Simple Project Notes

View of notes list in project.
Unlocked note view.
Create note modal form with the first part of the form.
Create note modal form with the second part of the form.
Update note modal.
Delete note modal.

🚀 Inspiration

Past Codegeist consistently shows that the strongest apps solve a clear, everyday problem with a polished, native Atlassian experience. The most successful entries reduce friction, avoid unnecessary complexity, and fit naturally into existing workflows.

Simple Project Notes was created to address a common issue in day-to-day environments. The problem is that important notes, reminders, and sensitive snippets are often scattered across chats, documents, or external tools. Naturally, for that we would like to use Confluence, but from the perspective of short notes that we are using consistently, we would like to use something simpler. The goal was to build a lightweight solution that lives directly inside Atlassian products, supports different privacy needs, and remains easy to use.

📝 What it does

Simple Project Notes is an Atlassian Forge app that allows users to create and manage notes with explicit visibility rules:

🌍 Public notes - visible to others, ideal for shared context, decisions, or project-related information;
👤 Private notes - visible only to the author, useful for personal reminders or drafts;
🔑 Password-protected notes - intended for storing sensitive data such as tokens or secrets, accessible only with a password.

The app keeps note management simple, transparent, and secure, without forcing users to leave their Atlassian workspace.

There is also the option to search notes by a simple search box.

🛠️ How we built it

The app is built using Atlassian Forge Custom UI with a modern frontend stack:

⚛️ React and TypeScript for a maintainable and type-safe UI;
🎨 Atlaskit to ensure a consistent Atlassian look and feel;
🔄 TanStack Query to enable efficient data fetching and near real-time updates;
🗄️ Custom Entity Store for structured, scalable note storage;

The overall architecture is modular, making it straightforward to extend the app with additional note types and features.

⚠️ Challenges we ran into

🧩 Designing a flexible data model that supports multiple note types
🔄 Making the UI feel responsive and up to date within Forge constraints
👁️ Clearly communicating note visibility and access rules to users
🔐 Preparing the foundation for securely handling password-protected notes

🎉 Accomplishments that we’re proud of

✅ Complete implementation of public, private, and secure notes;
⚡ A responsive, near real-time experience using TanStack Query;
🎯 A clean, Atlassian-native UI built with Atlaskit;
🧱 A solid foundation for future security-focused features;

📚 What we learned

🧠 Simple, well-scoped features can deliver strong value when deeply integrated;
⚙️ Forge Custom UI enables powerful frontends but benefits from careful planning;
🔐 Early consideration of data modeling and security pays off later;
🎨 Consistent UI design significantly improves usability and trust;