Knotbook User Guide

This guide explains how to use Knotbook: setting up a workspace, writing and linking notes, finding them again, and the settings you are most likely to change. It is also published at knotbook.app/guide.

If something here does not match what you see in the app, or you cannot find what you need, email support@spyxpo.com.

Contents

• Getting started
• The main window
• Writing notes
• Pages
• Linking notes
• Finding things
• Managing notes
• PDFs, media and other content
• Email
• Calendar
• Importing and exporting
• Working with your files outside Knotbook
• Keyboard shortcuts
• Settings
• KnotAI
• Free and Pro
• Getting help

Getting started

Installing

Download Knotbook from knotbook.app/download. Files are named knotbook-v{version}-{os}-{arch}, for example knotbook-v1.0.1-beta.2-darwin-aarch64.dmg for a Mac with Apple Silicon.

The beta builds are not code-signed yet, so your operating system warns you the first time you open Knotbook:

• macOS says it cannot check Knotbook for malicious software. Open Knotbook once and close the warning, then go to System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down, and click Open Anyway next to the message about Knotbook. You only do this once. If you are comfortable with Terminal, xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Knotbook.app does the same.
• Windows shows "Windows protected your PC". Click More info, then Run anyway.
• Linux does not warn.

Knotbook checks for updates when it starts, every hour, and when its window comes back into focus. Updates are signed, and Knotbook checks the signature before installing. On macOS and with the Linux AppImage the update installs in the background and takes effect the next time Knotbook starts. On Windows it downloads and installs when you choose Install and restart, which closes Knotbook while the installer runs. With the Linux .deb, or when the signed update cannot be reached, Knotbook tells you a newer release is out and opens the download page; install it over the old one. Either way your notes and settings are kept.

The first time you open a newer version, a What's new window lists the changes in every release since the version you last used. To read it again, choose What's New in the command palette or Show what's new in Settings, under Updates.

First launch

1. Before you start. Accept the Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy. The same screen asks whether Knotbook should check for updates when it starts. You can change that later in Settings, under Updates.
2. Welcome. Pick a light, dark or system theme, then take the short feature tour or skip it. The tour can be replayed at any time from Settings, under Onboarding.
3. Choose a workspace. See the next section.

Workspaces

A workspace holds your notes, PDFs and other files. The workspace picker offers four options:

• Open existing folder… uses a folder you choose. Knotbook creates a notes/ folder and an assets/ folder inside it. Each note is an ordinary Markdown file in notes/, and PDFs are stored in assets/. Choose this if you want to open, back up or edit your notes with other programs.
• Create new workspace… creates a single .knotb file in a folder you pick, with a few example notes to start from. While you work, the files are kept in Knotbook's own data folder and packed into the .knotb file a couple of seconds after each change. This suits a workspace you want to move around or share as one file.
• Open .knotb file… opens an existing .knotb file, for example one saved on another computer.
• Import markdown folder… copies an existing folder of Markdown files, such as an Obsidian vault or a Notion export, into a new workspace. See Importing and exporting.

Workspaces you have opened before are listed under Recent workspaces. Removing one from that list does not delete any files.

Knotbook keeps a search index next to, but separate from, your notes. The index is built from the files, so it can always be rebuilt and deleting it loses nothing.

Converting a folder workspace to a .knotb file. To turn a workspace you opened from a folder into a single .knotb file, choose Convert to .knotb workspace in the command palette, or Convert to a .knotb workspace in Settings, under Workspace, and pick where to save the file. The folder stays where it is and Knotbook keeps working in it, and from then on every autosave also updates the .knotb file. A workspace that is already a .knotb file cannot be converted again.

What is stored in your .knotb file

A .knotb file is a ZIP archive. It holds everything that belongs to the workspace, so you can copy it to another computer and open it there with nothing missing:

• Your notes, as Markdown files under notes/, including sub-pages in their folders. Page icons, covers, page options, relations and the content of columns, embeds and buttons are written into the notes themselves.
• Files in assets/: PDFs, images, audio and video, uploaded icons and covers, and the preview images of bookmark cards.
• Workspace state in a file named state.json: database views, PDF highlights, the Media & Library catalog, KnotAI conversations, comments, synced blocks, the order and expansion of the page tree, saved bookmark previews, the pane layout and which toggles are open on each page.

