Introduction

Jotaid is a smart note-taking app designed for deep thinkers — researchers, strategists, and product managers who need more than a simple text editor.

Its design philosophy is "simple, not simplistic": a minimal surface with real depth underneath. Everything in Jotaid follows one thread:

Capture → Organize → Connect → Discover

Get ideas down fast, arrange them into structure, link them together, and let the connections reveal patterns you didn't see.

What It Solves

If you have had any of these moments, Jotaid was built for them:

• "I'm sure I wrote about this — I just cannot find where." Write [[a concept]] in your text and that concept becomes a note of its own; everywhere you mentioned it gathers in one place, with no index to maintain.
• "I've read a pile of material and still cannot say how any of it connects." Spread the notes on a canvas and drag them into groups, or switch to the graph and see what shape they form — the shape tells you which of them were about the same thing all along.
• "I keep going round the same loop." Jotaid points out which two concepts keep appearing in the same notes without you ever having connected them, and whether your network has grown too tightly knit to reach anywhere new.
• "The moment an idea lands, I don't want to decide where it goes." Put it in the Inbox and file it later, once you can see which notes belong together.

When you want more, AI can read through everything, propose the concepts worth naming, and turn a theme into a page of insight — running on your own API key, sending your text only to the provider you chose. There is also an embedded AI chat panel (the web versions of Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and DeepSeek) for asking without leaving your notes, free and using no key.

The free tier gives you the full editor, backlinks, graph, matrix and canvas — Pro adds multiple projects and AI.

System Requirements

Platform	Minimum Version
macOS	14.0+
iOS	17.0+

Jotaid is local-first — it works fully offline, with optional iCloud sync across your devices.

What the First Launch Looks Like

Jotaid runs no setup wizard. It drops you straight into a clean, empty workspace.

Empty is correct, not broken — no sample notes, no default project, no guided tour, just a short prompt telling you how to create your first note. On macOS you land in the three-column window, ready for ⌘N. On iOS you land in the Quick Note field, with the full app already loaded behind it; save or dismiss and you are in your notes. Starting iOS on a capture field rather than a list is deliberate: it makes your first instinct to write.

Almost no permissions — no notification prompt at launch, no photo library or accessibility access required, and the global Quick Note shortcut on macOS needs no special grant. Seeing no permission dialog at all is normal.

iCloud needs no setup — if you are signed in, sync turns itself on; there is no switch to flip. If you are not, Jotaid works exactly as well and simply stays local. Check the status any time under Settings → Sync Health, and see Sync.

Your First Five Minutes

1. Write a note — ⌘N on macOS, or ⇧⌘J for Quick Note; on iOS just type into the field you launched into. It lands in the Inbox, so you need not decide where it belongs yet
2. Link two ideas — type [[ in the body and Jotaid completes matching titles. Link A to B and the backlink appears in B automatically
3. Give the Inbox structure — ⌘T creates a Theme to gather related notes, ⇧⌘P a Project as a top-level container; or right-click a note → Convert to Theme
4. Change your angle — ⌃1 / ⌃2 / ⌃3 switch between the Note, Node and Theme views (the left drawer on iOS)
5. Watch the connections surface — open the Node view (⌃2) and your notes become a graph. The more links, the more the network has to say

TIP

With an API key configured and Pro unlocked, the AI can also propose links you missed (Semantic Relations), or draft a concept node outright with Smart Node.

Where the Name Comes From

Jotaid is pronounced /ˈdʒɒteɪd/ — say it "JOT-ade", stress on the first syllable. The name is simply jot + aid.

• jot — as in jot down. Catch the thought the moment it appears, before you have decided where it belongs or which theme it falls under.
• aid — the help that comes after. Sorting those notes into themes, backlinks and canvases yourself, or handing that work to AI for summaries, tags and suggested links.

The name is the division of labour: you jot, Jotaid aids.

Learning Path

1. Interface Views — Note / Node / Theme, and how you reach them on each platform
2. Appearance & Themes — Themes, interface text size and language
3. macOS Interface & iPhone Interface — What every part of the screen does
4. Quick Capture — Quick Note, dictation, PopClip clipping, and templates
5. Note Formatting — Write with live highlighting
6. Projects & Tags — Organize
7. Creating Nodes and Backlinks — Connect
8. Unlinked Mentions, Co-occurrence & Link Predictions — Discover
9. AI Features & AI Setup — What the AI can do, and how to turn it on with your own key
10. Unlock Pro — Purchase, restore, and what's gated
11. Sync and Backup & Restore — Keeping your data safe