Features

Card types, search, AI enrichment, and sync in Teak

Card types

Eight types cover common save workflows. Each gets automatic processing and a rich preview.

Teak picks the type when you save a note: a quotation with who said it becomes a quote even without quote marks, a list of colors becomes a palette, and code or dialogue that only looks like one stays a note.

Search and organization

Sidebar

On the web, the sidebar holds everything around your cards:

• Everything, Favorites, Tags, Archive, Trash, and Settings, each its own page you can bookmark or share. See Tags and filters for the Tags page.
• Folders lists your folders with their color and how many cards each holds; smart folders show a search icon instead of a count. Drag a card onto a folder to add it. See Folders.
• + beside the Teak logo starts a note or link (N), uploads files (U), or records audio.

Every page has the same slim header: the page’s name on the left (a folder shows its color and card count), the search box, and a View menu. Use View to narrow the open page to text, links, images, video, audio, documents, palettes, or quotes (pick more than one to combine them), to change the order, or to save the search as a smart folder. The header stays at the top as you scroll, and selecting cards swaps it for the selection’s actions.

Drag the sidebar’s edge to make it wider or narrower, and double-click the edge to reset it. Collapse it to icons with the button that appears at its top when you point at it (or ⌘B, Ctrl+B on Windows and Linux), and bring it back with the button at the start of the header; rest the pointer on the icons to see the full sidebar for a moment. Teak remembers the width and your choice on each device. On a phone, the button at the start of the header opens it as a drawer, and the search icon opens the search box.

Smart search

Search titles, descriptions, tags, transcripts, and the text inside your files.

Search finds cards by meaning, not just exact words. cozy reading nook also finds a photo of an armchair by a window with books, a misspelled typograhpy still finds your type notes, and a search in another language finds cards saved in English. Cards that match your words always appear; cards related by meaning join them a moment later. Tokens and filters below apply to both, and the order you pick in View decides how they are sorted.

Teak reads the text of PDFs, Word and PowerPoint files, and text and code files when you save them, and transcribes the speech in audio and video. Search then finds a card by a sentence in a PDF or a line someone said in a video. For a long document, search covers its first 32 KB of text (roughly 5,000 words); Teak keeps the text of the first 500 pages, and the API, MCP and CLI return all of it. When the words appear in the text of very many of your documents, search shows the 128 closest matches among them. Scanned PDFs without a text layer have no text to search.

Special tokens work automatically:

Mix tokens in one query — all recognized filters apply together. Tags, folders and prices must all match, so price:>20 price:<100 is a range; several types or sites match any of them.

blue button hover state
minimal dark
#3B82F6
feedback this week
site:github.com tag:design "design system"

As you type, the search box suggests filters, your tags and folders, and the sites you save most. Pick one with the arrow keys and Enter, or click it, and it becomes a removable pill inside the search box. Esc closes the suggestions, and Backspace in an empty search box removes the last pill. The address bar keeps the whole search, so you can bookmark or share it.

A few details:

• site: matches the website exactly. www. and capital letters don’t matter, so site:www.GitHub.com is the same as site:github.com, but site:example.com doesn’t include blog.example.com.
• Text saved from a page with the browser extension’s Save Text to Teak keeps that page as its source. Its details show From and the site, site: finds it, and the site shows under the text in your library.
• price: compares the amount only, whatever the currency, so price:<100 includes both $90 and ¥90. Links without a price never match.
• # followed by a color code, like #fff or #3B82F6, is a color. Use tag:fff for a tag that looks like one.
• Quoted phrases also match the text inside your documents.

Find similar

Open a card and choose More like this from its ⋯ menu to see the cards closest to it in meaning, of any type: notes, links and images about the same thing. The search box shows the pill Similar to and the card’s title. Add filters to narrow the list, such as type:link or a tag, and pick the order in View. Save it as a smart folder to keep it; the folder follows the card if you rename it. A card saved a moment ago may need a few seconds before its similar cards show up.

Search images by mood

mood:"moody brutalist" lists images whose look matches the words: their description, tags, visual style and any text in them. It reads only images, so mood: with type:link finds nothing.

• Files you saved before Teak kept their text become searchable once Teak catches up on them. For a video saved earlier, use Refresh details on the card to get its transcript.
• A filter Teak doesn’t recognize, like type:banana, is searched as text. A folder name you don’t have shows as No folder named … and matches nothing.

Folders

Folders group cards by project, trip, or anything else. A card can be in several folders at once, and removing it from a folder never deletes it.

• Create a folder: click + next to Folders in the sidebar, type its name, and press Enter (Escape cancels). Pick a color later from its … menu. Names are unique ignoring case, so “Ideas” and “ideas” are the same folder.
• Add cards: select cards and choose More › Add to folder…, or right-click a card (or open it) and choose Folders… to tick the folders it belongs in. Typing a name that doesn’t exist yet creates the folder.
• Open a folder: click it in the sidebar. Search, card types, and sort work inside it, and Add cards picks more cards for it. Archived cards and cards in Trash stay out of the folder and its count until you bring them back.
• Move or remove: inside a folder, select cards and use More › Move to folder… or Remove from the folder.
• Rename, recolor, or delete: right-click a folder in the sidebar or use its … menu. Deleting a folder keeps its cards in your library, and Undo brings it back for a few seconds.

