Notely

Notely Feature Reference ​

This page explains every major user-facing feature in Notely.

1. Notes and Workspace ​

Workspace selection ​

Use File -> Open Workspace to choose the folder where your notes are stored.

Use File -> Open Recent to reopen a recently used workspace quickly.

Opening the workspace externally ​

On the landing screen, the File menu exposes two shortcuts for working with the workspace folder outside Notely:

  • File -> Open Workspace in VS Code (Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + O) — opens the active workspace folder directly in VS Code. Falls back to the system default app if VS Code is not installed.
  • File -> Reveal Workspace in File Explorer (Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + J) — opens the workspace folder in the native system file browser.

Opening the website view ​

The Web menu provides quick access to the rendered website output:

  • Web -> Open Current Note Website View (Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + W) — available when a note is open; renders the current note as a website preview in the default browser.
  • Web -> Open Project Website (Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + W) — available on the landing screen; opens the project website.

Project-aware workspace ​

You can keep notes grouped by project while still working inside one larger workspace.

Landing dashboard ​

The landing view includes lightweight workspace overview panels so you can resume work quickly:

  • Continue Writing shows the single most recently edited note so you can resume immediately.
  • Recent Notes shows recently changed documents.
  • Favorites collects starred notes.
  • Open Tasks surfaces unchecked tasks across the workspace.

Note and folder creation ​

  • Create notes from File -> New Note (Ctrl/Cmd + N).
  • Create folders to group related notes.
  • Customize the icon and color of any folder or note by right-clicking it and selecting "Customize icon & color..." or from the context menu in the open tabs.
  • Rename and delete notes from list actions.

Trash & Recycle Bin ​

When folders or notes are deleted, they are moved to a temporary Trash Bin (.notes-app/removed/) instead of being permanently erased immediately. Notely features a dedicated Recycle Bin on the dashboard rail and a full recovery dialog:

  • Dashboard Recycle Bin Panel: Positioned at the bottom of the left dashboard rail, displaying a live badge with the count of currently trashed items.
  • Drag-to-Trash: Drag any note card, table row, or tree node directly over the Recycle Bin panel. The panel illuminates in warning red as a visual drop target.
  • Safe Deletion with Confirmation: Dropping a note into the Recycle Bin triggers an explicit confirmation modal to prevent accidental loss.
  • 1-Click Undo Toast: After confirming deletion or moving notes between folders, an instant Undo action toast appears.
  • Trash Recovery Dialog: Click the Recycle Bin panel (or select Trash from landing view actions) to browse deleted notes/folders with their original paths and deletion timestamps.
  • Restore & Empty: Restore any deleted item back to its original location in one click, or choose Empty Trash to permanently erase items and free up disk space.

Copying and moving notes across workspaces and folders ​

The top File menu provides multi-level fan-out submenus when a note is open:

  • File -> Copy Note -> To Workspace ▶ — Select any target workspace, then choose either [ Workspace Root ] or a specific subfolder.
  • File -> Copy Note -> To Folder (Current Workspace) ▶ — Choose a target subfolder inside the active workspace, or [ Root / Top Level ].
  • File -> Move Note -> To Workspace ▶ — Move the note to another workspace root or subfolder.
  • File -> Move Note -> To Folder (Current Workspace) ▶ — Relocate the note to another subfolder inside the active workspace.

During transfer:

  • Local media assets (media/images/, media/uploads/) and diagrams (.notes-app/excali-diagrams/, .notes-app/drawio-diagrams/) are automatically copied to the target workspace asset folders.
  • Relative link paths inside the Markdown text are recalculated to match the destination folder depth, ensuring embedded images and diagrams render seamlessly.

