The price of cloud notes
Cloud notes feel slick. The price: your data format is not yours (Notion blocks are not Markdown), your continuity is tied to the vendor, and AI tends to only see "what you uploaded."
What local-first promises
- Documents are Markdown on disk — any editor opens them
- No mandatory signup — no cloud means no cloud breach
- Agent uses tools on your machine — richer context than remote RAG
- Portability — don’t like it? Copy the folder, leave
When not to pick Kition
If your core need is "30 people co-editing one doc in real time," Notion is smoother. Kition fits "solo or small team + heavy AI execution + sensitive data."