Getting started · 5 min read
Four ideas. Five minutes.
Then go ramble.
Creator Notes works differently from a typical notes app.
The good news: there are only four moving parts.
NOTERELATIONSHIPCANVASTIA
The big idea
Most notes apps are filing cabinets.
Creator Notes is a workshop.
In a filing cabinet, the question is “where do I put this?” In a workshop, the question is “what am I making, and what does it connect to?”
Filing cabinets reward tidy, finished thinking. Workshops reward messy, in-progress thinking. Your ideas don't arrive finished, and now neither does your tool.
The four building blocks
Learn these, and you'll recognise everything.
Note
The atomic unit. A single thought, idea, decision, or chunk of writing.
Every note has a type — Idea, Insight, Decision, Meeting, and so on. The type colour-codes it on the canvas and tells the AI what kind of thing it is.
Type is also called a "supertag" inside the app. Same thing.
Relationship
A directional link between two notes — with a meaning, not just "see also".
Type [NOTE-12] inside any note to connect them. Relationships have types of their own (references, depends-on, derived-from), so the AI can walk your knowledge graph.
Backlinks come for free. Every link works in both directions.
Canvas
A spatial layout where notes sit next to each other so you can see them all at once.
Move them, group them, connect them. The canvas is where messy thinking becomes visible thinking — and where most of the actual insight tends to happen.
Canvases are views over your notes, not separate documents.
Tia
The AI assistant who has read your workspace and writes back to it.
Tia extracts notes from a ramble, suggests relationships, summarises canvases, and runs multi-step actions. She is not a chatbot — she is a coworker with full context.
The thing that surprises new users most: Tia writes to your workspace. You review her changes before they stick.
The loop
How you actually use it.
Four steps. One loop. Repeats forever — every project, every week, every messy thought.
01
Ramble
Open a note. Pick the type "Idea". Brain dump.
Don’t edit. Don’t structure. Get it out of your head before your inner editor kills it.
02
Extract
Ask Tia to pull out the meaningful pieces.
She proposes structured notes — Insights, Decisions, open questions — linked back to the original. You review the diff before anything saves.
03
Review
Drop the new notes onto a canvas.
See them next to each other. Move them around. Connect related ones. This is where most of the actual insight happens.
04
Refine
Edit when clarity exists. Every save is a version.
Each version has a short description of what changed. You can always go back, so the workspace is safe to mess with.
Your first 5 minutes
Four tiny quests.
Each one takes seconds and unlocks one of the four primitives. By the end, you'll have used everything.
Quest 01
Brain-dump one idea
Open the workspace. Click "New note". Type whatever’s on your mind for 60 seconds. Don’t edit. Set the type to "Idea". Save.
Skill unlocked: The Note primitive.
Quest 02
Ask Tia to extract
Open the AI panel. Type: "Look at the idea I just wrote and pull out the three biggest insights." Review her proposal. Accept it.
Skill unlocked: Typed Relationships, plus the Extract step of the loop.
Quest 03
Drop them on a canvas
Open the Home canvas. Drag the new notes onto it. Move them around until something feels right.
Skill unlocked: The Canvas, and the Review step.
Quest 04
Edit and watch a version save
Reopen any note. Change a sentence. Save with a short "what changed" description. Open Version History.
Skill unlocked: The Refine step, plus the safety net of versions.
Done with all four? You've used everything.