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The capture box is designed to be available before you have decided where a thought belongs.

Open capture

Press ⌘K on Mac or Ctrl+K on Windows and Linux to focus the capture box. By default:
  • Enter tucks the thought.
  • Shift+Enter adds a new line.
You can swap that behavior in Settings.

Add meaning while you type

  • Type # for a tag.
  • Type @ for a person.
  • Use /brain while capturing to file the thought into a brain.
  • Add a date when the thought belongs on the calendar.
  • Drop files into the composer or paste an image.
  • Record audio when typing is the wrong tool.

When Tuck thinks something is actionable

Tuck may show This looks actionable and offer to turn the capture into a todo, schedule it, or make it repeat. Tuck checks the first line for specific action words, such as call or send, and phrases such as need to. See Why a thought looks actionable for the complete rules, limits, and examples. To create a todo directly and skip the suggestion, start a line with todo:, [ ], or - [ ]. Each of those lines becomes its own todo, in the order you wrote them. The todo becomes the only copy of that line, so it leaves the thought’s text. The first line stays as the thought’s title, without its marker. A line that starts with * is a bullet point, not a todo. Typing /todo files the thought into a brain named todo, like any other /brain.

Choose Thought, Todo, or Await

The composer has a Thought | Todo | Await switch.
  • Thought tucks a thought.
  • Todo adds a todo on its own, with no thought. See Add a todo for what Tuck reads from the text.
  • Await tucks a thought and starts an Await, something you’re waiting on from someone else. Mention the people with @ and add a day if you like, such as contract from @sam fri. See Keep track of what you’re waiting on.
The composer with Todo selected and date and tag chips under a typed todo
Typing todo: or [ ] at the start of a one-line draft switches to Todo and drops the marker, so the todo isn’t saved twice. Typing await: or waiting: the same way switches to Await. If your draft has more than one line, or a file, Todo mode still makes a thought with its todo. Before you tuck, chips under the field show what Tuck read. In Thought mode you might see +1 todo inside, +1 Await inside, or the thought’s date. In Await mode you’ll see who it’s waiting on, or Parked, and when you’ll check on it, such as Check in 3 days. On Todos, the composer starts in Todo mode. Switch it to Thought to tuck a thought instead. Hiding the composer keeps your draft.

Rename a thought from a list

On a card with a gray text preview, click the title to edit it in place. On a compact card, or a card without that preview, the title opens the thought. Edit its title there. The brain chip on a thought card lets you open that brain or move the thought to another one. A thought card shows a chip such as 1 todo · Nov 6 when the thought holds open todos.

Pin, share, archive, or delete a thought

Open a thought to find its action buttons: Pin, Attach, Record, Share, and More actions (…). Hover over or focus a button to see its name. Archive (or Unarchive) and Delete are in the More actions menu.

Comment on a thought

Comments let you leave a note about a thought without changing its text. Open a thought and choose Comment in the editor toolbar. On a wide screen, comments sit to the right of the thought. On a smaller screen, they’re below it.
  • Reply to a comment to keep a conversation together. Replies go one level deep.
  • Only the person who wrote a comment can edit or delete it.
  • Dismissing a comment hides it for you only. If someone replies later, it shows again.
Comments are encrypted like the thought they belong to. In a shared brain, the brain’s members can read and reply to them. Tuck AI can add one of its answers to a thought as a comment labeled Tuck AI. It belongs to you, so you can edit or delete it. See Tuck AI.
Comments are in the web app for now. The iPhone and Mac apps keep them when they sync but don’t show them yet.

Add a table

In the editor, open the Table menu and choose Insert table. Tuck adds a 3 by 3 table with a header row. Press Tab to move between cells. With your cursor in a table, the same menu can add or remove rows and columns, or delete the table. A wide table scrolls sideways inside the thought. Markdown tables work too. A line of cells separated by pipes, followed by a line such as | --- | --- |, shows as a table. In the web app, pasting a markdown table turns it into a table you can edit. The header row, column alignment, and formatting inside cells carry over. This doesn’t happen when you paste into a cell of an existing table. On iPhone and Mac, tables are shown but can’t be edited there. Edit them on tuckthis.app. For linked todos and repeat schedules, see Use todos.