# Graphite

> The AI notebook for makers. Write down what you're learning, and Graphite files it into your folders and projects. The Guide asks what you haven't worked out yet, checks you can explain it, and arranges a draft from your own sentences — then you publish it, script it for a video, or teach it back. Plain files you keep, and the AI you choose.

An AI notebook for making something of what you learn. It's for someone who studies a topic to make something of it — an article, a video, a talk — and it keeps the words theirs: the Guide is an editor, not a ghostwriter. Everything is a note: new notes land in the Inbox, and your own folders and projects are where they go. The Guide finds what's missing and arranges an outline or a first draft from your own sentences; a note can also become a page you publish or a script for a video. Everything is plain markdown files, in a folder on your computer or kept in the browser.

## How it works

Make something of what you learn. Write it down. Work it out. Make something of it.

1. **Write it down** (You, and the Guide once you turn filing on) — Choose New note on the Graphite button's card and write: nothing asks what a note is, and nothing is sent. Paste or drop text, a photo or a PDF anywhere outside a note's text, and it waits in the Inbox. Every note in no project or folder is in the Inbox, one line each; open one where it is, and move it into a project or a folder when you know where it goes — drag it onto one in the sidebar — or leave it. Turn on File my Inbox in Settings → AI, and Graphite files the rest into the project or folder each clearly belongs to, with a line in the Logbook and Undo. It never changes your words, never deletes, and never moves a file you put somewhere yourself, except a photo or a PDF in the Inbox, which moves once, when it's filed as a receipt, and Undo puts it back.
2. **Work it out** (You, and the Guide when you ask) — Ask the Guide, beside the note, about the note you're in — or select a sentence, choose Ask Graphite and type your question, and the Guide answers about those words. Ask what a line means or for an example, and the Guide answers from that note and the notes it links to, then asks you one question back; every question and its answer stay in the Guide's conversation, beside the note, the earlier ones folded to a line. What's missing lists the questions a curious reader would ask that your notes don't answer yet, each one sitting's work, for you to answer in your own words. Teach it back with the note closed, to a curious student who asks why, and each gap it finds goes under What's missing too.
3. **Make something of it** (You; the Guide arranges only when you ask) — Choose An outline or A draft in Actions, and the Guide arranges your own sentences in the order that explains it best, with what's missing marked where it belongs. Anything it can't find in your notes, it leaves out, and says so. A draft you keep is a new note of its own, labelled as Graphite's arranging; you write the rest. Click the Graphite button to change a note — summarize it, format it, or shorten the words you've selected — and it shows the changes it suggests in the note, change by change, for you to accept or reject. Then publish it as one web page you own, set it out as a script for a video, or copy it as Markdown for a blog or a newsletter.

## Folders and projects

- A folder is for something you keep learning about — Bitcoin, AI, design. You never finish one.
- A project is something you're making from what you learn — an article, a video, a talk. It starts as a question and ends when you've made it.
- A project holds what you're making; links hold what you know. A note is in one project at a time, and links to as many notes as it likes.
- The reader sets up their own, from the + beside Folders in the sidebar — New note, New project, New folder — and each is a note in Notes/: kind: project, or kind: topic for a folder (topics are called folders in the app since 25 October; nothing on disk changed). Which one a note is in is one line of its frontmatter — project: "[[…]]" or topic: "[[…]]" — so its file never moves, and Obsidian reads it too.
- A project's page has its own words, the notes in it, what's missing — every open question across them, ticked where it is — and under its title a line of what Graphite notices: how many notes, how many questions are open, when it was last taught back, when a draft was started, when it was published. Never a score, a percentage or a status the reader fills in. A folder's page has its projects and its notes, and says how many of each.
- The sidebar: the notebook's name, which opens its menu (Settings is there), and search; then Inbox, All notes, Map, Logbook, Receipts — Receipts once the notebook has a receipt — with the Inbox's count; then a line and Folders, with a + for a new note, project or folder: the projects in no folder, then each folder, in the reader's order. A folder or a project opens onto what's in it, its notes listed under it, and a note dragged onto one moves into it, with Undo. A place is a view of the notebook, not a folder. All notes, the place after the Inbox, is every note, filed or not — not projects, folders or receipts — newest first, each opening in place, as in the Inbox; Search (⌘O) and the Map reach any of them too.
- The Inbox holds every note in no project or folder, whatever it is, in ruled rows: what it is, its title — then its summary, if it has one — its tags and its day, as every list's rows are, in All notes and on a project's or a folder's page. A note opens right there, as a card — what it is, where it lives and its tags, then its words — to read, rename and edit; the reader arranges the list, selects several — with Select in its head, ⌘-click or ⇧-click — to move, tag, merge, ask Graphite about or delete together, and moves notes to a project or a folder with Move to…, a drag onto it in the sidebar, or a menu, with Undo. ⇧⌘N, or New note at the top of the Inbox, starts a new note there; New note on the Graphite button's card makes one in the project or folder whose page is in front, or else in the Inbox.
- Filing isn't learning, so you shouldn't have to do it. With File my Inbox on — a switch in Settings → AI, off until the reader turns it on — the Guide files the Inbox into the project or folder each note clearly belongs to, and writes each act in the Logbook, with Undo. It never changes your words, never deletes, and never moves a file you put somewhere yourself: a photo or a PDF in the Inbox moves once, when it's filed as a receipt, and Undo puts it back.
- Graphite never moves a note out of a folder of yours: a note in one stays where you put it, out of the Inbox, and is never filed.

## An editor, not a ghostwriter.

A chatbot writes for you. The Guide works on what you wrote: it asks what's missing, checks you can explain it, arranges a draft from your own sentences, and suggests edits you accept or reject. Anything it can't find in your notes, it leaves out — or asks you for. Every note but a receipt has Actions beside the Guide.

