Why Another Bible App?

There are hundreds of Bible apps already. YouVersion has billions of downloads. Logos has decades of refinement. Obsidian users have created incredible Scripture study workflows.

So why build Forge?

Because I couldn't find what I was looking for.

What I Was Actually Looking For

Here's the thing. Most Bible apps are really good at what they do. Reading plans keep people consistent. Devotionals provide guided reflection. Highlighting lets you mark up passages. Research tools like Logos give you access to centuries of scholarship.

They're solving real problems.

But they weren't solving my problem.

When I sat down to study, I wasn't looking to consume more content. I wanted to wrestle with passages until something clicked. I wanted to capture the specific moment when a verse illuminated another verse three books away. I wanted to build my own understanding, piece by piece, and actually see it take shape over time.

I tried the popular apps. They felt like they were optimized for reading through Scripture, not going deep into it.

I tried building my own system in Obsidian. Got pretty far, actually. But I spent more time maintaining plugins and templates than I did studying. And every time I wanted to reference a verse, I had to manually format it, link it, organize it. The tool became the work.

What I wanted was simple: a tool built specifically for the way I study. Not better than other apps. Just different. Just for this.

So I Built It

Here's what I needed:

• Capture one insight at a time. Atomic. Reusable.
• See where I've already studied. Visual markers right in the text.
• Watch connections form between passages. Genesis lighting up Romans. Psalms illuminating Ephesians.
• Own everything. Plain markdown files. No cloud lock-in. No proprietary formats.
• Zero friction. No plugin management. No template maintenance. Just open and study.

That's Forge.

How It Works

Three ideas drive everything:

1. One insight, one note

When something clicks, you capture it on a card. One observation. One connection. One thought. Not a paragraph of highlighted verses. Not a journal entry. Just the specific thing you understood.

Over time, these atomic notes become a library. You can link them, search them, build on them. They compound.

2. See your work in context

Open Romans and you'll see little note icons wherever you've already studied. Click one and your insight appears right there, in context. You're not switching apps or searching through folders. Your understanding lives alongside the text.

Scripture stops being linear. It becomes a web. You see it.

3. You own everything

Every note is a markdown file on your computer. Open it in any text editor. Version control it with git. Back it up to Dropbox. Email it to a friend. Whatever you want.

No cloud dependency. No subscription to access your own thoughts. No proprietary format holding your work hostage.

It's yours.

Who This Is For

Forge isn't for everyone.

If reading plans work for you, keep using them. If you need lexicons and Greek tools, Logos is incredible. If you've built the perfect Obsidian setup, I genuinely respect that.

But if you've felt what I felt. If the tools keep getting in the way of the studying. If you want to build your own understanding instead of consuming someone else's insights...

Then maybe this is for you.

What's Next

I use Forge every day. It works. But there's more I want to build:

• Better search across everything
• Graph view to see your entire network of insights
• Optional sync (but local-first always)
• Easy ways to share notes with study groups
• Integration with commentaries and study resources

I'm shipping regularly. Listening to people who actually use this. If you have ideas, I want to hear them.

Try It

If this resonates, download it and see how it feels.

It's free.

Open a passage. Create your first note. Watch it appear in the text. See if it feels different.

And if you have thoughts or feedback, I genuinely want to hear them. This isn't a product from a company with a marketing team. It's just a tool I built because I needed it.

Maybe you need it too.