Open via Workspace -> Diagrams & Media Gallery (Ctrl/Cmd + Alt + M) or Command Palette:

  • Catalogs all used diagrams (inline Mermaid, Draw.io, Excalidraw, Wireframe UI prototypes), images, videos, audio, and PDF/Office documents in the workspace.
  • Multi-View Layout Switcher: Toggle seamlessly between Table / List View, Card Gallery View (with rich visual thumbnails and metadata chips), and compact Icon Grid View.
  • Physical Disk Scanner & Orphan Detection: Scans workspace folders (media/, assets/, images/, media/wireframes/, media/draw.io/) to identify files present on disk that have zero note references.
  • Unused Media Filter: Quickly isolate unreferenced assets with the ⚠️ Unused / Orphans filter tab.
  • Automated Document Extraction: Extracts and caches clean structured Markdown from Word (.docx), Excel (.xlsx, .xls, .csv), PowerPoint (.pptx), and PDF (.pdf) files with table preservation and spatial clustering.
  • Tabbed Media & Extracted Viewer: Switch between native preview and formatted extracted reading view with in-document search, line-numbered raw view, copy/download tools, and metadata chips.
  • Audio & Media Preview: Embedded audio players, video thumbnails, and transcript drawer with key points and action items.
  • UI Prototypes & Wireframe Studio: View, inspect references, and launch Wireframe Studio to edit interactive UI mockups directly.
  • Reuses Knowledge Graph layout aesthetics with collapsible category filters, search, and stat indicators.
  • Inspect details for any item with high-res/diagram live previews, file paths, and exact note references with line numbers and snippets.
  • Direct "Open Note" navigation and "Copy Markdown Link" actions.

2. Editor and Writing Experience ​

Multiple edit modes ​

  • Edit: write markdown source.
  • Split: source and preview side-by-side.
  • Preview: read-only rendered output.
  • Web Preview: richer rendering for selected notes.

Markdown toolbar ​

Quick insert actions for headings, emphasis, lists, links, tables, diagrams, and validation.

Inline table editor ​

When the cursor is inside a markdown table, Notely opens an inline table editor overlay with focused controls:

  • Edit headers and cells in a grid view.
  • Add/remove rows and columns from contextual action chips.
  • Set per-column alignment (left, center, right) from header actions.
  • Save and cancel explicitly from compact top controls.
  • Background page scrolling is locked while editing to keep interaction scoped to the table editor.

Code Blocks ​

Notely provides a rich experience for working with code snippets:

  • Auto-detection: Paste a snippet without a language tag and Notely will automatically detect it (e.g., JavaScript, Python, HTML).
  • Auto-formatting: Use the 🪄 Format button in the preview hover toolbar or inside the editor to instantly auto-indent and format your code using Prettier.
  • Dedicated Editor: Click the ✎ Edit button on any code block in Preview mode to open a distraction-free Code Editor popup with syntax highlighting, search, and language selection.
  • Code Execution: Click the ▶ Run button in the hover toolbar or inside the popup editor to execute JavaScript (js), Python (py), Bash (sh), PowerShell (ps1), and HTML live-preview snippets locally. Output is displayed in an integrated high-contrast dark terminal output drawer (with exit status and a "Clear" button). Execution times out automatically after 10 seconds to prevent hanging. For unsupported languages, the run button is disabled with a helpful tooltip.

Find and replace ​

Search inside the current note and jump through results quickly.

Outline navigation ​

Use View -> Show Outline to jump between sections in long notes.

Focus mode ​

Use View -> Focus Mode to reduce visual distractions.

Terminal and workspace tools ​

Use View -> Show Terminal to open the embedded terminal.

Use View -> Terminal Shell to switch between Auto, Bash, and CMD.

Use Workspace -> Workspace Activity to review recent changes across the active workspace.

Appearance and layout ​

Notely includes view and appearance controls for different working styles:

  • Settings -> Theme: System, Light, or Dark
  • View -> Font: Select from 5 IDE-friendly typefaces (Inter, JetBrains Mono, Fira Code, Cascadia Code, Source Code Pro) applied across all UI labels and controls
  • View -> Tile Notes / Table Notes / Tree Notes: landing list layout (Ctrl/Cmd + 1 / 2 / 3)
  • View -> Comfortable Density / Compact Density: landing list density (Ctrl/Cmd + 4 / 5)
  • View -> Zoom In / Zoom Out / Reset Zoom: app-scale display controls
  • Drag & Drop Organization: Move notes between folders, across breadcrumb segments, between files in Tree View (with drop-insertion indicator), or into the Recycle Bin panel. Includes 600ms spring-loaded folder expansion on hover and 1-click Undo toast.

Note statistics ​

When editing a note, the status bar displays:

  • Word count: Live count of words in the active tab content (updates as you type).
  • Line count: Total number of lines in the document.
  • Reading time: Estimated reading time in minutes (calculated at 200 words per minute).