- Work it out: **What's missing** — The questions between these notes and something you could publish. **Teach it back** — Explain it with your notes closed, to a curious student. What you can't explain yet goes in What's missing.
- Make it: **An outline** — Your sentences, in an order that explains it. **A draft** — Your own sentences, arranged, with the gaps marked. No sentence added. **A script for a video** — Scenes: what to say and what to show.
- Share it: **Publish a page** — One web page you own, saved as a file. **Copy as Markdown** — For a blog or a newsletter.
- What's missing, an outline, a draft and Teach it back are the Guide's. Publishing a page, Copy as Markdown and the plain version of a script for a video — a scene for each part of the note — need no key.
- Everything in Actions happens in the margin, beside the note. Teach it back is the Guide's: the Student is in the margin, and the note's words stay blurred, out of reach of a click or a key, while you teach, with Show the note to see them; once the Guide has marked what you said, the note is back beside the marks. A script for a video is written in Actions' place, with Back to Actions. Only Publish a page opens a dialog.
- An outline or a draft holds only the reader's own sentences, word for word, with what's missing marked as a question where it belongs; the app checks it against the notes it was made from and takes out any sentence that isn't in them, and says how many. What the Guide writes is labelled as its own. What's missing and an outline go into the note only when you keep them, and an answer kept with Add to note is the Guide's own block, marked with the Graphite mark; a draft you keep is a new note of its own, in the note's project. Each is a line in the Logbook, with Undo. Graphite drafts a script for a video and never makes the video.

## The Graphite button, and the Guide

- The Graphite button, the mark on a raised square in the corner of the notebook, is how you change a note: hovered or focused, it says Ask Graphite (⌘J). Click it, or press ⌘J, and a card opens in its place that says what it's about — this note or the words you selected — with a box to say what to change, the changes most asked for (for a note, Summarize, Format, Fix the spelling, Shorten it, Refine the language and Write it up), and New note and Add files at its foot. In a note, the card is about that note alone: under Organize it offers Suggest a title, Suggest tags, Move to a folder and Split into notes, each worked out from that note and the names of your folders and tags, with nothing of your other notes sent; a split keeps every block of the note, the first part in it and each other part a note of its own, linked from it. The card for your notes — the Inbox's, All notes', a project's or a folder's page, on the notes it holds, or that of notes selected together — offers Clean up duplicates, Organize into folders, Tidy titles and tags and Delete empty notes, and Merge these for notes selected together. Each is suggested as steps — a merge keeps every paragraph of each note, and the links follow it — for you to accept or reject one by one or all at once, and each step done is a line in the Logbook with Undo. Finding duplicates and empty notes happens on your device, with nothing sent. While Graphite works it out, the card says what it's reading over a thin bar, which goes once the steps or the answer come. A question typed in the card is answered there: in a note's, from that note; in your notes', from their titles and first lines, where asking what something is offers to write a first draft of a note on it, labelled as Graphite's. Research is the Guide's: the card offers to hand it over.
- Changes, the margin's tab beside Actions, lists what was done to the note in front, newest first, each with when, and Undo; the Logbook has the rest.
- The Guide, the panel beside the note, is where you ask about it, with every tool: What's missing, Explain simply, Research, Teach it back, Quiz me, Check it and Link related. Each tool is shown by name, its icon beside it. The Guide's conversation is every question and answer, oldest first, the earlier ones folded to a line; a change typed in the Guide goes to the Graphite button's card. An outline and a draft are in Actions, and what they arrange shows in the Guide.
- Select words in a note and right-click: Ask Graphite (⌘J), or Fix the spelling, Shorten it, Refine the language, Write it up or Summarize, each suggested at once in the note; then Make a linked note, Copy, Look it up in my notes, and the editor's Format. To ask about the words, choose Ask Graphite and type a question: the Guide answers about them.
- A note's right-click menu — on its row, its tab or its title — has Ask Graphite; Graphite, with what the card does in the note, its changes and what it organizes; then Draft from your notes, Publish a page… and Copy as Markdown. What's missing and Teach it back are in the Guide and in Actions.
- On a wide screen, the margin's tabs are icons, named on hover: the Guide's is a speech bubble with a question mark, since the Graphite mark is for what changes the note. On a phone, the Margin sheet's tabs are words.
- Notices sit in the window's bottom-right corner: over the margin's corner while the margin is open, above the Guide's box, and otherwise above the Graphite button.
- Edits are suggestions. Summarize, Format, Fix the spelling, Shorten it, Refine the language, Write it up and a change you ask for never write: what they suggest shows in the note change by change — words that would go struck through, words that would come marked — and the reader accepts or rejects each change, or all of them from the pill beside the Graphite button. Nothing is written until every change is decided; what's accepted is one line in the Logbook, with Undo, and rejecting them all leaves the note as it was.
- Summarize brings a few plain sentences that say what the note, or the words selected, says and nothing it doesn't, suggested as Graphite's own block, titled Summary, at the top of the note or after the words selected.
- Research, in the Guide, answers in its conversation from what the model knows, not a search of the web: a few findings, a sentence each, then a Check: line that says what to check and where. It's asked to say when it isn't sure and not to invent a source or a link, and nothing checks that for the reader. It adds nothing to the note unless the reader chooses Add to note: then it goes in as the Guide's own block, marked with the Graphite mark, as a line in the Logbook with Undo.

## Principles

- **Your words stay yours.** Graphite changes nothing you write unless you accept the change, and marks what it writes as its own. When it drafts, it arranges your sentences: it doesn't write new ones. An outline or a draft the Guide arranges is made of sentences from your notes, word for word, in the order that explains it, with what's missing marked as a question. Any sentence it can't find in your notes is taken out before you see it, and the app says how many. An edit it suggests — formatting a note, or what you asked of a selection — shows in the note, change by change, and nothing is written until you accept it. What you keep is marked as Graphite's and is a line in the Logbook, with Undo; a typed question gets an answer and one question back. Research: Students given plain chatbot answers did better in practice and worse on the exam. A tutor with guardrails largely avoided the harm. (Bastani et al., 2025, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40560616/)
- **The best way to learn is to teach.** Explain it to someone who asks why, with your notes closed, and you'll find what you don't understand yet. It's an old saying — Seneca wrote that people learn while they teach — and the research behind it is narrower, and useful: explaining from memory, to someone who asks questions, shows you the gaps. So Teach it back puts the note out of sight while Graphite plays a curious student who asks why, asks for an example and asks what your words mean. Afterwards it marks what you said against your own notes, never with a score, and each gap goes under What's missing in the note. Research: Across 28 studies, preparing to teach, and then teaching, helped people learn — more when the teaching was interactive. (Kobayashi, 2019, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jpr.12221) People rated how well they understood everyday devices, tried to explain one step by step, and rated themselves lower afterwards. (Rozenblit & Keil, 2002, https://doi.org/10.1207/s15516709cog2605_1)
- **Connect the dots.** Saying how a new idea connects to what you already know, in your own words, helps you understand it. A [[link]] shows on both notes. Link related suggests the notes this one could link to, each with its reason, and adds none until you accept: the connection that counts is the sentence you write about why. The Map shows how it all connects. Research: Students asked to explain each line of a text to themselves learned more from it than students who read it twice. (Chi, de Leeuw, Chiu & LaVancher, 1994, https://doi.org/10.1207/s15516709cog1803_3)

