Changelog

What’s new in Fernsage

July 30, 2026

Fixed

On a phone, the Fernsage bar could get stuck part-way off the top of the screen on a short page: you could scroll down to slide it away, but scrolling back up no longer brought it back. It now stays put on pages too short for the slide-away to make sense, so this can't happen.

July 29, 2026

New

On a phone or tablet, type <br> at the end of a line and it becomes a line break within the same paragraph, instead of starting a new one.

Fixed

The "/" quick-menu for inserting headings, lists, and other blocks no longer pops up every time you type a forward slash in your writing. It now only appears when the "/" is the first character of a new paragraph, the way it's meant to be used.
Opening a page from another page now starts you at the top of it. If you were partway down the page you came from, the new one opened at that same point, partway into text you had not read.

Improved

On a phone, the Edit, ⋯, Discard, and Save buttons now stay put at the top of the screen while you scroll, so you can start editing or save without scrolling back to the top first. The Fernsage bar above it slides away with the page instead.

July 28, 2026

Improved

If you edit your library on one device, it now shows up automatically the next time you move to a different screen on another device you already had open, such as going back to Home or opening a page. You no longer need to reload the browser tab to see it.

July 25, 2026

New

Pull down to refresh on your phone or tablet. If you wrote something on your laptop, drag down from the top of any screen and your library reloads in place, so you no longer have to close and reopen the app to see it.

July 23, 2026

Improved

On desktop, the pop-up menu that appears when you select text now has bullet-list and numbered-list buttons, so you can turn a selection into a list without the slash menu.
Reordering your library is now hands-on: while organizing, drag a page to its new spot (press and hold on a phone, or just drag with a mouse), with the list scrolling automatically as you reach the edges. Drop a page onto another to file it underneath. On a phone, a normal swipe still scrolls, so only a deliberate hold starts a move.

Fixed

When you select an image while editing, the formatting bar no longer stretches empty across the screen with a single lonely button. It now shows just the link controls in a tidy, compact bar.

July 16, 2026

New

Press / from anywhere in your library to jump straight back to your home page. Home is also now the first option when you open Find (⌘K).
You can now collapse and expand your pages by pressing Z or clicking on "My Library" in the app or "BROWSE THE LIBRARY" on your public site. This feature is meant to be subtle to avoid making the interface complicated.

July 15, 2026

New

We made a major change in how your library pages work. Instead of having loose/private/public, we simplified it private/public, similar to how much blogging platform works. Both private and public sections can have loose pages.
Your home page now shows your library in two clear sections: Public: Exactly what visitors to your site see (or will see once you publish), topics first and loose pages belowPrivate, which only you can see. There's no separate site preview to check anymore; your library page is the preview.The left sidebar now has Public and Private tabs at the top, matching your library page's two sections and staying in the same order. Opening a page in the other section switches the tab for you.
Every new page starts private. Nothing you write is ever visible to anyone until you deliberately make it public.
Loose pages can now be published too. Make a loose page public and it appears in a Loose section at the bottom of your site.Making a nested page public or private directly (from its own ⋯ menu) now moves it out to Loose with that setting, since a page filed under another one always follows that page's visibility and can't have its own while nested.
The globe in the top bar is now where you publish. Tap it on any screen to see whether your site is live, open it, or publish/unpublish it.
Every page shows a clear Public or Private tag next to its title, so you always know who can see what you're reading. The Public tag links straight to the live page on your site.

Improved

While organizing, you can drag a page across the Public/Private divider to change its visibility, including onto an empty section to make your first page public (or private).
Moving or dragging a page onto another page always takes on where you put it: filed under a page, it follows that page's visibility.
Moving to the top level or to Loose keeps a page's current visibility (public stays public, private stays private). A page filed under a public topic and then sent back to Loose stays public, it doesn't quietly go private.
The Move to… menu now has explicit Public and Private options, alongside Top level and Loose, so you can change a page's visibility from the same picker you use to move it.
Removed the checkboxes from Organize mode. Every page already has its own Move button, so selecting a page and then finding a matching action for the selection was an extra step that didn't do anything a row's own buttons couldn't.
A loose page's Organize-mode row action now reads "Move" like every other page's, instead of "File into…" Loose pages can move to the top level or to Public/Private too, not just get filed under something.
Trying to move a page into one of its own sub-pages now explains why it can't happen, instead of quietly doing nothing.
Moving a page now tells you when its visibility changes: filing into a public topic says "now public" right in the confirmation, and moving out of one says "now private".

