Lookups, brainstorming, and hashtags

Use Look up to explain a note, Brainstorm to suggest new branches, and Hashtags to add your own labels. These tools start from the note you are working on. A lookup saves an explanation with the note; a brainstorm creates new notes only when you choose a suggestion.

Lookups and Brainstorm require a signed-in account with hosted AI access enabled, an available allowance, and an available service. Signing in alone does not guarantee AI access. See your Colli account for account conditions.

Look up a note#

Right-click a canvas node and choose Look up. The small prompt shows the node title and two controls:

• Add subtext (optional) narrows the explanation. For a node titled “Composting”, you might enter “for a small balcony”. Only the first 200 characters of subtext are used.
• Include body adds the note's text to the request. It starts unchecked and remembers your choice in this browser.

Press Enter or choose Look up to submit. Without subtext, the request asks for a short, dictionary-style explanation of the title. With subtext, it asks for an explanation focused on those words. A note can have a title without a body; it does not need a paragraph of source text before you can look it up.

While the request runs, Looking up… appears in the prompt. Once the result is saved, the Lookups panel opens. Saved to note confirms that the result was written.

The original title and body stay in place. A lookup is additional material attached to the note.

Read and repeat lookups#

Open the note's Lookups section to read saved results. The Lookups toolbar control reveals that section in the editor. Opening saved results does not itself request another explanation.

The section's Add lookup control opens the lookup prompt. A task editor uses its task details in place of the note's hashtag and lookup sections; its canvas right-click menu still offers Look up and Hashtags.

The result panel puts newer note explanations first. Look up again returns to the prompt so you can change the subtext or the body choice. With no saved results, the panel says Nothing looked up yet. and offers Look up this note.

A title or text is required. If both are empty, the request reports “This note has no title or text yet. Give it one first.” Add content and try again. An empty response is reported rather than saved as an explanation.

Explain selected text#

Select words in a note's body and choose Look up in the selection controls. This runs immediately and asks for a short explanation of that phrase as used in the note.

The selected words are retained with the result. In Lookups, their explanation appears beneath the latest full-note lookup. If there is no full-note lookup yet, the phrase result still appears. These smaller explanations are saved with the note too.

For example, select “carbon to nitrogen ratio” within your composting note to ask about those words without requesting another full explanation of composting.

Closing the result panel cancels an explanation still being requested there. A result already saved remains with the note. Use Escape or the panel's close control to dismiss it.

Branch from a note with Brainstorm#

Choose Brainstorm from a node's right-click menu or the editor toolbar. It starts generating as soon as the panel opens. The suggestions are short titles for possible new notes.

Each suggestion has two actions:

The new item appears near the source and links back to it. Its body begins empty so you can develop the suggestion yourself. A checkmark shows which action you took, and that suggestion's buttons then stay disabled for the open run.

Load More extends the list. Suggestions already offered are excluded from the next batch. Loading more… appears while it runs. The list is kept only while this panel is open; closing and reopening starts another run. Nodes and tasks you created remain.

If you see “No new ideas came back. Try again, or edit the note first.”, give the source a more specific title or explanation, then reopen Brainstorm. If a write fails, “The node could not be created.” makes the suggestion available again.

On a shared canvas, creating suggestions requires editing access. In a private canvas, leave any entered node before creating brainstorm suggestions. The message “That cannot be made inside a node yet — leave the node first.” identifies this limit.

Choose whether earlier results are included#

Open Settings and find the AI section. The Include lookups and summaries control switches between Off and On.

When on, applicable requests can include a note's saved lookups and summary alongside its own writing. When off, they use the note text without those earlier results. The setting starts off and is remembered in the current browser. The separate Include body checkbox still decides whether a full-note lookup uses that body context at all.

The same preference is used by Brainstorm, Ask Glob, and Project View. Summary options lets you choose Lookups and Earlier summaries separately for a summary run. Brainstorm suggestions are not included as extra text on their source note; accepted suggestions are separate nodes.

Long note text can be shortened for an AI request. A saved lookup or summary is an interpretation of the material supplied for that request, so return to the source note when you need its complete wording.

See summaries for how connected-note summaries work, or Ask Glob for a conversation about a wider set of notes.

Add hashtags yourself#

Hashtags are labels you enter; adding one does not run AI. Choose Hashtags from the node's right-click menu, or reveal the editor's hashtag section from the toolbar.

In the Hashtags panel:

1. Choose Add hashtag.
2. Type the label in Add hashtag.
3. Press Enter or choose Save hashtag.

Cancel hashtag abandons the field. Escape first closes an active hashtag entry. Each existing label has a Remove hashtag control.

Labels are trimmed, changed to lowercase, and have spaces replaced with hyphens. You can type a leading #; it is removed before saving. Adding the same label again does not duplicate it. For example, #Balcony Compost becomes balcony-compost.

The number beside a label counts other notes that share that hashtag. The current note is excluded from the count. In a shared canvas the count comes from that canvas's notes. Matching labels help you recognise a common thread; they do not create links between nodes.

A view-only shared canvas displays its hashtags and counts without add or remove controls. When saving fails, the panel displays an error and leaves the existing labels visible.

For hosted AI access or allowance errors, see your Colli account. For data handling, read the Privacy Policy.