Hello! My name is Rheisen (https://rheisen.me) and I’m the founding engineer / creator of https://blackbear.app. For the busy, here is the quick version of what Blackbear is: A private collaborative workspace. Completely free for single devices, $2/mo or $20/yr if you want managed data sync and collaboration.

This project is coming out of a strong beta period. Over 200 people have created accounts, and over 50% of people who found the project a few months ago are still using it. Kinda insane.

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Blackbear comes with a lot: calendars, routines, task management, messaging, voice/video calling, podcast discovery, news aggregation, etc.

But the most important feature is exactly what makes Linux great: Files.

Blackbear has over 13 native file editors. Markdown notes and documents, slides, sheets / kanban boards / charts, e-readers for epub/mobi/pdf, freehand canvases, audio and image files, pages, scripts, keychains, etc. with a few more still on the roadmap (video is next, spoiler).

Most of these file types (notes, docs, sheets, slides, canvases, etc.) support real-time collaboration with the people you connect with, so you can work together in real-time, with the server still only seeing encrypted cipher text.

The thing I’m most proud to say is that your data is absolutely, 100% yours. Everything runs on your device, and is transmitted end-to-end encrypted to all of your other devices and those you connect with if you use cloud sync.

And it’s 2026, so there is AI, for those who want it, included in the app. Blackbear uses a ZDR neocloud provider (Fireworks) to provide flash models, but it’s a model and provider agnostic harness that I’ve built. You can set up Blackbear’s AI (Pax) with your own keys: Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, Open Router, and on-device Ollama are all supported (image generation models are next, spoiler).

Right now the project works from any web browser as a PWA, and has a native Mac App and CLI. Windows app pending, and mobile apps for iOS and Android are awaiting app store approvals.

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So why did I build this thing? What’s the vision for it?

I built it because I don't think most tech companies have incentives that align with respecting people. As a long-time software engineer, I know very well how these companies operate, and I don't trust them. I wanted to build something that I wouldn't need to trust, that was simply aligned from the bottom up to respect people.

People deserve better. People deserve technology that is affordable, respectful, and private. Blackbear will continue to receive updates and improvements for as long as I'm able. That’s all there is to it.

I'll be around today and if you have any questions about the tech stack or anything, I'm happy to answer!