## Worked examples

### Understand a topic: From a question to what you can explain.

- Write it down: Make a project for the question you want answered — how do transformers work? — in the folder it's part of, and write what you know and what you don't as notes in it, or move them in from the Inbox.
- Work it out: Ask the Guide about any note, beside it: what a line means, an example; choose Research, and it answers from what the model knows, for you to check. What's missing lists the questions your notes don't answer yet. Then teach it back with the note closed, to a curious student who asks why, and see where your notes don't back you up.
- Make something of it: Answer what's missing in your own words, a note at a time, and tick each question off on the project's page. When you can explain it, write it up: the Guide arranges your sentences into an outline, and you publish it as a page you own.
- What it doesn't do yet: It doesn't read a book or a paper you drop in to learn from: explanations come from the model, labelled as Graphite's. No spaced repetition: it doesn't schedule reviews.
- The whole example: https://graphitenotebook.com/use-cases/learn

### Make something from it: From scattered notes to a first draft in your own words.

- Write it down: Give the article a project of its own, started as the question it answers, and drop everything into the Inbox as it comes — a line, a link, a paragraph you pasted. Move each note to the project when you know it belongs, or, with File my Inbox on, Graphite files it there.
- Work it out: On the project's page, find what's missing: the questions a reader would ask that your notes don't answer yet. Answer them in notes of your own, and teach it back with your notes closed to find what you can't explain yet.
- Make something of it: Ask for a draft, and the Guide arranges your own sentences in the order that explains it, marking each gap where it belongs; anything it can't find in your notes, it leaves out. Write the rest yourself, then publish it as a page or set it out as a script for a video.
- What it doesn't do yet: It doesn't write the piece for you: the draft is your own sentences, arranged, with the gaps marked. No sync between devices: browser notes stay in that browser on that device.
- The whole example: https://graphitenotebook.com/use-cases/project

### A shoebox of receipts: The receipts already on your Mac, added up.

- Drop them in: Drop in the receipts already on your Mac — the photos in Photos › Utilities › Receipts, the PDFs from Mail or Downloads. Each is kept in the Inbox as it is.
- Find them filed: After a yes of its own, Graphite reads each one as printed — merchant, date, total, tax, payment — checks it on your computer, and files it under Receipts by its year, with the original beside it, unchanged. One it can't check waits in the Inbox with one question.
- Add them up: Receipts adds up each month per currency and by category, for Work, Personal or both. Export a CSV and the originals for your accountant, with no key. Ask your notebook what you spent on travel in September, and Graphite adds up the receipts and shows the ones behind the total.
- What it doesn't do yet: No phone app yet: use Graphite in your phone's browser. Receipts stay in that browser unless you export them. No currency conversion: totals are per currency. Graphite isn't tax software. Totals are sums of what Graphite read and you checked.
- The whole example: https://graphitenotebook.com/use-cases/receipts

## Notes from before 23 October 2026

Every file and field stays as it was. An explainer shows as a project, by its question, with the notes filed under it; nodes, concepts and question notes are notes like any other, where they were — under the project they're filed in, or in the Inbox while they're in none — and Search (⌘O) and the Map find every one. The new-tab box called What's on your mind?, note types, and the Questions, Concepts, Nodes, Explainers and Network places left the app on 23 October 2026; the release notes say what took their place. Nothing was moved or rewritten.

## How it differs

- Compared with a chat window: It writes for you, and a good answer scrolls away. Graphite answers about the note you're in and keeps the conversation beside it, asks what you haven't worked out yet, and arranges a draft from your own sentences — anything it can't find in your notes, it leaves out.
- Compared with Obsidian: You start from a blank page and file everything yourself. Graphite keeps the same plain markdown files, files your Inbox into your folders and projects in the open, with Undo, and helps you make something of them in your own words.
- Compared with Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM): It starts from sources you add, in your Google account, and writes from them. Graphite starts from what you write down, keeps it as plain files, works with the AI you choose, checks what you understood against your own notes, and drafts only from your own sentences.

### Graphite and Obsidian, compared (facts as of 10 October 2026)

Both keep your notes as plain markdown files in a folder you own, and Graphite's Mac app opens an Obsidian vault as it is. Obsidian is a blank page you can shape any way you like, and the organizing is yours. Graphite is a small notebook — an Inbox, and the folders and projects you set up — that files what you write down, tells you what it did, finds what's missing, and arranges a first draft from your own sentences when you ask, with the AI you choose.

- “Obsidian stores your notes locally as plain text Markdown files.” (obsidian.md, https://obsidian.md/)
- It's “Free without limits”, with paid add-ons to sync your notes between devices and to publish them as a site. A commercial license is optional: “You are not required to pay for a commercial license.” (obsidian.md/pricing, https://obsidian.md/pricing)
- It has apps for macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android. (obsidian.md/download, https://obsidian.md/download)
- Its community directory has thousands of plugins and hundreds of themes. (community.obsidian.md, https://community.obsidian.md/)
- Community plugins add AI tools inside a vault. Obsidian's official Web Clipper also has an optional Interpreter: it uses a model you choose to extract, summarize, explain or translate information from a web page before saving it to Obsidian. (Obsidian community directory, https://community.obsidian.md/; Obsidian Help, Interpreter, https://obsidian.md/help/web-clipper/interpreter)
- When Obsidian is the better choice: You want to build your own system — folders, tags, templates, plugins — and you enjoy keeping it. You want a native app on your phone, on Windows or on Linux. You want to sync between devices, or publish your notes as a site, from the same app. You'd rather no AI came near your notes.
- When Graphite fits: You'd rather not do the filing: write it down, and find it filed in the project it belongs to, each act shown, with Undo. You want to make something of what you learn — an article, a video, a talk — in your own words, with what's missing asked for. You're learning something, and want the explanation, the connections and teaching it back in the same place as your notes. You want to publish a note as a page in a file you own, rather than a site someone hosts. You keep receipts, and want them read, filed by year and added up.
- The whole comparison: https://graphitenotebook.com/compare/obsidian