Settings that belong to your copy of Knotbook rather than to a workspace, such as the theme, keyboard shortcuts and your license, are not stored in the .knotb file. The search index is not stored either; Knotbook rebuilds it when the file is opened.

The main window

• Header. Along the top: the workspace name and the word count of the open note, then buttons for Search, the command palette, keyboard shortcuts and Settings, and Open, Save and Close for the workspace. The buttons at each end show or hide the sidebar and the right pane.
• Sidebar. On the left: Today and Capture, then Favorites, Saved searches, Notes, PDFs, Media & Library, Canvases, Feeds, Databases, Templates, Extensions and Trash. Right-click any item to see what you can do with it.
• Editor. In the centre: the open note.
• Right pane. On the right: tabs for Backlinks, Outline, Comments, Properties, Tasks, History, Graph, Tags and KnotAI.

Drag the edge of the sidebar or the right pane to resize it, and double-click the edge to return it to its default width.

Tabs and split view

Notes open in tabs. To see two notes side by side, press Ctrl+\ (⌘\ on macOS) or click Split side by side on the tab bar. You type in one pane at a time; the other panes show their notes read-only until you click them. Middle-click a tab to close it.

You can have up to four panes. Once the window is split, the command palette offers Split Again (up to four panes), Close Pane, Merge All Panes and Focus Next Pane. The pane layout is saved with the workspace, so it is the same the next time you open it.

Command palette

Press Ctrl+K (⌘K on macOS), type part of a command's name and press Enter. Most actions in Knotbook are available here, including creating notes, importing and exporting, opening daily notes and protecting a note with a password.

Writing modes

Settings, under Editor, has three modes for writing without distraction:

• Typewriter scrolling keeps the line you are typing near the middle of the screen.
• Focus mode dims every block except the one you are writing in.
• Distraction-free hides everything except the editor. Ctrl+Shift+F (⌘⇧F) turns it on and off, and Esc turns it off.

Writing notes

Creating a note

• In the sidebar, click + next to Notes and choose New note. The note is created as "Untitled" and you can type its name straight away.
• In the command palette, choose New Note and enter a title.
• In the command palette, choose New Unique Page to create a note titled with the current date and time, such as 202610131405. If a note already has that title, -2, -3 and so on is added.

Open Random Page in the command palette opens a note picked at random from the workspace, other than the one you are on.

Notes save automatically as you type. To change how soon, set Autosave delay in Settings, under Editor.

The editor

Every paragraph, heading, list, table or image is a block. Drag a block by the handle to its left to move it. Type / to open the slash menu and choose a block to insert. Besides headings, lists, tables, quotes and code, the slash menu offers:

• Callouts: info, tip, warning, danger and note
• Math equations written in LaTeX
• Mermaid diagrams, including flowcharts, sequence diagrams, Gantt charts, timelines and mind maps
• Charts: bar, line, area, pie, doughnut, scatter and radar
• Toggle lists and toggle headings
• Links to other notes, today's date, the current time, footnotes and front matter
• Columns, a table of contents, buttons and dividers (see Layout and tool blocks)
• Embeds and bookmark cards (see Embeds and bookmarks)
• Your templates

Right-click a block to change its type or colour, duplicate it or delete it. To add an image, audio or video file, drag it into the note; Knotbook copies it into the workspace's assets/ folder. Files added this way can be up to 16 MB. Add a larger file to Media & Library instead, then insert it into the note from there.

Callouts from quote syntax. A quote that starts with a type in square brackets, such as > [!info], > [!tip], > [!warning] or > [!danger], opens as a callout of that kind. note, hint, important, caution and error are also recognised, and any other type becomes an info callout.

Layout and tool blocks

• Columns. Type / and choose 2 columns, 3 columns or 4 columns to place blocks side by side. Each column holds ordinary blocks: type in it, or drag blocks into and out of it.
• Table of contents. Lists the page's headings and stays up to date as you edit them. Click a heading to jump to it.
• Button. Inserts the content of a template below the button each time you click it. Click the gear on the button to change its label or pick another template.
• Divider. A horizontal line between blocks.

Folded toggle lists and toggle headings stay as you left them: which toggles are open is remembered for each page and saved with the workspace, without changing the note's file.

