Documentation
Red Pen Documentation
A free, local-first review-notes layer for everywhere you build - WordPress, Node/Express, any website, and Ableton Live - plus the Red Pen Hub, a single board that aggregates notes across every project.
What Red Pen is
Red Pen is a developer tool for leaving review notes on the thing itself. Instead of a separate tracker full of "the button near the header is misaligned", you pin a typed note directly to that button, on the page where it lives. Notes carry a type, a priority, a status, threaded replies, and an optional screenshot, and they collect into a per-project repository you work through.
It is the same idea and the same note model on five surfaces, so you learn it once and use it everywhere. A fifth piece - the Hub - rolls every project's notes into one board.
The principles
- Free core, forever. The entire feature set on every surface is free, with no account, no license key, and no expiry. An optional one-time PRO unlock adds convenience extras (chiefly the multi-site Hub); it never moves a free feature behind a paywall.
- Local-first, no phone-home. Your notes live in your site's database, a local file, or your browser. There is no SaaS, no telemetry, and no kill switch. Nothing leaves your machine unless you send it somewhere yourself.
- Dev-only by default. Red Pen is a tool for the people building the site, not its visitors. Every surface is gated so it never appears in production or to end users.
- One model, many surfaces. A note is a note whether it was left in WordPress, an Express app, a static page, or Ableton. The shared model is what lets the Hub aggregate them.
The surfaces at a glance
The plugin stable
A logged-in Dev Mode overlay on the front end plus a full notes repository in wp-admin. The flagship - the most complete surface.
NodeExpress middleware v0.2.0
One line - app.use(redPen()) - injects the overlay and a tiny notes API. Notes persist to a local .redpen/notes.json you can commit.
Static drop-in v0.0.2
A single script tag for static sites, SPAs, anything. No server, no build. Notes live in the browser; export and import as JSON.
Ableton LiveLive extension prototype
Leave notes on clips, tracks, scenes, and arrangement positions while you produce. Early prototype, gated on the Live SDK leaving beta.
Red Pen Hub v0.5.0
A standalone local board that aggregates notes from every project and surface into one screen, with manual two-way resolve/reopen. The PRO convenience layer.
SharedCore concepts
The note model, types, priorities, statuses, anchors, replies, and the dev-only and local-first guarantees that every surface shares.
Which one do I install?
| If you are working on... | Use | Notes stored in |
|---|---|---|
| A WordPress site | The WordPress plugin | The site database (a custom post type) |
| A Node / Express (or Connect) app | The Express middleware | .redpen/notes.json in the app |
| Any other website - static, an SPA build, a page on disk | The static drop-in | The browser's localStorage |
| A track in Ableton Live | The Live extension | An external notes.json file |
| Several projects at once, on one board | The Hub (PRO) | Reads the others; never your only copy |
Current versions
This documentation set describes these releases. See each surface's page for its full changelog and the Roadmap for what is planned next.
| Surface | Version | Status |
|---|---|---|
| WordPress plugin | 0.12.1 | Stable - deployed to all local installs |
| Express middleware | 0.2.0 | Active development |
| Static drop-in | 0.0.2 | Active development |
| Ableton Live extension | prototype | Paused - waiting on the Live SDK |
| Red Pen Hub | 0.5.0 | PRO - active development |