### Graphite and the LLM wiki: Obsidian with Claude Code, compared (facts as of 9 October 2026)

Both keep a notebook as plain markdown files that a model helps look after. With Obsidian and Claude Code you set it up yourself, run an AI agent from a terminal, and the model writes the notes. Graphite comes ready: a small, fixed structure, filing you can see and undo, and your own notes left in your own words. Claude Code can run on a Claude subscription; Graphite needs an API key or an OpenRouter account.

- On 4 April 2026, Andrej Karpathy published “LLM Wiki”, “a pattern for building personal knowledge bases using LLMs”: the model “incrementally builds and maintains a persistent wiki” of markdown files, which you read in Obsidian. The gist doesn't mention Graphite. (Andrej Karpathy, “LLM Wiki”, 4 April 2026, https://gist.github.com/karpathy/442a6bf555914893e9891c11519de94f)
- Its diagnosis: “The tedious part of maintaining a knowledge base is not the reading or the thinking — it's the bookkeeping.” Its answer: “You never (or rarely) write the wiki yourself — the LLM writes and maintains all of it.” (Andrej Karpathy, “LLM Wiki”, 4 April 2026, https://gist.github.com/karpathy/442a6bf555914893e9891c11519de94f)
- It has a coding tool such as Claude Code do the writing, following a file of instructions kept in the folder, and keeps a log of what was done in a file of its own, log.md. (Andrej Karpathy, “LLM Wiki”, 4 April 2026, https://gist.github.com/karpathy/442a6bf555914893e9891c11519de94f)
- Claude Code is Anthropic's coding agent: in its docs' words, “an agentic coding tool that reads your codebase, edits files, runs commands”, in a terminal, an editor, a desktop app or a browser. (Claude Code docs, https://code.claude.com/docs/en/overview)
- It runs on a Claude Pro or Max plan — “Claude Code in your terminal with one unified subscription” — and its usage limits are “shared across Claude and Claude Code”. (Claude Help Center, https://support.claude.com/en/articles/11145838-using-claude-code-with-your-pro-or-max-plan)
- It keeps checkpoints of the edits it makes with its file tools, which you can rewind; its docs say they're not a replacement for version control such as git. (Claude Code docs, Checkpointing, https://code.claude.com/docs/en/checkpointing)
- Anthropic “does not permit third-party developers to offer Claude.ai login into their own applications”, or to send requests on a Free, Pro or Max plan for their users. (Claude Code docs, Legal and compliance, https://code.claude.com/docs/en/legal-and-compliance)
- When Obsidian with Claude Code is the better choice: You're at home in a terminal, and want to shape every part: the folder, the instructions, the workflow. You already pay for Claude Pro or Max, and don't want a separate API key. You want the model to write and keep up the whole wiki, from sources you collect. You want Obsidian's native apps on Windows, Linux or your phone.
- When Graphite fits: You'd rather not set anything up, or open a terminal. You want to write your own notes, with the filing done for you, each act shown, with Undo, and drafts only when you ask for them. You want to understand what you keep, not only look it up: explain it, connect it, teach it back.
- The whole comparison: https://graphitenotebook.com/compare/obsidian-claude-code

### Graphite and Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM), compared (facts as of 9 October 2026)

Gemini Notebook starts from sources you add — PDFs, documents, web pages, videos — and answers questions about them, in your Google account. Graphite starts from what you write down: it files it into your folders and projects, finds what's missing and arranges a first draft from your own sentences when you ask, keeps everything as plain markdown files, works with the AI you choose, and asks you to teach back what you learned.

- Google gave it this name on 16 July 2026, and says “more than 30 million people and over 600,000 organizations are using it”. (Google, 16 July 2026, https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/products/gemini-notebook/notebooklm-gemini-notebook/)
- Google calls it “the AI research tool and thinking partner that can analyze your sources, turn complexity into clarity and transform your content.” (notebook.google, https://notebook.google/)
- A source can be a PDF, a Google Doc, Slides or Sheets, a Word or Markdown file, a web page, a public YouTube video, an audio file and more: “up to 50 sources (for Free users)”, each “up to 500,000 words or up to 200MB”. A source is “a copy or auto-synced version” of what you add. (Gemini Notebook Help, https://support.google.com/gemininotebook/answer/16215270?hl=en)
- Its notebooks are also in the Gemini app, kept in sync with Gemini Notebook itself. (Google, 16 July 2026, https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/products/gemini-notebook/notebooklm-gemini-notebook/)
- Since September 2024 it can turn your sources into an Audio Overview: two AI hosts discussing them, to listen to. (Google, 11 September 2024, https://blog.google/technology/ai/notebooklm-audio-overviews/)
- Study notebooks in the Gemini app, since 25 June 2026, start with “a custom diagnostic quiz”, then give short lessons, and have “a personalized, skill-based progress dashboard that tracks your learning in real time”. (Google, 25 June 2026, https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/products/gemini-app/gemini-study-notebooks/)
- It has had apps for Android and iOS since 19 May 2025. (Google, 19 May 2025, https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/products/notebooklm-app/)
- When Gemini Notebook is the better choice: You have a pile of sources — papers, PDFs, slides, videos — and want answers grounded in them. Graphite doesn't read a book or a paper you drop in yet. You'd like to listen: an Audio Overview turns your sources into a conversation. You want a diagnostic quiz, lessons, and a dashboard that tracks your progress. You want a native phone app. You'd rather not get an AI key: it works with your Google account.
- When Graphite fits: Your notes are your own writing, and you want them filed for you and kept as files you own. You want to choose the AI, and change it when you like. You want to explain it back and see where your own notes don't support you, without a score. You also want your receipts read, filed and added up.
- The whole comparison: https://graphitenotebook.com/compare/gemini-notebook