Mentions

Type @ to open a menu of things to mention:

• Pages. Inserts a link to the note, the same as a [[wikilink]].
• Dates. Today, Tomorrow, Next week, or Pick a date…. The date is written as @2026-10-13, which is also how a task's due date is written, so a date in a checklist item becomes its due date.
• People. The people you have exchanged email with or who appear in your calendar. A person is inserted as a link that starts a new email to them.
• Ask KnotAI (Pro). Type @KnotAI followed by a question and choose Ask KnotAI. KnotAI reads the note for context and inserts its answer where you are typing; a longer answer is added as blocks below.

Embeds and bookmarks

Embeds show content from another site inside the note. Type /, choose Embed and paste a link. Links from these sites can be embedded:

• YouTube and Vimeo videos
• Loom recordings
• Figma files
• Google Maps
• CodePen pens

Other sites cannot be embedded. Knotbook offers to show their link as a bookmark card instead.

Bookmark cards show a link with the page's title, description and preview image. Type /, choose Bookmark and paste a link. Knotbook fetches the preview once, saves the image into assets/ and keeps the title and description with the workspace, so the card still shows when you are offline or open the workspace on another computer.

When you paste a link on its own into an empty line, Knotbook pastes it as a link and offers to turn the line into an embed (for the sites above) or a bookmark card.

Tags, tasks and properties

• Tags. Type # followed by a name, such as #reading or #project/alpha. A tag can contain letters, numbers, _, / and -. The Tags tab lists every tag in the workspace.
• Tasks. Every checklist item is a task. Add a due date by writing it after @, as in @2026-09-30, and a priority with !high, !med or !low. The Tasks tab in the right pane lists tasks and can filter them by tag.
• Properties. Named values stored at the top of a note as front matter. Add and remove them in the Properties tab. Database views use them as columns.

Templates

To create a template, click + next to Templates in the sidebar, or right-click a note and choose Save as template. To use a template, right-click it and choose New note from template, or insert it into the open note from the slash menu.

Templates can contain placeholders that are filled in when the template is used:

Daily notes and quick capture

• Today in the sidebar, or Ctrl+Shift+D (⌘⇧D), opens today's daily note and creates it if it does not exist yet. Daily notes are saved as notes/Daily/YYYY-MM-DD.md. The command palette can also open yesterday's note, or any date from a calendar with Open a Daily Note….
• Capture in the sidebar, or Ctrl+Shift+N (⌘⇧N), asks for a one-line thought and adds it to today's daily note together with the time.
• Insert Today's Agenda into Daily Note in the command palette, or Add to today's note under Calendar in the sidebar, writes today's events and open tasks as a checklist under an Agenda heading in today's daily note. Running it again replaces that section instead of adding a second one. It cannot be added to a password-protected daily note.

Pages

Nested pages and breadcrumbs

Notes can be arranged as pages inside other pages. To see them that way, turn on Page tree in the sidebar in Settings, under Workspace, or choose Show notes as a page tree in the command palette. Show notes as a list switches back to the flat list.

The tree is built from the folders under notes/. A page's sub-pages are kept in a folder with the same name as the page's file: notes/Projects.md is the page, and the notes in notes/Projects/ are its sub-pages. A folder you create in your file manager is read the same way. A folder with no page of the same name shows as a folder that holds pages but opens nothing.

In the tree:

• Click the arrow next to a page to expand or collapse it.
• Click + on a page's row (Add sub-page) to create a note inside it.
• Drag a page onto another page to make it a sub-page, or between two pages to move it there. Its sub-pages move with it. Links to a moved page keep working, including links written with the page's path.

The order you give pages by dragging, and which pages are expanded, are saved with the workspace.

When the open page sits inside another page, a row of breadcrumbs above its title shows the pages and folders it is in. Click a page to open it, or a folder to show it in the page tree.

Icons and covers

Hover over the toolbar above the page and click Add icon or Add cover.

• An icon can be an emoji, or an image you upload or pick from Media & Library. It is shown next to the page's title, in the sidebar, on its tab and in breadcrumbs.
• A cover is a banner across the top of the page: one of the gradients, an image you upload, or an image from Media & Library.

