I'm currently a user of both Proton Drive and Standard Notes (SN). Both products serve different needs, but I can envision a world in which the best aspects of SN are merged into Proton Drive.

A big weakness of Proton Drive's local file sync functionality comes from the fact that all files must be sync'd and that there is no opportunity to keep them encrypted at-rest. While users can certainly introduce a separate encryption/decryption step to the process of manipulating files, this opens up a window of vulnerability in which any locally running application with shell access can read the file; this is clearly unacceptable for sensitive data.

Secondly, Proton Drive's reliance on a strict hierarchical file structure fails to leverage its cloud-based architecture to deliver a flexible user experience in which files can be organized and accessed via multiple contexts (i.e. just as you can add the same photo to multiple albums, you should be able to access the same file via different contexts). While users can introduce a separate file tagging step to the process and construct views using links, this is cumbersome, the implementation is platform-specific, and it introduces multiple additional points of failure for the user.

I propose a multi-stage solution to address these shortcomings (these would be implemented in sequence until we have the final solution):
1. Introduce the ability to exclude some files from the sync process, keeping them remotely encrypted and only accessible via the web client (this protects sensitive data from being accessible locally by bad actors)
2. Introduce the ability to define tags, apply those tags to files, and define tag views (logical combinations of tags) that can be sync'd as a virtual view (e.g. "/My 2025 Documents/" is a view that captures the combination of tags "format/document" and "year/2025")
3. Introduce the ability to specify a secondary encryption key to keep files encrypted at-rest even if they are sync'd; this then leads into...
4. Introduce a native client that offers both local and remote file browsing, file management, and document editing and also supports tags, tag views, and secondary encryption/decryption for local files (i.e. the singular "Proton Drive" app in which you manage and access all of your files, tags, and views)

If these features are implemented, they would neatly bridge the gap between Proton Drive and Standard Notes:
- the low-level sync mechanism would continue to operate as expected
- files could be part of multiple views / contexts (or not be part of any)
- security would be maintained at-rest for sensitive data
- document creation and editing could be managed from a native application that has access to both local and remote files

I know this proposal encompasses multiple features, but I felt it was important to present them all at once in order to portray a complete and functional end-state.

Thank you for reading.