July 13, 2026

Improved

Added an Unpublish button to Settings → Publishing, with a confirmation step, so you can quickly take your site private without leaving Settings.

Fixed

Public site pages now load much faster for repeat visitors. A configuration bug meant every visit was rebuilding the page from scratch instead of reusing a stored copy.

July 10, 2026

New

Every published site now has a sitemap and a robots file, so search engines can find and crawl all of its pages automatically.

Fixed

Fixed your site's favicon not showing up next to your listing in Google search results.
Fixed extra spacing appearing after a list item with a nested sub-list, before the next item at the same level. Sub-lists now sit flush with the item above the next one, matching the spacing between ordinary list items.

July 8, 2026

Fixed

The "On this page" table of contents (shipped July 7) wasn't showing up on the published site or in its owner preview, only in the private editor. It now appears in both places too.

July 7, 2026

New

Pages with headings now show an "On this page" table of contents in the right sidebar, above "Pages that link here". Click any heading to jump straight to it. It appears only when a page has headings, and is hidden on phones to keep the reading view clean.
You can now resize an image on a page. Click it (or hover over it) and drag the small handle on either side to the size you want — the image keeps its proportions, and the size you choose is what readers see on your published site too.
Added Increase indent / Decrease indent buttons to the mobile formatting toolbar, so you can nest list items into sub-lists on your phone or tablet (previously only possible on desktop, via the Tab key).
While organizing your library, you can now drag a page onto the middle of another page to file it as a subpage of that page — dragging to the top or bottom edge still reorders it as before.
Added Text, H1, H2, and H3 buttons to the selection toolbar that pops up when you highlight text, so you can turn a selected line into a heading (or back to a plain paragraph) without reaching for the / menu.

Fixed

Fixed the Link button doing nothing when an image was selected. You can now link an image the same way you link text — select it, click Link, and pick a page or paste a URL. Readers who click the image go to the linked page (on your published site too), and pages an image links to show up under "Pages that link here".
Fixed long code blocks (e.g. a pasted error message or log line) getting cut off at the right edge when reading a page. They now wrap onto multiple lines, matching how they already looked while editing.
Fixed page titles being clickable while organizing your library, which could open a page by accident when you meant to drag it to reorder or move it. Titles are now plain text during Organize mode.
Fixed long code blocks (e.g. a pasted error message or log line) getting cut off at the right edge when reading a page. They now wrap onto multiple lines, matching how they already looked while editing.
Fixed pasting Markdown text (e.g. from a notes app or a .md file) landing as literal "# Heading" text instead of real formatting. Pasted Markdown now becomes proper headings, bold/italic text, links, lists, and quotes.
In "Manage visibility" (on your site's Publishing page), selecting a topic now locks its sub-pages as checked instead of letting you select them separately — since hiding or showing a topic already applies to everything under it.

July 6, 2026

Fixed

Fixed the duplicate-title hint suggesting a page as "similar" to another page with the opposite meaning (e.g. "Things that didn't work for us" flagged as similar to "Things that worked for us"). Titles that negate each other no longer count as a likely duplicate just because they share most of their words.
Fixed the title field not showing the keyboard on phones right after creating a new page or subpage. You can now start typing the title immediately, same as on desktop.

July 4, 2026

Improved

The site preview now shows your site's header (your icon and title) and footer, so it matches what visitors will actually see.

Fixed

Fixed uneven vertical spacing between the fields in Settings → Site details.

