Hiyd FAQ

Hiyd is an iOS app for people who run a Jekyll site. You draft a post in a plain Markdown editor, Hiyd adds correct YAML front matter, and you can save the file to iCloud Drive, share it, or publish it straight to your GitHub repository. A companion Chrome extension captures link posts from the browser.

Hiyd is free to download and use. There is an optional annual "Supporter" subscription and one-off Small, Medium and Large tips inside the app if you want to support development. None of the core features are locked behind a purchase.

Hiyd runs on iPhone and iPad and requires iOS 18.6 or iPadOS 18.6 or later. The interface adapts to a sidebar layout on iPad and supports all orientations.

Notes are stored as .md files in your own iCloud Drive, in Files under iCloud Drive › Hiyd. Because they live in iCloud Drive they sync automatically across your iPhone and iPad and you can open them in any other app. Hiyd has no server and no account.

Yes. Files are kept in iCloud Drive, so anything you save on one device appears on your other devices signed in to the same Apple Account. If iCloud Drive is turned off, Hiyd shows its status as Unavailable and you can still export files manually.

In Settings › GitHub Publishing you add a repository: GitHub username, repository name, a folder path (default is _posts), and a fine-grained personal access token scoped to that repository with Contents set to Read and write. When you publish, Hiyd commits the Markdown file to that folder on the repository's default branch using the GitHub Contents API. You can store up to five repositories and give each one its own name, icon and colour.

The token is stored in the iOS Keychain. It cannot be viewed or edited after saving; to change it you remove the repository and add it again. Hiyd talks only to api.github.com when you publish, and only sends the file you are publishing. Use a fine-grained token limited to the single repository so its scope is minimal.

Yes. title and date are always included and cannot be removed. In Settings › Front Matter you can add your own default fields as Text, List or Boolean values, reorder them by dragging, and delete them by swiping. Every new note starts with those fields filled in.

Yes. Hiyd ships App Intents for creating a note, creating and saving a file, listing files, reading a file's content, searching notes and opening a specific page or file. You can trigger them from the Shortcuts app, Siri, or automations.

Yes. hiyd://create, hiyd://archive and hiyd://settings open those pages; hiyd://create?title=...&body=... pre-fills the editor; and hiyd://file?filename=example.md&restore=true opens a saved file for editing. Deep links work from Notes, Messages, widgets and the Shortcuts "Open URLs" action.

No. Hiyd has no analytics, no tracking and no accounts. Your content stays in your iCloud Drive and on your device. The only outbound network request the app makes is to GitHub, and only when you choose to publish.

Yes. Turn on Biometric Lock in Settings to require Face ID, Touch ID or your device passcode each time Hiyd opens.

Hiyd reads and writes .md and .txt files. Exported and published files are standard Markdown with a YAML front matter block, compatible with any Jekyll version and with GitHub Pages.

The Hiyd Chrome extension is for link posts: it captures the current page so you can turn it into a Markdown link post for your Jekyll site. It works in Chrome and other Chromium browsers and is built on Manifest V3.