Opportunities › AI-integrated markdown editor for teams › Proposed app
Plainleaf
Markdown your team edits visually, with AI agents working beside you
- Score
- 55
- confidence 52
- Evidence
- 12
- items on the page
- Rivals
- 2
- named in sources
- First version
- 60 d
- estimate
- Type
- Desktop and mobile
- PWA: on computers and phones alike
- Market since
- 2020
- Established market · Verified
ScreensConcept
Desktop and mobile: Teams need to write and edit markdown at a desk, but also review and approve agent suggestions on-the-go or in meetings from any device. Sample screens on a computer and a phone, in the proposed brand. Their numbers are sample data.
Q4 launch plan
Synced- FormatMarkdown (.md)
About this appAI proposal
Plainleaf is a shared workspace for teams who write in markdown. You edit in a visual, block-style editor, while every page stays a plain .md file you can export or move at any time. No lock-in, no conversion step.
AI agents work inside the document. Connect Claude, Codex or another agent, point it at a page or folder, and review its changes as tracked suggestions you accept or reject. No more pasting text between apps.
Teams edit together live, and every change is kept in a git-style history. You choose what an agent can read, per folder. Made for people who find Obsidian too raw for teammates and Notion too closed for their data.
- Tagline
- Write together. Let agents help. Keep your files.
- Voice
- PlainCalmDirect
- Why this name
- Plain for plain-text markdown files, leaf for a page. Two simple words that say your pages stay open and portable.
In the first version
Members say which features they would use. It tells PWAS what people want; it changes no score.
Visual editing on real markdown
Headings, tables and checklists render as you type. The file underneath stays clean markdown, readable in any editor.
No member yet
Agents inside the page
Connect Claude, Codex or other agents with your own key. Ask for a draft or rewrite right where you are writing.
No member yet
Suggestions you review
Agent edits arrive as tracked changes with a diff. Accept, reject or edit each one before it lands.
No member yet
Live team editing
Several people type in the same page at once, with cursors and comments. Edits merge without conflicts.
No member yet
Brand identityAI proposal
Check the name against trademark registers before using it.
Palette
#2F6B4FMoss · primary#F7F5EFPaper · surface#1E2421Ink · text#D9733FClay · accent#CFE0D4Sage · secondary surface#6B746FStone · muted data
Typography
Aa
Plainleaf
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ 0123456789
PricingAI proposal
Based on VERIFIED pricing pages: Obsidian paid plans $5 to $10 a month, Notion paid plans €9.50 to €19.50 a month, both with a free plan. These tiers are a starting point to test.
Free
Free
- Solo workspace
- Export to markdown
- Bring your own AI key
Team
$8 a month
- Per user, live editing
- Version history
- Per-folder agent access
- Cloud sync and backup
Business
$15 a month
- Per user, SSO
- Self-hosting support
- Audit log
- Priority support
Would you pay Team · $8 a month?
Your answer tells PWAS which prices people accept. It changes no score.
No answers yet.
What it could be worthEstimate
What a software business making this much sells for today, from real deals. Pick a monthly revenue.
If it makes
Worth about
$194,000
Sale range $132,000 to $263,000
$120,000 a year in revenue
From 87 software businesses listed and sold on Empire Flippers in the last year, revenue vetted by the broker: they sell for about 19× their monthly revenue, most between 13× and 26×.
Measured on profit, the middle deal is 32× monthly net profit: about 2.7 years of profit.
What products in this market make
- NotionEstimate$72,083,333 a month, worth about $1,399,511,000 at that multiple · sacra.com
An estimate, not an offer or financial advice. A real price depends on profit, growth, churn, how much of the work is the owner's, and the buyer.
How it would growAI proposal
How the product would reach new customers through its own use, and how the first ones would be found. A plan to test, not a result.
- Built-in loop
- Users invite others. Teammates are invited into a shared workspace to edit and comment live. Pages can also be shared by link as read-only views, showing the product name.
- Do they become customers?
- Invited teammates use it daily and can upgrade their own team. Test whether link viewers sign up and whether invited users create workspaces.
- First customers
- Small software teams of 5 to 20 people who already keep docs in markdown and use Claude or Codex daily.
- Where to reach them
- Hacker News: Show HN post with an open-source repo and demo, following the thread that showed interest.
- Developer communities: Share in Obsidian and AI coding forums, with a guide for importing a vault.
- Open-source repo: Publish on GitHub, with a waitlist for the hosted team plan.
- First milestone
- Ten teams of at least 5 people using it weekly, and five paying for the Team plan within 90 days.
Why people already pay for this
- VerifiedHacker News post received 381 points and 173 comments
- AI inferenceTeams want markdown editing with a Notion-like WYSIWYG experience and native AI agent integrations, but existing tools don't provide both.
- AI inferenceThere is demand for WYSIWYG markdown editors that integrate with specific AI models (Claude, Codex) for team collaboration.
- AI inferenceTeams value collaborative features and private data storage over proprietary tools.
- VerifiedObsidian's pricing page lists 6 paid plans, from $5 to $10 a month, plus a free plan
Tech stack
Every proposal builds on the same PWA base, installable from the browser on any phone or computer. Dashed boxes are what this app adds.
- AppNext.js and TypeScript
- PWAManifest and service worker
- UITailwind CSS
- Data and authSupabase Postgres
- PaymentsStripe
- EmailResend
- HostingVercel
- This app · Real-time collaborationCRDT library with a websocket sync serviceLive multi-user editing needs conflict-free merging and a sync server beyond Supabase basics.
- This app · EditorBlock-based rich text editor over markdownVisual editing that round-trips to clean markdown files.
RisksAI inference
- TechnicalRound-tripping visual edits to clean markdown without drift or lost formatting is hard, and CRDT merges with git history add further complexity.
- CommercialObsidian and Notion are established and both have free plans. Teams may find switching costs too high for a new editor.
- AIAgent edits can be wrong or leak private content. Per-folder limits and review must be trustworthy, and agent APIs can change.
- PlatformA PWA has limits on local file access on some devices, which can weaken the plain-files promise.
- CommercialOpen source positioning makes charging harder: teams may self-host rather than pay for sync and support.
Everything marked AI proposal or AI inference was written by a model from the evidence on the opportunity page. The proposed name must be checked against trademark registers before it is used.