## Practical guides

- [How to organize notes without folders](https://graphitenotebook.com/guides/how-to-organize-notes): A worked example for organizing scattered notes around ideas, keeping one copy of each thought, and finding it again. Includes a reusable Markdown example.
- [AI for Obsidian notes while keeping your Markdown files](https://graphitenotebook.com/guides/ai-for-obsidian-notes): Compare ways to use AI with an Obsidian vault, then test a three-note example for citations, missing answers, file changes, and provider access.
- [The Feynman technique with AI, using your own notes](https://graphitenotebook.com/guides/feynman-technique-with-ai): Practice explaining from memory with AI as a curious listener. A complete teach-back example, source-checking checklist, and reusable note template.
- [How to get an AI API key for Graphite](https://graphitenotebook.com/guides/how-to-get-an-ai-api-key): What an AI API key is, which provider to choose, and how to make one at Anthropic, OpenAI, Google Gemini, xAI, Mistral, DeepSeek, Groq, OpenRouter or the Vercel AI Gateway, with what light use costs, free tiers, spending limits and how to revoke a key.

## Platforms

- macOS desktop app (macOS 13 Ventura or later, on Apple silicon): in beta, and not yet notarised by Apple. https://graphitenotebook.com/download
- The same notebook in a web browser on a computer, tablet or phone, with notes stored in that browser on that device: https://graphitenotebook.com/app
- On phones, the sidebar, the note and the margin open one at a time, and the Graphite button sits above the bar at the bottom. Write and edit notes, add photos or PDFs, and export a copy.
- Not available yet: native Windows, Linux or phone apps, or device sync.

## AI and privacy

- Works with Claude, GPT, Gemini, Grok, Mistral, DeepSeek and more — paste a key, or sign in with OpenRouter. Graphite never charges for AI.
- A Claude or Gemini subscription can't be used by other apps — Anthropic doesn't allow it, and Google offers no way to — so for those you'd use an API key, or OpenRouter. Signing in with ChatGPT needs OpenAI's approval, which we've asked for.
- How to get a key, provider by provider — where to make one, what light use costs, free tiers, spending limits and revoking: How to get an AI API key for Graphite, https://graphitenotebook.com/guides/how-to-get-an-ai-api-key. In the web notebook, Settings → AI has the same steps in short, under How to get a key.
- Your key goes only to the provider you chose, and you pay that provider for what you use, at their prices.
- In the Mac app, your key is kept in your Mac's Keychain — or, if you turn that off in Settings, in Graphite's own file on your Mac, unencrypted — and a request goes from the app's own server, running on your Mac, straight to your provider.
- In the browser, your key is kept in that browser and sent with each request, along with the notes it's about, through Graphite's server to your provider. The server passes them on and stores neither.
- Asking Graphite about a note — or for what's missing, an outline, a draft, a summary, an edit or research — sends that note, the notes it links to and what you typed to your AI provider, only when you ask; asked about words you selected, it sends those words too, and asked about notes you selected together, it sends those notes. On a project's or a folder's page it sends that page and the notes in it, up to twelve, and the Guide says how many under its box.
- Asking your notebook sends your question and the notes that match it, found on your device, to your AI provider — only when you ask, and the answer shows what was sent. A question about money also sends a line for each receipt it may be about (merchant, date, currency, category, work or personal — never a total), and Graphite adds up the total on your device; on OpenRouter, it goes only to providers that keep nothing. A question no note or receipt matches sends nothing.
- Filing is off until you turn on File my Inbox in Settings → AI, in each notebook. Then Graphite files that notebook's Inbox on its own: it sends each Inbox note's title and first lines, with the names of your projects and folders, to your AI provider — the notes waiting when you turn it on, then each new one a few seconds after you write it, and any waiting when you open the notebook. A note it leaves in the Inbox isn't sent again unless you change it, an answer you saved from asking your notebook isn't sent at all, and with a key for another provider filing stays off until you turn it on again.
- Reading receipts takes a yes of its own in each notebook. After it, Graphite sends each photo or PDF waiting in that notebook's Inbox to your AI provider with your key — a photo as a smaller JPEG copy without its location, a PDF as it is — and writes what it reads next to the original, in your notebook. Graphite's server keeps none of it; on OpenRouter, receipts go only to providers that keep nothing.
- Graphite logs which action ran, how long it took and the kind of any error — never a note, a question or a key.
- The site and the notebook in a browser count visits with Vercel Web Analytics — the page, the site you came from, your country, and your browser, system and kind of device — with no cookies, and never what you write. They also count each Mac download, and in the notebook each note made and each request Graphite answers — by its kind, never by its title or words. The Mac app counts nothing.
- What Graphite writes is marked as Graphite's: by a label or the Graphite mark in the note, and in the frontmatter of a note it writes. A change it suggests to the reader's words is written only once they accept it.

## Price

- Today Graphite charges nothing: the notebook and the Guide work with the reader's own AI key, and the AI provider bills the reader for what they use.
- A plan is coming (not on sale yet). When it starts, these will be its terms:
  - One plan: $39.99 a year (a third off), or $4.99 a month. Prices in US dollars.
  - 30 days free, with no card. If the trial ends without one, nothing is charged: the Guide pauses, and notes never lock. With a card, the plan starts on day 31 and renews until cancelled; an email goes out 7 days before the trial ends, with a link to add one. Cancel any time from Settings → Account → Manage subscription.
  - Full refund on request within 14 days of any charge. Yearly plans can be cancelled any time, with a pro-rata refund of unused months.
  - Students and educators: $19.99 a year, yearly only, for a sign-in email at a school or university.
  - The subscription pays for the Guide (filing, reading receipts, explaining, answering about a note, finding what's missing, arranging an outline or a draft from your sentences, suggesting edits, researching, connecting, teaching, asking your notebook and checking a page before you publish it). Notes never depend on it: capture, opening, writing, linking, searching, the Map, the receipts' totals and export always work, in the browser or on the Mac.
- Details: https://graphitenotebook.com/pricing

## Community

- Today: Teach the Student. Explain an idea to Graphite playing a curious newcomer. Private, in the app, on your own key.
- Today: Publish a page. Make any note a web page you own: one HTML file, downloaded in the web notebook. Graphite doesn't host it — anyone you give it to, or who visits where you put it, can read it.
- Then (not built yet): A page Graphite hosts. Publish a note to a page Graphite keeps for you, unlisted unless you choose otherwise. Readers can't comment; they can only ask you a question.
- Later (not built yet): A library, and study circles. Read how other learners explained a concept once you've taught it yourself, and teach each other in circles of three to six.

