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Shortcuts & Power Tips

When ThoughtFree is installed as a PWA (Progressive Web App), you get home screen shortcuts:

ShortcutWhat it does
Quick RecordOpens directly to voice capture
Quick AddOpens directly to text capture
TodayJumps to the Today view

On Android, long-press the ThoughtFree icon to see these shortcuts.

If you think faster than you type:

  1. Install ThoughtFree as a PWA
  2. Use the Quick Record shortcut from your home screen
  3. Speak your thought
  4. AI handles categorization — you just capture and go

When you have multiple thoughts to capture:

  1. Open the capture sheet
  2. Save a thought
  3. The capture sheet stays open — immediately type the next one
  4. Repeat until you’re done

Capturing from Today automatically sets today as the due date. Perfect for adding tasks as they come up during the day.

A recommended weekly workflow:

  1. Check Insights — review your AI-generated weekly summary
  2. Process Inbox — categorize or archive anything unprocessed
  3. Review Tracker — check upcoming items and overdue tasks
  4. Write Diary — reflect on the week
  5. Run Pipelines — trigger any manual pipelines for deeper analysis

ThoughtFree is designed for a three-phase workflow:

  1. Capture — quickly dump thoughts throughout the day (Inbox)
  2. Process — organize, categorize, and act on thoughts (Today + Tracker)
  3. Review — reflect and extract insights (Diary + Insights + Archive)

On mobile, swipe gestures provide quick actions on thought cards:

  • Swipe right — archive or complete
  • Swipe left — delete

Long-press a thought card to enter selection mode for bulk operations.

Pull down on any list view to refresh and sync the latest data.

ThoughtFree saves everything locally first, then syncs to the cloud. Your thoughts are safe even if you lose connectivity.

If you edit the same thought on two devices before syncing, ThoughtFree detects the conflict and lets you choose which version to keep.

Regularly export your thoughts (Settings > Export & Import) for an independent backup. JSON format preserves all metadata.

ThoughtFree has a public API for advanced users:

  1. Generate an API key in Settings > API Keys
  2. Use REST endpoints to create, read, update, and delete thoughts
  3. Build custom integrations, scripts, or automations

The API supports the same operations available in the app — capture thoughts, manage categories/tags, trigger pipelines, and more.

ThoughtFree provides an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for integration with AI assistants like Claude Desktop. This lets you:

  • Capture thoughts from Claude conversations
  • Search your thoughts from within Claude
  • Use your thought history as context for AI conversations

Configure in Settings > API Keys and follow the MCP setup guide.