Uploaded images are copied into the workspace's assets/ folder. The icon and cover are saved in the note's front matter as icon: and cover:, so they travel with the note.

Page options

The Page options button (…) in the toolbar above the page has two options for that page:

• Full width lets the page use the full width of the editor instead of the line width set in Settings, under Editor.
• Small text shows the page in a smaller text size.

Both are saved in the note's front matter (width: full and small_text: true). To make full width the default for pages that have not set their own width, change Default page width in Settings, under Editor.

Linking notes

Wikilinks

To link to another note, write its title between double square brackets: [[Project plan]]. Capitalisation does not matter. To show different text for the link, add it after a vertical bar: [[Project plan|the plan]].

Typing [[ opens a list of notes that narrows as you type. Choose one to insert the whole link. What you type after [[ can also point inside a note or set the link's text:

If no note has the title you typed, choose Link to … to insert the link anyway. A link to a title that no note has yet is kept, and connects once a note with that title exists. You can also type / and pick Insert wikilink to choose a note from a list.

Links to headings and blocks

A link can point to a heading, [[Project plan#Budget]], or to a single block, [[Project plan#^a1b2c3]]. To get a link to a block, open the block's menu (the handle to its left) and choose Copy link to block, then paste it where you want it. Knotbook adds a short id such as ^a1b2c3 to the end of the block's text; that id is what the link points to, so leave it in place. Links can point to text blocks only, such as paragraphs, headings and list items.

Synced blocks

Write ![[Project plan#Budget]] or ![[Project plan#^a1b2c3]] to show a heading's section or a block from another note. The Backlinks tab lists the synced blocks in the open note with their current content from the source note.

With Pro you can edit a synced block where it is shown: click Edit in place and make the change. It is saved into the source note when you pause typing; click Done when you have finished. If the source note changed after the block was loaded, your edit is not saved and Knotbook offers Reload so you can see the current text first.

Backlinks, outline and graph

• Backlinks lists every note that links to the open note.
• Outline lists the open note's headings. Click one to jump to it.
• Graph (Pro) draws your notes as a network of links. You can limit it to a folder, to notes within a few links of the open note, or to a maximum number of notes.

Renaming a note

Right-click the note in the sidebar and choose Rename…. Knotbook changes the note's heading and updates every link to it in other notes.

Editing the heading at the top of a note also changes its title, but links in other notes keep the old title and stop connecting. When other notes link to the one you are renaming, use Rename….

Finding things

Search

Press Ctrl+P (⌘P) or click Search. Search looks through note titles, note text and the text inside PDFs. Results load 25 at a time; use Load more results to see the rest.

Open the filters to narrow results by kind, folder, tag or date, or to match case. You can also type filters into the search box:

A filter value cannot contain spaces.

To keep a search, click Save search and give it a name. Saved searches appear in the search window and in the sidebar. Recent searches can be cleared with Clear history.

Searching everywhere (Pro). Switch the search window to Everywhere to search mail, calendar events, tasks, database rows, canvases, images, KnotAI memories and past conversations together with your notes and PDFs. The filters narrow results to one kind. Each result opens where it lives: a message opens in its mail folder, an event in the calendar, a memory in Settings. This scope uses KnotAI memory's index, so KnotAI memory must be turned on in Settings; while the index is still being built, results may be incomplete.

Favorites

Right-click a note and choose Star to add it to Favorites at the top of the sidebar.

Managing notes

Trash

Right-click a note and choose Move to Trash. The message that appears has an Undo button. The Trash section of the sidebar lists deleted notes, PDFs, templates, database views and media; each can be restored or deleted permanently, and Empty Trash removes everything in it. A note's file stays on disk until it is deleted permanently.

Version history

Knotbook keeps a copy of a note each time it saves. Open the History tab to look at an earlier version, restore it or delete it. Restoring a version saves it as the current note, so the text it replaced stays in the history. Versions are stored only on your computer.

Password-protected notes

In the command palette, choose Add Password to Note… to encrypt the open note. The note's file on disk is then encrypted, and Knotbook asks for the password before showing it. A password must be at least 4 characters. Change Note Password… and Remove Password from Note… are also in the command palette. Knotbook cannot recover a forgotten password.

Comments

Select text and add a comment in the Comments tab. If nothing is selected, the comment applies to the whole note. Resolved comments move to a separate Resolved list.