Statistics update independently for Raw and Formal editing modes.

Copy and export ​

Export note content in different formats directly from the toolbar:

  • Copy as HTML: copies a nicely formatted version you can paste into other apps
  • Copy as Plain Text: copies the plain note text

Both actions show success or error feedback via notifications.

The editor displays a breadcrumb trail showing the full folder hierarchy leading to the current note:

  • Click any segment to navigate to that folder.
  • Helps you keep track of where the current note lives.
  • Updates dynamically when you switch notes.

3. Quality and Validation ​

Markdown validation ​

Notely reports markdown issues while you edit.

Typo checking & Spelling Dictionary ​

Notely flags likely spelling mistakes in real-time as you write (excluding code blocks and raw markdown syntax).

  • Hunspell engine: Powered by Hunspell under the hood for accurate, high-quality dictionary checks.
  • Ignore / Add to dictionary: Right-click on a flagged spelling error in the editor to immediately ignore the word, or click Add to dictionary to add it to your custom workspace spelling dictionary.
  • Spelling Dictionary Manager: Open the command palette (Ctrl/Cmd+K) and run Manage Spelling Dictionary (or click the settings menu option) to view all custom added words, search them, remove individual words, or clear the dictionary completely.

Quick problem fixing ​

When Notely finds a problem, it shows you where it is so you can jump there quickly.

4. Search and Discovery ​

Search by note title, folder, details, and note content across the whole workspace.

Advanced search patterns ​

If you know advanced search patterns, you can turn on advanced matching in global search:

  • Click the .* button in the search bar.
  • Type your search pattern.
  • Notely checks the pattern as you type and tells you if it is invalid.
  • Results update as you type.

Example use cases:

  • Find function definitions: function\s+\w+\s*\(
  • Find error patterns: Error: \[[A-Z0-9_]+\]
  • Find API routes: \/api\/[a-z]+
  • Find imports: import\s+\{[\w\s,]+\}

Limit search results to code blocks only:

  • Click the Code Blocks filter button in the search bar (appears alongside All, Notes, Folders, Current Note).
  • Search now only matches code sections inside notes.
  • Matches appear in code, not normal writing.
  • Works with or without advanced matching turned on.

Example use case:

  • Search for TypeScript patterns only: Select "Code Blocks" filter, search for interface\s+\w+

Content snippets ​

Search results show match context so you can confirm relevance before opening.

Workspace graph ​

Open Workspace -> Workspace Graph to see how notes and files connect to each other.

Graph capabilities include:

  • Visual note-to-note link mapping
  • Media node visibility (images, videos, PDFs, and more)
  • Interactive zoom, pan, and drag
  • Mini-map for large workspaces

When AI search data is available, the graph can also group notes that are closely related.

5. Tasks and Workflow ​

Tasks overview ​

Task checkboxes from your notes appear in several places:

  • Open Tasks panel: unchecked tasks (- [ ]) only.
  • All Tasks panel: open + closed tasks in one searchable list.
  • Dashboard task summaries: quick counts and drill-down from landing widgets.
  • Note-level task summary: open/closed snapshot for the current note.

Open Tasks panel ​

The Open Tasks panel collects unfinished tasks from all of your notes into one searchable list.

Opening the Open Tasks panel ​

Open the panel using the Command Palette:

  • Press Ctrl/Cmd + K to open the command palette.
  • Search for "Open Tasks Panel" (or type "tasks", "todos", "checkboxes").
  • Press Enter to open.

Using the Open Tasks panel ​

  • Filter tasks: Use the search input to filter by task text or source note title.
  • View task count: The header shows the total number of open tasks.
  • Group by source: Tasks stay grouped by the note they came from.
  • Open source note: Click the "Open note" link next to any task to navigate to that note and close the panel.
  • Supported task syntax: Recognizes all markdown task formats:
    • - [ ] Task text (dash)
    • * [ ] Task text (asterisk)
    • + [ ] Task text (plus)

All Tasks panel ​

Use All Tasks when you need both open and completed work in one place.

  • Includes open ([ ]) and closed ([x]) tasks.
  • Supports quick filtering and note-grouped review.
  • Useful for status reviews, audits, and release checklists.

