Year view
Twelve months, one square a day. Deeper colour, more years written.
08-18.MD · day 230 / 365
365 files
A diary for life
One file a day. One ring a year.
Open any date to see every year you've written on it.
Mac · Completely free · macOS 14+ · 6 MB / iPhone · iOS 18+
‹›
Back to Today08-18
Days written1,284
Earliest year2021
Total files366
08-18.MD
08-18
On This Day◎ All
~/iCloud Drive/Nenrin/08-18.md
9:41
08-18.MD
08-18
TodayYearSettings
Pick a year on the Mac's right, or a year button on the iPhone: both turn to the same year. It's the same file.
01 · The idea
One file per day
Next year, back to the same page
August 18 lives in a single file: 08-18.md. This year's ## 2026 goes right beneath last year's. Ten or forty years on, the folder still holds the same 366 files.
# 08-18
## 2026
Writing the sixth ring on the same day this year.
Plain text · in a folder you own
Point at a year: a section in the file is a ring on the tree
A day
The filename is the date
Your first year goes here, and so does your fortieth. Skip the titles and folders; just start writing.
A year
One more ring each year
Year headings are the only dividers in the file. One more section, one more ring.
Today
Every year, on one screen
As you write today, last year's entry and the one from five years back are right there.
02 · All
One date, every year, read together
In front of the year buttons sits All: every year of this date, stacked on one page. Tap a year to keep writing in it, or fill in a year you skipped.
iPhone: pinch to step back a layer; spread your fingers to return to the year beneath them
Mac: ⌘ 1 one year · ⌘ 2 All · or pinch on the trackpad
03 · Writing
Reads like paper,
saves as plain text
Markdown marks look like what they mean: bullets for lists, boxes you can tick for to-dos, a bar for quotes. The file stays plain text, the same in any editor.
What you seeTick a box
What's in the file08-18.md
Return continues lists, to-dos and quotes⌘B ⌘I ⌘KTab to indentPaste a URL onto selected text to link itOn iPhone, the toolbar follows your cursorA Format menu on the Mac
04 · Photos
The day's photos, in place
Your files, untouched
Open any date and the photos you took that day are already below the entry. Choose from three layouts; tap one to see it full screen.
Automatic
Matched by the date they were taken
Just write; the photos arrive on their own. Any you'd rather keep out of your diary can be hidden.
Read-only
Your text files stay untouched
No image links, no copies. Stop using Nenrin and your files are clean plain text.
## 2026
Made tea before anyone was up, and read a page or two by the window. Bought beans on the way home — cooked, finally, and ate late.
Photos · 6All ›
Straight from the Photos app · read-only
Read-only · Nothing written into the file · Full screen, swipe between photos
05 · Colours
Six palettes,
for daytime and night
Paper, Plain, Osmanthus and Celadon in light; Ink and Indigo in dark. Set it to Auto and the light one is used by day, the dark one by night.
The same set on the Mac and iPhone. Switching recolours the page in place: the year you're reading and where you've scrolled stay put, and the Home Screen widget follows.
06 · Mac and iPhone
One diary, two devices
Both open the same “Nenrin” folder in iCloud Drive. Start at your Mac and carry on from your iPhone; write on both on the same day and the years are merged, with no conflicted copies left behind.
Widget
On This Day, on your Home Screen
See what you wrote on this date in past years without opening the app. It turns to the new day at midnight.
Reminder
A nudge each evening
Pick the time. Don't want it? Switch it off in Settings.
Nenrin22:00Write a few lines for today — past years are waiting to be reread.
Synced by iCloud Drive · merged by year · Dropbox, Syncthing and Git work too
07 · Leaving
Free to leave, any day
To export, copy the folder
Your entire diary is a folder of 366 plain text files, so there's no export command: drag the folder away and you have all of it.
Format
Markdown, and nothing proprietary
Any text editor opens it today, and any editor will still open it forty years from now.
Backups
Back it up the way you already do
Time Machine, iCloud, Git or an external drive: backing up your diary means copying one folder.
Nenrin
- 01-01.md1.4 KB
- 01-02.md0.9 KB
- 02-29.md2.1 KB
- ⋯ 361 more
- 12-30.md1.7 KB
- 12-31.md3.2 KB
366 plain text files · copy to export
08 · More
Only what a diary needs
Full-text search
Search every year at once and jump straight to the day.
Random day MAC
Open any day of any year and reread an old one.
Nothing lost
Saving rewrites only this year's section; the same day written on two devices is merged by year.
Evening reminder IPHONE
A nudge to write today, at a time you choose.
Automatic updates MAC
New versions download in the background; restart and you're up to date.
Languages
The Mac app speaks 8 languages; the iPhone app, English, Chinese and Japanese.
No account, no analytics
There's no server of ours and no analytics code. Your words stay yours.
09 · Download
Start with today
Begin on one device. When you want the other, point it at the same folder.
NENRIN FOR MAC
MacCompletely free
No in-app purchases, no subscriptions, no ads. Native AppKit and SwiftUI: quick to open, smooth to scroll, and it updates itself.
NENRIN FOR IPHONE
iPhoneFree, too
Every feature is free. In Settings you'll find Nenrin Pro Lifetime: an optional one-time purchase to support an independent developer. It unlocks nothing extra.
Questions
A few things worth knowing up front
Where are my entries stored?
In a folder you choose, on your device or in iCloud Drive. Everything is plain .md text that any editor can open. If you ever stop using Nenrin, your diary stays right where it is.
Is it really only 365 files?
Yes: one for each date, plus 02-29.md in leap years, so 366 at most. Ten years in you still have 366 files; what grows are the yearly sections inside each one.
How do the Mac and iPhone apps stay in sync?
Point both apps at the same iCloud Drive folder in Settings and iCloud does the rest. Write on both devices on the same day and Nenrin merges the edits, without leaving conflicted copies.
Do I have to use iCloud Drive?
Not at all. Your diary is an ordinary folder, and keeping it on one device works fine. Dropbox, Syncthing or Git work too; choose the folder in Settings.
Does the iPhone app cost anything?
No. It's free on the App Store for iOS 18 or later, and every feature works. Nenrin Pro Lifetime in Settings is an optional one-time purchase that supports independent development; you write the same with or without it.
How do I bring in entries from another journaling app?
Because Nenrin uses plain Markdown, there's no importer to wait for. Hand your Day One export, Obsidian vault or Apple Notes archive to an AI assistant like Claude and ask for “one
MM-DD.md per date, same date merged by year”.