## Questions

### How much does it cost?

Graphite charges nothing today: the notebook and the Guide work with your own AI key, and your AI provider bills you for what you use. A plan is coming — $39.99 a year or $4.99 a month, after 30 days free with no card — and it will pay for the Guide. Your notes will never lock: capture, opening, writing, linking, searching, the Map, the receipts' totals and export will always work without it.

### What are folders and projects?

A folder is for something you keep learning about — Bitcoin, AI, design. You never finish one. A project is something you're making from what you learn — an article, a video, a talk. It starts as a question and ends when you've made it. You set up your own from the + beside Folders in the sidebar — New folder or New project — and each is a note: a project's page has your words about it, the notes in it, what's missing from it and a line of what Graphite notices — how many notes, how many questions are open, when you last taught it back, when a draft was started — and a folder's page has its projects and its notes. In the sidebar, a folder or a project opens onto what's in it. A project holds what you're making; links hold what you know. A note is in one project at a time, and links to as many notes as it likes. Which one a note is in is one line of its frontmatter — project:, or topic: for a folder — so its file never moves, and Obsidian reads it too. Every note in no project or folder waits in the Inbox until you move it — drag it onto one in the sidebar — or, once you turn on File my Inbox in Settings → AI, Graphite files it.

### What can I make from a note?

An outline or a first draft, arranged from your own sentences with the gaps marked; a script for a video, set out as scenes; or one web page you own, as a file. Copy as Markdown is there for a blog or a newsletter. Before you make anything, What's missing lists the questions between your notes and something you could publish, and Teach it back checks you can explain it. Each starts from the note you're in, in Actions beside the Guide — and what's missing from the Guide too. What the Guide writes is labelled as its own: what's missing and an outline go into the note only when you keep them, and a draft into a new note of its own. Format tidies a note's headings, lists and spacing, shown change by change for you to accept or reject. Without a key, publishing a page, Copy as Markdown and the plain version of a script still work.

### Does the AI write in my notes?

Only when you keep something or accept a change, with Undo. And when it drafts, it arranges your own sentences; anything it can't find in your notes it leaves out or asks you for. An edit it suggests — formatting a note, or what you asked of a selection — and a summary show in the note, change by change, and nothing is written until you accept them: each one, all of them, or none. A summary goes in as Graphite's own block, titled Summary. What's missing goes into the note as a section of its own and an outline under a heading, when you keep them, and an answer or a research brief, when you choose Add to note, as the Guide's own block, marked with the Graphite mark; a draft you keep is a new note of its own, and a script for a video is saved as one when you choose. Each is a line in the Logbook. With File my Inbox on, it also writes one line of frontmatter on a note it files — project:, or topic: for a folder — and nothing else. It never changes a word you wrote unless you accept the change.

### Does Graphite write my articles?

No. It arranges a first draft from your own sentences and marks what's missing; you write the rest.

### Can I publish?

Yes, any note but a receipt, as a page you own. Publish a page makes one web page of it, as a single HTML file, downloaded in the web notebook. Graphite doesn't host it and uploads nothing: anyone you give the file to, or who visits where you put it, can read it. Check it first, with a key, points out what a stranger wouldn't follow and anything that looks private, and changes nothing. Copy as Markdown is there for a blog or a newsletter.

### Does Graphite make videos?

It writes a script for a video from your note: scenes, what to say and what to show. It doesn't make the video itself. With a key, the Guide drafts the script when you ask, labelled as its own; without one, you get a plain version, a scene for each part of the note, quoting its first lines. Copy it, or save it as a note.

### What does “teach it back” mean?

You explain an idea in your own words, with the note closed, to Graphite playing a curious student. It asks why, asks for an example, and asks what your words mean — it never corrects you and never gives the answer away. Afterwards it steps out of the role and marks your explanation against your own notes: unsupported, question or link, never a score. Each gap becomes a question under What's missing in the note you taught.

### Is Graphite an AI agent?

Only in a narrow sense: in a notebook where you've turned on File my Inbox, it files what's in the Inbox on its own, into the project or folder each note clearly belongs to, and where you've said yes to reading receipts, it reads each photo or PDF there as a receipt. Everything else waits for you to ask: answering, explaining, connecting, teaching it back, finding what's missing, arranging an outline or a draft from your sentences, suggesting an edit, researching, and drafting a script for a video — and nothing it writes goes into a note of yours until you keep it or accept it. It says what it did in the Logbook, and you can undo it. On its own, it never changes your words, never deletes anything, and never moves a file you put somewhere yourself, except a photo or a PDF in the Inbox, which moves once, when it's filed as a receipt, and Undo puts it back.

### Does the AI organize my notes without asking?

It files them, once you turn on File my Inbox in Settings → AI; until then it files nothing. Then it files that notebook's Inbox on its own: it sends each Inbox note's title and first lines, with the names of your projects and folders, to your AI provider — the notes waiting when you turn it on, then each new one a few seconds after you write it, and any waiting when you open the notebook — and puts each note in the project, or else the folder, it clearly belongs to, with one line of frontmatter. With a key for another provider, filing stays off until you turn it on again. A note about something none of your projects covers gets a suggestion to start one; it never starts a project without your click. It never writes in a note on its own: what's missing, an outline or a draft are written only when you ask for them, and go into your notes only when you keep them, and an edit it suggests is written only when you accept it. Receipts take a second yes: after it, it reads each photo or PDF in the Inbox — a photo goes to your AI provider as a smaller JPEG copy without its location, a PDF as it is; a DeepSeek or Groq key is sent neither, and an xAI key no PDFs — checks what it read on your computer, and files the receipt under Receipts by its year, moving the original there beside it. A receipt it can't check waits in the Inbox with one question. It writes each act in the Logbook — what changed, and why — with Undo, and keeps the Logbook for 90 days in the app, outside your notes. It never changes your words, never deletes anything, and never moves a file you put somewhere yourself: a photo or a PDF in the Inbox moves once, when it's filed as a receipt, and Undo puts it back.