Use cases ​

  • Track action items across project notes
  • Get a quick overview of all pending work
  • Find tasks by keyword without opening individual notes
  • Maintain accountability in team workspaces

6. Git Version Control and History ​

Native Git Repository ​

Notely integrates native Git versioning to track your document history. Workspaces can be initialized as Git repositories directly from the Version Control panel.

Compare, Restore, and Tagging ​

Open Version Control -> History (Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + H) or click the History button in the note top bar to:

  • Compare commits with word-level difference highlighting.
  • Toggle between rich Markdown Preview Mode and raw Code View for line differences.
  • Restore the active note to an older revision.
  • Add tag references to commits directly from the history timeline.

Branch, Stash, and Sync Management ​

The full Version Control Page includes tabs to switch branches, create tags, push/pull changes to remote repositories, and stash unstaged changes to keep your workspace tidy.

7. Media Management ​

Image and file linking ​

Add images and other files to your notes and link to them when needed.

Media actions ​

Rename, replace, annotate, and open media in default apps.

Screen capture & video recording ​

Notely supports area-based screen capture and full screen/window video recording directly from the editor.

  • Static Screen Snipping:
    • Trigger capture from the toolbar icon or Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + S.
    • Insert behavior is controlled by Settings -> Screen Capture (Auto Insert vs Review Before Insert).
  • Screen Video Recording:
    • Click 🎥 Record on the editor toolbar to open the source picker.
    • Source Picker: Choose any connected desktop screen or application window with live thumbnail previews. Includes a Microphone Toggle (ON/OFF).
    • Auto-Minimize: Notely automatically minimizes to clear the desktop recording area.
    • Draggable Floating Overlay: Always-on-top pill window with timer (00:00), Pause/Resume, Mic Mute/Unmute, Stop & Save (⏹), and Cancel (✕).
    • Auto-Save & Linking: Saves .webm files under media/recordings/ and inserts ![Screen Recording](media/recordings/*.webm) into the note.
    • Note Preview & Modal Player: Renders video links as interactive thumbnail cards with ▶ Play Video badges and frame decoding. Clicking opens a full-screen playback modal with Download and Copy Path options.

Audio & Meeting Recording with Speech-to-Text ​

Record voice notes or entire conference calls (Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, YouTube) directly into Notely with synchronized audio and transcription.

  • Dual-Stream Audio Capture:
    • Meeting Mode: Simultaneously captures your local microphone and Windows desktop/system audio loopback, combining them into a single stereo track with Web Audio API mixer.
    • Microphone Only: Dedicated voice memo recording.
    • System Audio Only: Captures speakers/audio loopback without mic.
  • Speech-to-Text (STT) Transcription:
    • Local ONNX Whisper (Offline): Runs locally in-app via WebAssembly/ONNX runtime (whisper-tiny.en, whisper-base.en, whisper-small). No internet connection or cloud API keys required.
    • Cloud Whisper: High-speed cloud transcription using Groq (whisper-large-v3) or OpenAI (whisper-1) with API keys configured in AI Settings.
  • Transcript Storage:
    • Audio files are stored under media/audio/*.webm.
    • Transcripts are saved alongside audio in media/audio/*.json containing segmented timestamps, speaker attributions, key points, and action items.
  • Workflow Differences:
  • Media Gallery Integration & Transcripts Filter:
    • The Diagrams, Media & PDFs gallery (Workspace -> Diagrams, Media & PDFs) includes a dedicated Transcripts filter category alongside Diagrams, Images, Videos, Audio, PDFs, and Documents.
    • Selecting a transcript in the gallery opens a rich inspector showing the AI executive summary, timestamped speaker segments, and a one-click button to copy the full transcript text.
    • On-Demand Transcript Generation: Any existing audio or video recording in the Media Gallery has a Generate AI Transcript button (✨). Clicking it decodes the media track, resamples it to 16kHz mono Float32, runs Whisper (Local ONNX or Cloud Groq/OpenAI based on your AI Settings), and saves a companion transcript JSON file in media/audio/.

Media preview tools ​

Use zoom and media-aware preview controls to inspect assets.

Workspace Health media checks ​

Notely helps detect and manage:

  • Missing linked files
  • Duplicate media
  • Unused media
  • Preview failures

You can review where files are used and clean up unused items.