Comments in live sessions. When you share a note in a live collaboration session, comments are shared too. Everyone in the session sees the same comments as they are added, edited and resolved. Guests can add comments, resolve any comment, and edit or delete their own. The comments are saved in the host's workspace, not in the guests' workspaces.

PDFs, media and other content

PDFs

Import a PDF by clicking + next to PDFs in the sidebar, or with Import PDF… in the command palette. The text of every PDF is included in search. In the PDF viewer, the highlight tool marks a passage and can send it to a note as a quote.

Importing PDFs, adding text or images to a PDF, editing its text, saving annotations and exporting a flattened copy require Pro.

Media & Library

Images, audio and video in the workspace. Add files with + or by dragging them onto the section. Right-click a file to preview it, insert it into the open note or copy its path.

Canvases

A canvas is a free-form board for arranging shapes, text and images. Create one from the Canvases section of the sidebar.

Database views

A database view shows the notes in a folder as rows, with their properties as columns.

1. Click + next to Databases in the sidebar, choose a folder and pick a layout: Table, List, Gallery, Calendar or Timeline. Kanban can be chosen from the view itself once it is created.
2. Add columns. A column can be text, number, date, select, checkbox, URL, tags or a formula. With Pro, a column can also be a relation or a rollup.
3. Use the bar above the view to filter, sort and group rows.
4. Click New row to create a note in that folder.

To show a database view inside a note, type / and choose Database view.

Relations (Pro). A relation column links each row to other pages. In the column's settings, under Links to, choose the database whose pages it can link to, or Any page in the workspace. Click a cell to search for pages and pick them. The links are saved in the row's front matter as a list of wikilinks. Turn on Link back from each linked page and name a property to also add a link back to the row on each page it links to.

Rollups (Pro). A rollup column shows a value worked out from the pages a relation column links to. Pick the relation column, a property on the related pages (or their title), and what to show: Count, Sum, Average, Minimum, Maximum, Percent checked, or Show the values.

Fill with KnotAI (Pro). In a column's settings, turn on Fill with KnotAI and choose what KnotAI should write for each row: A short summary of the page, Keywords, One of the select options (for a select column), or A value I describe, where you say what to pull out of each page, for example its due date. Click Run autofill to fill the column. Progress is shown as it works, and at the end you see how many rows were filled, skipped and failed. Locked pages are skipped. The column's autofill settings are saved with the view.

Feeds

Add an RSS feed by its URL in the Feeds section of the sidebar. Knotbook contacts only the feeds you add.

Web clipper

The Knotbook browser extension saves web pages into Knotbook. Settings, under Web clipper, shows the token that connects the extension to the app. Clipped pages wait in Web Clip Inbox… (command palette) until you accept them.

Extensions

The Extensions section of the sidebar lists installed and available extensions. Install one from the list or from a .knotplug file, and right-click an extension to turn it on or off or to uninstall it. If you want to write your own, see the Plugin Developer Guide.

Email

Knotbook can show your email next to your notes. Email is free for 2 accounts; Pro allows 10.

Adding an account. In the sidebar, hover over Emails and click + (or click Add an email account if you have none yet).

• Gmail, iCloud, Yahoo, Fastmail, Zoho and other providers: choose the provider, or Any IMAP and SMTP server and enter the server details, then sign in with an app password. An app password is a separate password you create in your provider's account settings for mail apps; your normal password usually does not work here.
• Signing in with Google or Microsoft (Sign in with Google and Sign in with Microsoft) is coming in a later update. Until then, Gmail works with an app password, and Outlook.com accounts, which Microsoft no longer lets mail apps reach with a password, cannot be added yet.

Reading mail. Each account appears in the sidebar with its Inbox, Drafts, Sent, Archive, Spam and Trash folders. New mail is checked in the background. Remote images in a message are not loaded until you click Load images.

Writing mail. Compose a new message, or reply to or forward the one you are reading.

Searching. Search looks through the mail stored on your computer and can also ask the mail server for older messages.

Reminding yourself about an email (Pro). Use Remind me about this email in the message toolbar and choose later today, tomorrow morning, next Monday or a time of your own. The reminder is named after the subject.