### What happened to my explainers, nodes and concepts?

They're where they were, word for word, every field and file. Since 23 October 2026, everything is a note: an explainer shows in the sidebar as a project, by its question, with the notes filed under it, and nodes, concepts and questions asked on their own are notes like any other — in the project they're filed under, or in the Inbox while they're in none — and Search (⌘O) and the Map find every one. Nothing was moved or rewritten. What's on your mind?, note types, the Network, and the Questions, Concepts, Nodes and Explainers places left the app that day; the release notes say what took their place.

### What happens to my receipts?

They stay in your notebook, as files. A photo or a PDF you drop in is kept in the Inbox as it is. Reading them takes a yes of its own: after it, Graphite sends each photo or PDF in the Inbox to your AI provider with your key, a photo as a smaller JPEG copy without its location and a PDF as it is. It reads each one as printed — merchant, date, total, tax, tip, payment, category — checks what it read on your computer (the parts add up to the total, the date is a real day, the currency is a known code, it isn't one you already have), and files it under Receipts by its year, moving the original there beside it, unchanged. One it can't check waits in the Inbox with one question. Receipts adds them up by month, per currency and by category, for Work, Personal or both, and exports a CSV and the originals without a key, a subscription or the network. Totals are never converted between currencies, and they're sums of what Graphite read and you checked: Graphite isn't tax software. With a DeepSeek or Groq key it can't read photos or PDFs, and with an xAI key it can't read PDFs; it says so, and you can paste a receipt's text instead. It doesn't read a PDF over 2.8 MB: paste the receipt's text instead. In a browser that can't open a HEIC photo, it keeps the photo but doesn't read it: add it as a JPEG, or use the Mac app. In the browser, receipts are kept in that browser: export them, or use the Mac app, to keep them for years.

### What happens to my Obsidian folders?

They stay where they are. In the Mac app, point Graphite at your vault and it leaves every file where you put it, except a photo or a PDF in the vault's Inbox folder that, after your yes, it reads as a receipt: that moves once, when it's filed, and Undo puts it back. Graphite never moves a note out of a folder of yours, and a note in one stays out of the Inbox and is never filed. A file it didn't make is a note. New notes go into Notes, Graphite's own folder on disk — and so do the projects and folders you make in Graphite, each a note — and receipts under Receipts, by year. Notes stay plain markdown, [[wikilinks]] and callouts use the same syntax — including links written with a folder path or a .md ending, like [[Clients/Plan]] — and frontmatter fields Graphite doesn't use are kept exactly as they were. A project: or topic: field your vault already uses counts only when it links to a project or a folder you've set up in Graphite, so it doesn't empty your Inbox. JPEG, PNG, GIF, WebP and HEIC images and PDFs show in your notes: ![[photo.jpg]] shows the picture, and ![[scan.pdf]] a card that opens it. Showing one never changes it or adds a file beside it. Other attachments, like SVG, video and audio, stay in the files untouched. The browser version keeps its notes in the browser and can't open a folder.

### What if Graphite explains something wrong?

It can. Its explanations are labelled as its own and say where people usually get confused, so you know what to check. What Research brings is the model's own knowledge, not a search of the web: it answers in the Guide with a few findings, then a line that says what to check and where, and adds nothing to the note unless you choose Add to note. The Guide is asked to say plainly when it isn't sure and not to invent a source or a link, and you check what it says before you keep it. When you teach it back, Graphite never marks you by what it “knows” — only by your own notes.

### How is this different from Gemini Notebook?

Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM), renamed on 16 July 2026, starts from sources you add, in your Google account, and works with Gemini. Graphite starts from what you write down: once you turn on File my Inbox, it files it into your folders and projects; when you ask, it finds what's missing and arranges a first draft from your own sentences, leaving out anything it can't find in your notes; it keeps everything as plain markdown files you can open in any editor, works with the AI you choose, and asks you to teach what you learned back, marking your explanation against your own notes.

### Do I need an API key?

Not for your notes: writing, search, links and the Map work without one, and so do your folders and projects, tags, publishing a page, Copy as Markdown and the plain version of a script for a video. The Guide needs one, because it calls a model — filing, reading receipts, explaining, answering about a note, finding what's missing, arranging an outline or a draft from your sentences, suggesting edits, researching, connecting, teaching, asking your notebook and checking a page before you publish it. Paste a key from any major provider in Settings → AI, or connect OpenRouter instead. How to get an AI API key for Graphite walks through each provider: where to make a key, what light use costs, and how to cap what it can spend.

### Which AI providers does it work with?

Anthropic (Claude), OpenAI (GPT), Google (Gemini), xAI (Grok), Mistral, DeepSeek, Groq, OpenRouter and the Vercel AI Gateway. Paste a key from any of them into Settings and Graphite recognises which it is — or sign in with OpenRouter instead of pasting one. You pay the provider for what you use, at their prices; Graphite never charges for AI. A Claude or Gemini subscription can't be used by other apps — Anthropic doesn't allow it, and Google offers no way to — so for those you'd use an API key, or OpenRouter. Signing in with ChatGPT needs OpenAI's approval, which we've asked for.

### Why a subscription, when I bring my own key?

Your key pays your AI provider for the model's words. The plan, when it comes, will pay for Graphite: the Guide's explaining, connecting, teaching and filing, and the work of making them good. It will be one plan — $39.99 a year or $4.99 a month, after 30 days free with no card — and nothing about your notes will depend on it.

### Where are my notes?

On your computer, as plain markdown files in a folder: in the Mac app a new notebook is Documents/Graphite/My notebook, unless you choose another. In the browser version, notes are stored in that browser on that device.

