Thymer: Early Impressions, Updates, and Community Insights
Over the first week or so since its closed Alpha release, I’ve had the chance to play around with Thymer (alongside the usual Christmas distractions). In that short period alone, there have already been multiple version updates, primarily driven by active discussions in Discord and new users testing the app for the first time. The pace of iteration has been impressive, with the developers fixing bugs, shipping requested features, and engaging openly with the community on many points.
In this update, we will look at:
Differentiators
Updates
My Initial Testing
Comments from Discord
What I want to test out next
This is an early, hands-on perspective, not a full review.
Differentiator(s) to Other Apps
Someone asked the devs what actually makes Thymer different in a crowded market, and they pointed to its structural DNA—it isn’t just a text editor; it’s a high-performance document tree, which includes:
Every item is a node/object
The workspace is a single document tree (internally at least)
Indenting etc that also works in a multiplayer context because we’re not just sending lines of text back and forth
Transclusions that work on the node level, not text.
Tree move actions like move subtree to previous/next sibling
Cmd / ctrl + a behaviour in stages
Search that understands parent/child relationships and to some extent property inheritance
The above is of course on top of being free, encrypted (E2EE), sync available out of the box and free, plugin and API, multiplayer, amongst many other quality features.
Updates
In terms of the changelog, this is what has been implemented:
24 December 2025 - 0.0.6
Keyboard shortcuts help panel (Help: Keyboard Shortcuts in command palette)
Resize Image improvements (shift to toggle free resize)
Many fixes - thanks everybody for your feedback!
29 December 2025 - 0.0.7
New Features
Ctrl+shift+arrow up or down to move an item with descendants up and down (experimental)
Experiments panel for testing new features (find it in Settings → Experiments)
Experimental: Outliner Enter behaviour - pressing Enter on nodes with children adds a child instead of a sibling
Bug Fixed
Insert line after a folded item doesn’t unfold the item
Various date/time-related fixes
Open the block menu with keyboard shortcut
PWA title bar colour in light/dark mode
Enter after the folded list inserts no longer unfolds
Indent lines are no longer invisible in light mode
Error while displaying error message in live search query block
The devs know there are several bugs they need to work on.
Testing
To test and play with Thymer, I did what I always do when experimenting with a new app: fired it up and created a book library (or “Collection” as they are known in Thymer). I feel this is a good way to test a PKM app out, as it allows for:
Creating a database or understanding how records related to a theme are stored.
See how easy it is to add new records and understand properties. Gauge how easy it is for properties to be added, amended or removed down the line.
Play around with different views (table, gallery, calendar, etc.)
Try out the query syntax to filter and transform your data. See if sorting is possible, and if it works and how easy it is to show / hide properties to your liking.
Test out the copy-paste / import functionality (yes, we are bringing our data into yet another PKM app).
With that said, it was a joy to create the book library in Thymer, and it was incredibly easy.
Creating and editing properties is a matter of a few clicks. It is possible to edit data in the table view (rather than opening each record individually). I want to be able to copy certain data points out (a la Excel) - this is not possible yet, but will hopefully be implemented at some point.
Creating views is also incredibly easy. You can create a gallery, a kanban, and other views. I would like to see a calendar view that includes a start and end date, but this is a minor issue, and I am sure it will be added in due course.
Other comments regarding my initial testing:
The journal works exactly like a journal, and it is a joy to write in.
Linked to the above is the writing experience. Outline / full form, you are not limited to either.
Typing notes and seeing them immediately on another device is priceless.
The opening of inline links is a little clunky on the keyboard, but the devs know about this.
The storing of notes is something that needs a bit of getting used to, as it feels a bit like a hybrid between Obsidian and Logseq / Tana in the way that you have Collections (folders / notes), but at the same time have an outline and tree-like structure.
See here for more comments on why I am really enjoying Thymer.
Discord Discussions
In the week or so since release, there have been many, and I mean many, discussion points in Discord. Here is just a snippet of the discussion points:
Trees and roots in outline.
Supertags vs Normal tags vs Stacking tags
When a task is a task vs a checkbox
Having more than 1 item in a property - i.e. a “List” property type. Seems that this may be introduced at some time.
Plugins and APIs
Appeasing both the enthusiasts and people who just want to take notes.
Features
Bugs
Lots of great stuff, and thank you to @jdvhouten for taking the time to participate in the discussions and also taking the comments in good spirits.
What I’ll Test Next
There are so many features in Thymer, but I think in terms of testing, I will do the following:
Play around with the plugin ecosystem and see what I can conjure up. So many possibilities here - just check out https://github.com/riclib/thymer-inbox to see what is possible.
Familiarise myself more with dashboards in terms of creating and updating.
Start actually taking notes in Thymer.
Multiplayer. Now I just need to convince my wife to jump on the bandwagon and test another PKM app. Apparently, this is not what she signed up for when we got married!?
Thanks a lot for reading, and I will be posting the first Thymer Weekly update this coming weekend.
"Multiplayer. Now I just need to convince my wife to jump on the bandwagon and test another PKM app. Apparently, this is not what she signed up for when we got married!?"
Wait, what? Your wife is not as crazy about PKM apps as you are? 😂