July 2, 2026

New

Added themes. Pick from 20 looks — light, dark, and a few with serif reading type — in Settings → Publishing, and both your library and your published site change together. Your social preview cards match, too. Everything stays on the original Fern look unless you choose otherwise.
Added a site mark: set an emoji (or a letter or two) in Settings → Publishing and it becomes your published site's browser-tab icon and sits beside your title at the top of every page.
The footer of your published site is now yours to write. It reads "your-name · Built with Fernsage" by default, and you can replace it with a byline, a contact, or a sign-off.

Improved

Images on your pages are now protected by your sign-in. Even if someone somehow obtained an image's direct link (say, from a shared screen or browser history), it no longer loads for anyone but you — unless the page it's on is published, in which case its public copy works as before.
Some themes now carry more character: a few pair serif headlines with clean sans text (Harbor, Rosewood, Nocturne, Ember), the bookish serif themes open each page with a drop cap and use "· · ·" flourishes as dividers, and a few lay a subtle paper grain or dot pattern behind your published pages. All of it comes with the theme — nothing extra to configure.
Sharing a page now shows your site's name at the top of the preview card instead of "FERNSAGE".
Opening search on a published site (before typing anything) now shows your library's top-level topics, so it reads as a quick way to browse the library instead of a random handful of pages.
Loose (unfiled) pages now show the same crossed-out eye mark next to the title as hidden pages do, confirming right on the page that it's never public — previously only filed pages showed this reassurance.

Fixed

Emoji now display correctly on published sites. They previously appeared as "��" in page titles and text (and in the new site icon).
On a phone or tablet, tapping the green globe mark on a public page used to jump straight to the public preview with no warning. The first tap now shows the same "this page is live" explanation the other status marks show; a second tap goes to the preview.

July 1, 2026

Improved

Published sites and page-to-page navigation are now noticeably faster, especially for larger libraries (because a page no longer carries the text of your whole library, only its own).
Search on a published site now matches the full text of your pages, not just the first line.
Clicking an image in a page now shows a trimmed-down formatting menu with just the Link button — the text-formatting buttons (bold, italic, block quote, etc.) never did anything to an image, so they no longer show up for one.
Uploading an image now shows a small "Uploading image…" indicator right where it'll be inserted, so it's clear the app is working instead of appearing to do nothing.
The subpages list below a page's content now shows up on any filed page that has subpages, not just top-level topics. A nested page with children gets the same browsable list and "⋯" menu toggle.

Fixed

Fixed the "hidden" count on your site preview miscounting pages nested under a loose (unfiled) item as hidden from the public site. Only filed pages you've actually chosen to hide now count.
Images pasted or uploaded into a page now show up correctly on the published public site. They previously rendered fine in the app but were silently dropped on the live site.
Nested subpages now show a vertical guide line connecting them to their parent, so a deep list of subpages reads clearly as a tree.
A loose (unfiled) page's children are now shown in the left sidebar tree — they used to be invisible and unreachable there even though they showed up fine on Home.
Published pages now show their own subpages as a browsable outline, the same way private pages do — this was missing on public sites.
Fixed a bug where the app could fail to load some of its own files (breaking the app on a hard refresh, and getting stuck unable to pick up new updates at all). If you were affected, a hard refresh should now load cleanly.

June 30, 2026

New

Topic pages now show a list of their pages right below the content, so you can browse what's filed under a topic directly on the page. Use the page's "⋯" menu to hide or show it.
On phones and tablets, a formatting bar now sits just above the keyboard while you edit a page. Headings, bold, italic, lists, quotes, links, code, images, and dividers are all one tap away — no more typing "/" or fiddling with text selection on a small screen.

Improved

You can now mark a few words as inline code (a small monospaced snippet) right from the formatting popover and the new mobile bar, separate from a full code block. Inline code is for a word or phrase inside a sentence; a code block is for a whole passage.

June 29, 2026

Improved

Creating a new page now feels instant. The page opens immediately while it saves in the background, instead of making you wait 1–2 seconds for the server to respond.
Hovering over a link on a public site now preloads the destination page, so clicking through feels near-instant.
The Fern icon now appears as the favicon on all published sites.
The "Recently deleted" list now opens in a scrollable panel so it's easier to browse and restore pages when you have many deleted items.