Saving an email as a note. Use Save as note on a message to copy it into your workspace as a Markdown note, which you can then link to and search like any other note.

Where your mail is kept. Mail is stored on your computer, and Knotbook connects directly to Google, Microsoft or your mail provider. Nothing passes through a Spyxpo server. Passwords and sign-in tokens are encrypted with a key kept in your operating system's keychain. If no keychain is available, the key is kept in a file in Knotbook's data folder instead, and Settings → Email accounts says so. Removing an account in Settings also deletes the mail stored for it on your computer; the mail on your provider's server is not affected.

If you move from Pro back to Free with more than 2 accounts, the extra accounts are paused: their stored mail stays readable, but they do not sync or send.

Calendar

Open Calendar in the sidebar to see a calendar of your workspace. Tasks and daily notes appear on their dates, and reminders arrive as notifications from your operating system. To put today's events and tasks into your daily note, see Daily notes and quick capture.

With Pro you can also:

• Create events on the local calendar.
• Set reminders. Choose Remind Me… in the command palette, or New reminder in the Reminders panel on the Calendar page, and enter what to be reminded of and when, or pick a quick time such as in 1 hour or tomorrow morning. The Reminders panel lists upcoming reminders and those from the last 7 days, where you can snooze or dismiss them. You can also set a reminder from an email (see Email).
• Sync with Google Calendar or Outlook calendar (coming in a later update, together with Google and Microsoft sign-in). In Settings, under Calendar, connect a Google or Microsoft account. Events will sync in both directions: changes you make in Knotbook appear in that calendar, and changes made there appear in Knotbook.

Calendar data is stored on your computer. Synced calendars talk directly to Google or Microsoft.

Importing and exporting

Importing

• An Obsidian vault or any folder of Markdown. Choose Import markdown folder… in the workspace picker, or Import Markdown Folder… in the command palette. Pick the folder to import, a location for the new workspace (outside the folder you are importing) and a name. Knotbook copies the notes and attachments into a new workspace and does not change the original folder. When it finishes, a report shows what was imported and anything that was skipped.
• Notion. Export your Notion pages as Markdown, unzip the export and import the folder as above. Knotbook recognises a Notion export automatically.
• Individual Markdown files. Click + next to Notes and choose Import Markdown files…. The files are copied into the current workspace.
• A CSV file. Choose Import a CSV… in the command palette. Each row becomes a note. Before importing you can set each column's type and choose which column becomes the note title.

Exporting

Working with your files outside Knotbook

In a workspace opened from a folder, each note is a Markdown file in notes/ that any text editor can open. Knotbook watches notes/ and assets/. When another program adds, changes or deletes a file there, Knotbook updates the sidebar, search and links, and reloads the open note.

If you are typing in a note when another program changes its file, Knotbook keeps what you typed and saves it, replacing the other program's change. Close the note in Knotbook, or wait for it to save, before editing its file elsewhere.

Files outside notes/ and assets/ are not watched. If the sidebar or search ever looks out of date, choose Reindex in Settings, under Workspace, to rebuild the index from the files.

To back up a folder workspace, copy the folder. To back up a .knotb workspace, copy the .knotb file.

Keyboard shortcuts

Press ?, or Ctrl+/ (⌘/ on macOS), to see this list inside Knotbook.

Settings

Open Settings with Ctrl+, (⌘,) or the gear button in the header. Type in Filter settings… to find an option quickly. Settings are grouped as follows:

KnotAI

KnotAI is Knotbook's assistant (Pro). It runs on your computer: questions, answers and your notes stay there.

Setting it up. Click KnotAI in the header. The first time, it asks for a one-time download of about 2 GB: a small inference engine and a language model. Nothing downloads until you click Download and start. If the download is interrupted, starting it again picks up where it stopped. KnotAI needs about 4 GB of free memory while it is running.

Asking about your notes. Open the KnotAI pane from the header menu and ask a question. KnotAI finds the most relevant passages in your notes and PDFs and answers from them; the numbers in its reply link to the passages it used.

Web results. KnotAI does not go online by itself. To let it use web results for a question, click Web under the message box before sending. Your message is then sent to DuckDuckGo, for that message only.

Images, audio and video. Attach a file with +. Documents work straight away. Asking about images needs the optional image model (about 3 GB), which you can add in KnotAI setup or in Settings, under Local AI. Audio and video are transcribed on your computer; the first time, a 150 MB speech model downloads.

