Docs Getting started

Getting started

Intabula opens a folder of plain Markdown and turns it into browsable collections. You can start from an existing vault or an empty folder. There is no import step or account, and nothing to configure before your first note.

1. Open a vault

Download Intabula for Mac. It runs on Apple Silicon Macs (M1 and later). On first launch, the vault manager asks you to open an existing folder as a vault or create a new one. An existing Obsidian vault works as-is; so does an empty directory. Whatever Markdown is already there is indexed immediately: folders show up as collections and frontmatter keys as columns.

You can keep several vaults. The vault switcher in the title bar lists the vaults you've opened and switches between them, and Manage vaults… opens the full list. Removing a vault from the list leaves its folder untouched.

2. Connect the agent (optional)

The agent runs on a subscription you already have, or on OpenRouter with your own key:

Claude and Codex need no API key and have no per-token billing; usage counts against your plan. Intabula works without the agent too. Views, search, schema inference, and the inbox don't depend on it.

3. Home

Home is the first entry in the sidebar. Before you start a conversation, it shows your pinned records and collections as cards, with the agent's message box at the bottom. A rail on the right lists your bots, recent conversations to continue, and recently opened records. Once you send a message, the conversation takes over the main column and the pins fold into a row of chips above it.

To pin something, use + Pin on Home or the Pin to Home button on a collection. Drag cards or chips to reorder them. Pins are saved in .intabula/views.json inside the vault, so they sync with it.

4. Write, or delegate

You can work in two ways and mix them freely:

5. Drafts

A draft is a note that doesn't belong to a collection yet. Press ⌘N, or n outside a text field, or click New draft on Home. You can keep several drafts. Each one is a Markdown file in .intabula/drafts/, which Intabula doesn't index as a record. Home lists them, and the ⌘K palette finds them.

When you know where a draft belongs, click Save… and pick a collection. The draft becomes a record there and the draft is removed. Discard deletes it.

The agent can list, read, append to, rewrite, save, and discard drafts. Because drafts are unfinished, the agent is instructed to say when an answer relies on one. The iOS app has drafts too.

6. Keep an eye on the inbox

Schema drift, broken links, and parse errors collect in the needs-attention inbox in the sidebar. Intabula doesn't block or auto-correct anything. You fix items from the inbox, many with one click, or ask the agent to.

Running in the background

Closing the window leaves Intabula running in the Dock. An agent run in progress continues, and enabled bots keep to their schedule. Click the Dock icon to open the window again; quit with ⌘Q to stop everything.

Intabula checks for updates when it launches and downloads them in the background. When an update is ready, it offers to restart now; otherwise the update installs when you quit. Check for Updates… in the app menu runs the check by hand.

Themes

Intabula has 10 color themes. Pick one from the palette icon in the title bar.

Where to go next