Fixed

Pressing Cmd+Enter (or Ctrl+Enter) to save a page no longer inserts a blank line into the content at the same time.
If a new page fails to save (e.g. you're offline), it now stays visible with a retry option instead of silently disappearing.

June 28, 2026

New

Deleting a page now sends it to a new "Recently deleted" list in Settings instead of removing it immediately. You can restore a page (and everything filed under it) for 30 days before it's removed for good, so you won't accidentally delete a page permanently. Discarding a brand-new note you never saved still removes it right away.

Improved

The search on your public site now opens as a full modal with suggested pages shown right away when you open it, so you can navigate without typing a query first.
The search entry point is now a compact icon button rather than a persistent text field, keeping the page header clean.

Fixed

Fixed text on published sites occasionally showing garbled characters (mojibake) for non-ASCII content.
Fixed the page layout on published sites breaking on mobile when the relations rail was visible.
Fixed the search input triggering an unwanted zoom-in on iOS when tapped.

June 27, 2026

Improved

Published libraries now load as fast, lightweight pages. A visitor sees your writing immediately, without waiting for an app to start up — which also means your links look right when shared on social media and read cleanly by search engines.
Your public site now has its own search. Visitors can press `/` or use the search box to find any page in your library.

June 26, 2026

Fixed

Fixed pressing Save multiple times rapidly triggering duplicate saves. The button now shows "Saving…" and is disabled while the save is in progress.

June 25, 2026

New

Pages now have readable URLs derived from the page title (e.g. /page/why-a-library-beats-a-feed) instead of random IDs.
Published libraries are now available on their own subdomain — username.fernsage.com.
Added duplicate detection. As you write, Fernsage now notices when a new note covers the same ground as one you already have — even when you've worded it differently — and gently flags it so you don't write the same thing twice. It speaks up only when it's confident, and it all happens privately on your own device; nothing is sent anywhere.

Fixed

Fixed backspacing in the middle of a list splitting it into two separate lists instead of merging the items.
Fixed Cmd/Ctrl+C triggering the new page shortcut.
Fixed the page title not being visually distinct from headings inside the page content.

June 24, 2026

New

You can now set any page as your public site's home. Visitors land on that page instead of the topic outline. Set it from the page's ⋯ menu.

June 23, 2026

New

Added Strikethrough, Blockquote, and Code Block formatting options to the editor, available from the toolbar or the slash command menu.
Added a trial status banner so you know when your trial ends.

Improved

Updated the public site loading screen to show the animated Fernsage mark instead of plain text.

Fixed

Fixed "View public site" opening in-app preview instead of the public site after publishing.

June 22, 2026

New

Added one-time code sign-in: instead of a magic link, you now receive a short code by email that you type in. This enables Fernsage to be installed as a PWA on your phone.
Added support for linking to external websites in the editor. External links open in a new tab.

Improved

Updated Review to resurface all pages in your library — loose captures and topics included, not just filed notes.
Updated the link picker to resolve a pasted Fernsage page URL into a proper page link automatically.
Updated page links in reading mode to show a hover preview on desktop.
Updated Organize mode so that checking a parent page automatically includes all the pages under it.

Fixed

Fixed long words and URLs breaking out of the page layout.
Fixed bold, italic, and other formatting marks not showing the correct state when moving the cursor.
Fixed pressing Enter in the link picker not confirming the selection.

June 18, 2026

New

Added unfiled pages to the sidebar so you can navigate to them without going back to the home screen.

Improved

Increased bullet list indentation for better readability.

Fixed

Fixed text inputs on iOS zooming in unexpectedly when tapped.
Fixed links to other pages in your library not working on desktop.
Fixed the page visibility option appearing in menus when publishing is not turned on.
Fixed notification banners being too small on mobile to read comfortably.

June 17, 2026

New

Added drag and drop in Organize mode to reorder pages, with a sticky action bar and undo/redo support.

Improved

Updated the slash command menu to filter results as you type and support full keyboard navigation.
Updated the editor to show a small dot on pages with unsaved changes.