Writing. Write on… in the KnotAI menu drafts a new note or PDF on a topic you give it. Typing /note topic or /pdf topic in the pane does the same.

What it searches. Besides notes and PDFs, KnotAI can find answers in canvases, images, database views, tasks, emails and your calendar. Images are described and their text is read by the local model on your computer.

KnotAI on pages and databases

Page actions. The Page options menu (…) in the toolbar above a page has a KnotAI submenu:

• Suggest title and Suggest icon propose a new title or emoji icon for the page.
• Auto-tag suggests tags; you choose which to add to the page's front matter.
• Suggest related pages finds other notes on the same subject; the ones you choose are added as links under a Related heading at the end of the page.
• Translate page translates the page into a language you choose and saves the translation as a new page next to the original.

Each action shows its suggestion first, and nothing changes until you click Apply, Add links or Create page.

In the editor. Type @KnotAI and a question to have the answer written into the note (see Mentions).

In database views. A column can be filled by KnotAI for every row (see Database views).

Asking KnotAI to change your pages. In the KnotAI pane you can ask KnotAI to create a page inside a folder of pages, set a property on a page, link one page to another through a relation column, or list the pages of a database view, optionally only those that contain some text. If KnotAI has read an email, a feed item, a PDF or a web result earlier in the same request, it does not change your pages by itself: it shows the change it wants to make under Change your pages, and nothing changes until you accept it, because that content could contain instructions written by someone else.

KnotAI memory

KnotAI remembers facts you tell it (for example "remember that my manager is Priya"), and keeps a short summary of each past conversation and each task it carried out. It uses these to answer later questions without you repeating yourself.

Memory is stored on your computer and is written by the local model. Open Settings, under KnotAI memory, to see everything it remembers, edit or pin an entry, delete one, or clear all of it. You can also switch memory off, or choose which kinds of content it indexes.

Acting on email and your calendar

KnotAI can search and read your email, draft replies, create events and reminders, and pick out meetings and deadlines from emails. It never sends an email by itself: it shows you the message it wants to send, and nothing is sent until you confirm. Anything it proposes to remember or add to your calendar after reading an email is shown to you first, because an email could contain instructions written by someone else.

KnotAI can be wrong. Check anything that matters against the passages it cites.

Free and Pro

Knotbook is free to use. Knotbook Pro is a one-time purchase, available at knotbook.app/buy, and a license can be used on up to three devices. Enter your license key in Settings, under Knotbook Pro.

Pro adds:

• KnotAI, an AI assistant that runs on your own computer once its model is downloaded. It can answer questions about your notes, summarise notes and PDFs, continue your writing and answer searches.
• KnotAI memory: KnotAI remembers facts you tell it and summaries of past conversations and tasks, and can find answers across notes, PDFs, canvases, images, databases, tasks, emails and your calendar.
• KnotAI actions on email and the calendar: drafting replies, sending only after you confirm, and creating events and reminders.
• Up to 10 email accounts instead of 2.
• Searching everywhere: mail, events, tasks and KnotAI memories in the same search window as your notes.
• Creating calendar events and reminders, and syncing with Google Calendar or Outlook calendar once that arrives.
• Graph view.
• Relations and rollups in database views.
• Editing synced blocks in place.
• KnotAI on pages and databases: page actions, @KnotAI in the editor, filling database columns, and creating and updating pages from the KnotAI pane.
• Exporting any note as a PDF, from the editor or the Export dialog.
• Importing and editing PDFs: adding text and images, editing PDF text, saving annotations and exporting a flattened copy. Highlighting is free.
• Larger live collaboration sessions: up to 10 people instead of 5.

Getting help

Email support@spyxpo.com. To get a useful answer on the first reply, include:

• Your Knotbook version and operating system.
• How you installed Knotbook: installer, .zip, .dmg, .AppImage, .deb or .rpm.
• What you expected to happen, and what happened instead. A screenshot of any error message helps.
• The log file, if something crashed or went missing. In Settings, under Diagnostics, click Show in folder. File paths in the log are shortened so that it does not include your user name or folder names.

More about support, licenses and payments is at knotbook.app/support.