How to do everything in Cortex.

Getting around

Cortex has six surfaces, each on a number key:

The one shortcut to learn first is ⌘K (Ctrl-K on Windows/Linux) — the command palette. Press it anywhere to jump to a note by name, switch surfaces, or run a command. On a phone, the surfaces live in the bottom bar and the + button captures.

Create & organize notes

Make a note

Go to Notes and press + (or ⌘K → type a new name). Give it a clear title — the title is how you'll link to it later.

Rename, move, reorder

• Rename: click the note's title in the bar and type. Existing links update to follow it.
• Folders: notes can live in folders (Projects/, People/) nested as deep as you like — but you rarely need them. Prefer links (see below).
• Reorder: drag a note up or down within its folder; the order is remembered. Drag a note onto a folder to move it.

The editor

Cortex is a live-preview Markdown editor: you write plain Markdown and it styles as you type. You can format by hand, from the toolbar, or with shortcuts.

Formatting

Or select some text and a small format bar appears above it — no shortcuts to memorize.

Lists that behave

Press Return in a list and Cortex continues it — the next bullet, the next number, or a fresh - [ ] checkbox. Press Return on an empty item to leave the list. Tab / ⇧Tab indent and outdent to nest.

Find & replace

Press ⌘F inside a note to search and replace within it (match case, whole word, regex). This is separate from vault-wide search (⌘K).

Comfort

• Text size: the A− / A+ control in the toolbar sets your editor size; it sticks.
• Font: switch between Sans, Serif, and Mono.
• Word count shows in the corner; select text to count a selection.
• Auto-pairs: brackets and quotes close themselves; select a word and type * or _ to wrap it.
• Paste a link over selected text to turn it into a Markdown link.

Tasks & checklists

A task is just a Markdown checkbox — write it anywhere, in any note:

## This week
- [ ] draft the pricing note
- [ ] email [[Sam — design]] the mock
- [x] book the venue

1. Type - [ ] at the start of a line (or press Return in a checkbox list and it continues).
2. Tap the box to toggle it done — the line checks off and dims.
3. Open the Tasks tab (6) to see every open checkbox across your whole vault in one list, each linked back to its note.

The Inbox & Tidy

Capture fast

Tap + (or the capture box) and jot a thought — half a sentence is fine. It lands in the Inbox, a holding pen so you never break your flow to decide where something goes. On a phone you can share a link or paragraph straight into the Inbox from other apps.

Process it

Every few days, open the Inbox and deal with each capture: turn it into a real note, link it into something, or let it go. The Inbox is a runway, not a graveyard.

Tidy (automatic filing)

Tidy does the housekeeping for you, on-device:

• Files loose Inbox captures into Notes/.
• Archives stale daily notes into Archive/ — they stay fully searchable, just out of the way.

Run it on demand, or turn on the daily auto-tidy so your Inbox clears itself. Nothing is deleted and nothing is uploaded — it's just moving your own files around.

Linking & backlinks

Links are the point of Cortex. Type two brackets — [[ — and pick (or name) a note. That's a link. When you link A → B, note B automatically shows a backlink to A, with the surrounding sentence — so every note knows everywhere it's mentioned, with zero bookkeeping.

Linking to a note that doesn't exist yet is fine: it's a promise to your future self, and it resolves the moment you create that note. The deeper why is in the Guide.

Tags

Type #tag anywhere to tag a note. Use tags for a note's state or type — #draft, #someday, #source — and links for what a note is about. Tags filter; links connect.

Searching

• Keyword search (in the search box or ⌘K) finds the exact words you type — fast, and always available.
• ✦ Smart search Plus finds notes by meaning, so "how should we make money?" can surface your "usage-based pricing" note even if those words never appear. Ask it a question and it can compose an answer from your own notes. It runs on-device — your notes aren't uploaded.

Graph, Canvas & Templates

• Graph (4) draws your notes and links as a map. Dense clusters are your real areas of focus; lonely dots are ideas waiting to be connected. Connections Plus adds links by meaning, not just explicit [[ ]].
• Canvas — an infinite board (standard JSON Canvas) for arranging notes and ideas spatially. Find it in Notes.
• Templates — reusable note skeletons (Meeting, Daily, and your own). Start a note from a template to skip the boilerplate.

Dictation Plus

Tap the microphone in a note to dictate. Speak, tap again to stop, and Cortex transcribes on-device and inserts Markdown. It understands a few spoken commands — say "new line", "heading …", "link …", or "tag …" — so you can format hands-free. On iPhone it uses Apple's on-device speech; on the web and desktop it runs a local voice model (a one-time download on first use). Nothing is sent to a server.

Lock a note (secrets) 🔒

For API keys, passwords, recovery phrases — anything you don't want indexed or readable in the raw file — lock the note. Its contents are encrypted at rest (AES-GCM) with a key derived from a secrets passphrase you choose.

1. Open the note and tap the 🔒 in its toolbar.
2. The first time, set a secrets passphrase (used for all locked notes). Enter it once per session to read them.
3. The note is now stored as ciphertext. Tap 🔓 to remove encryption again.

A locked note drops out of search, AI, and the graph — you can't index what you can't read, which is the point. It syncs and backs up as ciphertext.

Images & attachments

Paste an image from your clipboard, or drag a file into a note, and Cortex stores it in your vault under attachments/ and drops in a Markdown image link. Your files stay yours — on your device.

Import your notes

Bring an existing library in from Obsidian, Notion, Apple Notes, Evernote, Roam, Trilium, or any folder of Markdown. In Notes, use Import (the ↓) and point it at your export. Because Cortex speaks plain Markdown, links and structure come across intact.

Sync across devices Plus

Sync is optional and end-to-end encrypted: your notes are encrypted on each device before anything leaves it, so the relay only ever sees ciphertext.

1. On each device: Sync → Set up Sync.
2. Enter a relay URL and a passphrase — the same on every device you want paired.
3. Edits converge automatically, conflict-free.

The passphrase is the secret — anyone who has it can sync that vault, and it can't be recovered, so treat it like a password.

Self-host the relay

Prefer to run your own sync server? The relay is a small, blind blob store you can host on an Umbrel or Start9 home server, a Raspberry Pi, or any Docker host — then point Cortex at it. See the self-hosting packages in the project repo.

Cortex + Claude

Because your vault is plain files, it works beautifully with AI. Two ways:

• For-AI export — one click bundles your whole vault into a single Markdown file for a Claude Project, ChatGPT Project, or Manus workspace. It's secret-scanned and free.
• Live over MCP — connect Cortex to Claude with the Model Context Protocol so Claude can read, search, and write back to your notes, right on your machine. Nothing is uploaded to us.

The full walkthrough is in the Guide.

Backup & leaving

Every note is a plain Markdown file you own. Backup/Export downloads your entire vault — notes, attachments, and settings — as a single archive; it's also how you move to a new device. And you can leave any time by simply copying a folder. No account, no lock-in, no permission needed. Your knowledge is permanently yours.

Free vs Plus

Owning and using your notes is free forever. Plus adds the features that need extra horsepower or infrastructure:

Plus features stay visible in the app with a 🔒 — tap one to upgrade. On iPhone and Mac, Plus starts with a free App Store trial.