Image annotation and lifecycle ​

Image notes and markups are saved separately from the picture itself, so you can keep editing them later.

Those notes stay in sync when you replace, rename, or remove an image.

Original image backup and restore ​

Before first edit, Notely stores an original image backup and allows restoring it later.

This helps recover from aggressive crops or accidental edits.

8. Diagram Features ​

Mermaid diagrams ​

  • Insert Mermaid blocks from the toolbar.
  • Write Mermaid syntax in markdown.
  • Render in preview modes.

Excalidraw diagrams ​

  • Insert Excalidraw diagrams in notes.
  • Edit visually and save.
  • Re-open diagrams from preview for updates.
  • Convert an existing note image to an Excalidraw diagram from image right-click menu (Edit with Excalidraw).
  • Converted diagrams open with the original image already placed underneath so you can trace or mark it up.
  • Excalidraw previews have their own right-click actions.
  • If the diagram started from an image, you can switch back to the original image later.

9. AI & Machine Intelligence ​

Privacy-First Architecture ​

Notely features a local-first, privacy-conscious AI architecture. Rather than relying on cloud-dependent chat sidebars, AI functionality is centered around:

  1. Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server: Local standard interface on port 3700 (http://127.0.0.1:3700/mcp and /sse) for external AI assistants (Google Antigravity, Claude Desktop, Cursor).
  2. Local Speech-to-Text (STT): On-device Whisper transcription via WebAssembly/ONNX, plus optional cloud transcription.
  3. Local Vector Embeddings & Hybrid Search: SQLite FTS5 combined with local BGE-small-en-v1.5 dense embeddings.
  4. Offline Knowledge Graph: Neural zero-shot entity and relation extraction powered by local gliner2-multi-v1-onnx.

AI Settings & Configuration ​

Configure AI services and endpoints in AI -> AI Settings (Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + ,):

  • LLM Provider Setup: Configure Google Gemini, Groq, or OpenAI / OpenAI-compatible endpoints with custom Base URLs for cloud STT and external workflows.
  • Speech-to-Text (STT) Settings: Choose between Local ONNX Whisper (whisper-tiny.en, whisper-base.en, whisper-small) and Cloud Whisper (Groq whisper-large-v3, OpenAI whisper-1).
  • Feature Toggles: Toggle pattern learning, embedding generation, relationship discovery, and adjust the neural entity extraction confidence threshold slider.

MCP Diagnostics & Interactive Testing ​

  • MCP Tools Catalog (Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + M): Inspect all 7 enterprise tools (search, read_note, edit_note, manage_tasks, manage_diagrams, workspace_overview, git_control), run live tool test calls, and inspect JSON payloads.
  • MCP Telemetry & Diagnostics: View live connection status, active client sessions, request rates, execution latency, and error logs.

10. Git Version Control & Sync ​

Repository Management ​

Initialize repositories, manage branch checkouts, stage/unstage files, and create commits with commit message templates directly inside the workspace.

Sync & Remotes ​

Configure remote tracking branches to pull and push notes seamlessly. Resolve conflict markers visually with the built-in diff viewer.

11. Help and Product Info ​

Documentation ​

Open Help -> Help Center (F1) for in-app help.

Keyboard shortcuts ​

Open Help -> Keyboard Shortcuts (Ctrl/Cmd + /).

About dialog ​

Open Help -> About Notely to view app identity and version information.

12. Preview and Export ​

Web preview ​

Use Web Preview for richer rendered note viewing with media and diagram support.

PDF export ​

Export notes to PDF using the same note preview system used inside the app.

PDF export keeps image quality options and visible image notes where possible.

Website-style rendering ​

Website-style output is designed to look close to what you see in preview.

Workspace zip export ​

From the landing screen, choose File -> Export Workspace as Zip.

The workspace export dialog includes:

  • Export format:
    • Notes as-is (markdown + assets)
    • PDF-only workspace bundle
    • Web format static package
  • App data toggle: include the .notes-app folder (off by default)
  • Destination: browse folder and reuse remembered location
  • Filename: default notelyproject.zip, editable before export

This flow is intended for backups, handoff, archival snapshots, and portable workspace sharing.