### Is there a Windows or Linux version?

Not yet. The desktop app is for Macs with Apple silicon, on macOS 13 or later. On an Intel Mac, Windows or Linux, use Graphite in your browser, with your notes stored in that browser.

### Does it work on my phone?

Yes, in your phone's browser. Write a note, arrange the Inbox, read and edit notes, add a receipt, or ask Graphite from its button above the bar at the bottom. The sidebar, the note and the margin open one at a time so your note has room. Notes and receipts stay in that browser on that device; they don't sync with the Mac app or another browser. Export a copy to keep them. There's no separate phone app yet.

### Does it work offline?

Writing, linking, searching and the Map all work offline — your notes are files on your computer. The Guide needs a connection, because it calls your AI provider.

### Which AI providers can I use?

Anthropic (Claude), OpenAI (GPT), Google (Gemini), xAI (Grok), Mistral, DeepSeek, Groq, OpenRouter and the Vercel AI Gateway. Paste a key from any of them into Settings and Graphite recognises which it is — or sign in with OpenRouter instead of pasting one. You pay the provider for what you use, at their prices; Graphite never charges for AI. A Claude or Gemini subscription can't be used by other apps — Anthropic doesn't allow it, and Google offers no way to — so for those you'd use an API key, or OpenRouter. Signing in with ChatGPT needs OpenAI's approval, which we've asked for.

### What happens when the trial ends?

If you haven't added a card, nothing is charged: the Guide pauses, your notes never lock, and you can subscribe whenever you like. If you have, the plan you chose starts on day 31 and renews until you cancel. We email you 7 days before the trial ends, with a link to add a card.

### What happens if I cancel?

Cancel during the trial and nothing is ever charged. After it, the Guide keeps working until the end of the period you've paid for, then pauses. Your notes never lock: capture, opening, writing, linking, searching, the Map, the receipts' totals and export keep working, in the browser and on the Mac. Subscribe again whenever you like.

### Can I switch between monthly and yearly?

Yes, during the trial too, without ending it. Once the plan starts, Settings → Account → Manage subscription will open the page where you change your plan, your card or your billing, see your invoices, or cancel.

### Do I need an account?

Not today: the notebook and the Guide work without one. When the plan starts, the trial will begin with signing in with your email and a six-digit code we send — no password, and no card.

## Articles

- [Learn anything in three moves](https://graphitenotebook.com/blog/learn-anything-in-three-moves): Understand it, connect it, teach it back. A worked afternoon on why prices rise — what each move is for, what it leaves behind, and how to do it with nothing but paper.
- [Ideas are not folders](https://graphitenotebook.com/blog/ideas-are-not-folders): A folder asks you to choose one home for every thought, but understanding is many-to-many. Why a learning notebook works better when where a note goes and what it connects to are two different things, and links carry a reason.
- [Teach it back: the fastest way to find out what you don’t know](https://graphitenotebook.com/blog/teach-it-back): Explaining something exposes the gaps that reading hides. What the research says about learning by teaching — including why the best listener is one who knows less than you, and asks.
- [Connecting the dots: how links make memory, and when they don’t](https://graphitenotebook.com/blog/connecting-the-dots): Connected knowledge is easier to understand and to keep. But looking at a map of connections isn’t the same as making them — what the research on schemas, concept maps and retrieval says, and a daily practice that uses it.
- [Questions are the to-dos of learning](https://graphitenotebook.com/blog/questions-are-the-to-dos-of-learning): What learners can borrow from Getting Things Done and Things 3 — capture everything, keep a short list of what’s next, and have something to tick off. In learning, that something is a question you can now answer in your own words.

## Release notes

What changed in Graphite, newest first. The five newest:

- 0.17.0, 28 October 2026: [Lighter notices, All notes higher up, and the card opens at once](https://graphitenotebook.com/releases#2026-10-28-notices-and-all-notes) — Notices are compact cards with Undo beside them. All notes sits under the Inbox. The Ask card and the margin's views open the moment you ask. In the browser, and in the Mac app from 0.17.0.
- 0.16.0, 28 October 2026: [Graphite has an address of its own](https://graphitenotebook.com/releases#2026-10-28-an-address-of-its-own) — The site and the notebook in your browser moved to Graphite's own address. The old one still opens, with any notes you kept in a browser there. In the browser, and in the Mac app from 0.16.0.
- 0.15.0, 28 October 2026: [Teach it back and a script for a video, beside the note](https://graphitenotebook.com/releases#2026-10-28-teach-it-back-in-the-guide) — Teach it back happens in the Guide, beside the note, which stays out of sight while you teach. A script for a video is written in Actions. In the browser, and in the Mac app from 0.15.0.
- 0.14.0, 28 October 2026: [Graphite works on the note you're in, with its changes in the margin](https://graphitenotebook.com/releases#2026-10-28-graphite-on-the-note) — In a note, Graphite's card works on that note alone, with two more changes and Organize. What it changed is in Changes, in the margin. In the browser, and in the Mac app from 0.15.0.
- 0.13.0, 28 October 2026: [Release notes in the notebook, and a version for every release](https://graphitenotebook.com/releases#2026-10-28-release-notes-in-the-app) — Every release has a version number now. The release notes open in a tab of their own, and Settings › About says which version you have. In the browser, and in the Mac app from 0.15.0.

## Links

- Home: https://graphitenotebook.com/
- Examples and comparisons: https://graphitenotebook.com/use-cases
- Learn with AI, then teach it back: https://graphitenotebook.com/use-cases/learn
- Make something from your notes: a first draft in your own words: https://graphitenotebook.com/use-cases/project
- Receipts on your Mac, read, filed and added up: https://graphitenotebook.com/use-cases/receipts
- Graphite and Obsidian, compared: https://graphitenotebook.com/compare/obsidian
- Graphite and the LLM wiki: Obsidian with Claude Code, compared: https://graphitenotebook.com/compare/obsidian-claude-code
- Graphite and Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM), compared: https://graphitenotebook.com/compare/gemini-notebook
- Pricing: https://graphitenotebook.com/pricing
- Articles: https://graphitenotebook.com/blog
- Release notes: https://graphitenotebook.com/releases
- Download: https://graphitenotebook.com/download
- Open in the browser: https://graphitenotebook.com/app