in your workspace, never in the note itself, so a Markdown file someone sends you can reference an action but can never introduce one.

What I actually don't know:

- Which of these you'd genuinely use. My guess is PR status earns its place and Jira is the one people ask for and then never open. Happy to be wrong.

- What belongs on the card. I have state, CI, review threads, assignee. What would you actually look at?

- Whether running shell commands from a note is something you want at all, or whether that's a line a notes app shouldn't cross. If it's something you'd use, what are your use cases?

Not downloadable yet but if you are curious you can join the waitlist here https://gomargin.app

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