I’m starting a new project: Autographe. It’s a desktop app for prose writers.

Why yet another desktop app for writers, isn’t there enough of them?

The software development industry has gone absolutely crazy with AI. Developers of all levels are using LLMs to produce code to the detriment of their hard-won skills. Not long before, we were arguing about, and almost shy talking about the myth of the 10x programmer; today everyone and his dog is developing apps, they are effectively a 100x developers in terms of the amount of code produced.

Autographe is like an antidote for me, an attempt to preserve my software craftsmanship and stay true to my values: producing software crafted by a human for humans. I want to do it “à l’ancienne”, no Claude, no Codex, no Cursor, no LLMs, just me and my hands.

That was you, what about writers?

I’ve always wanted to be some sort of writer, but never got the time nor energy to work it out. Fortunately I read a lot; and as a reader, I’ve learned that writing is a huge intellectual endeavor that comes way before the styling aspect of it, that most readers are going to judge. Unfortunately, AI enshittification made its effect on so many writers (or pseudo-writers should I say), and the results, even at this early point of AI history are so bad: masses of text that are banal, generic and shapeless.

What made things worse is that writing apps started including AI services. Writers can now be more productive (more text in less time!) thanks to AI! This is insane! I don’t want to read “productive” writers text, I want them to take their time!

So Autographe will be my response to today’s prose writing tools, an app that:

  • empowers true writers to write in their own words in their keyboard
  • is local-first: no remote server
  • no AI, with intuitive file based organization
  • has a clean design optimized for flow: writers will write, the app will disappear while they write
  • offers real productivity with a modal-first editing (à la Emacs and Vim)
  • has intuitive version control powered by Git: for writers, not for developers
  • markdown based

Autographe for writers is what Emacs or Vim is for developers

A cross-platform desktop app, built with Rust and Iced for maximum snappiness, and true/genuine writers happiness.

AI usage is eroding craft, I’m building an antidote for myself and for writers who feel the same. I’m very excited and honored to start this project. No growth hacking for this one, no build-in-public bullshit, I’ll take my time to work on it, get feedback, optimize and use it myself. If some day, a dozen writers are happy with it, I’ll consider myself a hero.

Autographe is text written by your own hand.