Smart folders

A smart folder saves a search. It shows every card that matches, including cards you save later, so it fills itself.

• Save a search: search for what you want, such as tag:design type:link, open the View menu at the end of the search box, and choose Save as smart folder…. The search keeps its filters, the card types and tag you picked, and the view you’re in (Favorites, Archive, or the folder you have open). Colors, styles, and dates aren’t saved.
• Open it: smart folders sit with your folders and have a search icon. Its search shows as faded pills at the start of the search box, and anything you type narrows it further.
• Edit search: use the pencil beside the folder’s name, or its … menu in the sidebar. A smart folder can use folder: to look inside one of your regular folders, and follows that folder if you rename it.
• Cards aren’t added to a smart folder by hand: Add to folder… and Folders… list only regular folders.

For example, folder:"Reading list" is:fav is a smart folder of your favorite cards in Reading list, and site:github.com "design system" collects every GitHub link that mentions a design system.

You can have up to 500 folders, smart folders included, and a card can be in up to 50. Folders are also available in the API, CLI, and MCP.

Tags and filters

AI applies tags automatically; you can add your own. Filter by type from the View menu, by tag from the Tags page, or by style, color, or date in the search bar. Active filters show as removable pills inside the search bar (the first three, with the rest behind +N), and × at its end clears them all.

Open Tags in the sidebar, right below Favorites, to see every tag with how many cards outside Archive and Trash carry each, most used first. Find one by typing in the box at the top, or sort them by name. Tags match ignoring case, so Design and design are one tag. Click a tag to see only its cards in your library; remove its pill to clear it. The list catches up a few seconds after tags change.

Use a tag’s ⋯ menu on the Tags page to change it on every card at once, including cards in Archive and Trash and tags AI added:

• Rename… gives it a new name, written exactly as you type it. A tag that already has the new name can be merged into instead.
• Merge into… replaces it with another tag. A card that has both keeps one.
• Delete… removes it from every card. The cards are kept.

A change runs in the background, with its progress in a message at the bottom of the page, and one runs at a time. Merges and deletes can’t be undone, so Teak asks first.

Trash

Deleted cards go to trash first. Restore them, or delete permanently (including files). Cards left in trash are permanently deleted after 30 days. Open Trash from the sidebar, or type trash, bin, or deleted in the search bar.

Archive

Archive a card to keep it out of your library without deleting it. Right-click it in the grid, or open it and choose Archive. Open Archive from the sidebar (or type archive and press Enter) to see archived cards, and Unarchive to bring one back. Archived cards stay out of search, favorites, filters, and tags until you return them, and they still count toward your card limit. Moving an archived card to Trash and restoring it puts it back in Archive.

Hidden cards

Tag a card secret or hidden to hide it. A hidden card leaves your library, Favorites, Archive, Trash, folders, smart folders, search, and Shuffle, on every app and in the API. Adding one of these tags to an open card shows Hidden with the search that shows it, such as Search #secret to see it., and Undo. The card’s tags show Hidden while it is.

To see hidden cards, search for one of those tags: #secret, tag:hidden, or a tag from the Tags page. A smart folder whose search names one of them shows them too. Searching for the word secret doesn’t. Remove the tag and the card comes back. Tags Teak adds never hide a card, and hidden cards still count toward your card limit and in tag counts. A view whose only cards are hidden says so.

Grid

Cards show in a masonry grid that adapts to different sizes and aspect ratios. Links show their site’s icon beside the title, notes show their first line as a heading, and audio shows how long it runs.

Rest the pointer on a card to open its link, favorite it, or open More (⋯) for everything else in its right-click menu.

Click a card to open it. The title, the site, and when you added it sit at the top with Open or Download, favorite, and More. Beside the card are its notes, summary, tags, folders, colors, and details, all editable in place: a note saves on its own as you type, and a tag is added when you press Enter. For a link, click its title to rename it. Arrows at the top, or ← and →, step through the cards in the grid’s order. On a phone the card opens as a sheet from the bottom.

In a note on the web, ticked checklist items move to the bottom of their list, below the open ones, and unticking one moves it back up; ⌘Z puts it back where it was.

To act on many cards at once, click the circle in a card’s corner (or right-click it and choose Select), then click more cards. The bar across the top of the page archives them in one click, and More adds them to favorites or a folder, adds or removes tags, copies their links, or moves them to Trash. In Archive the main action is Unarchive, and in Trash it’s Restore. Archive, Unarchive, and Move to Trash show Undo when they finish; if some cards couldn’t be changed, they stay selected and Retry tries them again.

Focus mode

To write without distraction, open Focus: press ⌘E (Ctrl+E on Windows and Linux) or click the expand button at the top right of a note, or of a new note you’re writing. Focus shows only your note in one centered column. The Close and Save bar fades out while you type and comes back when you move the pointer, and the word count appears when you pause. Press Esc or ⌘E again to leave (with the slash menu or link editor open, Esc closes that first); your edits stay, and an existing note saves on its own as it does in the card.

Keyboard shortcuts

On the web, you can use your library without a mouse. Press ? anywhere to see every shortcut. Shortcuts never fire while you type in the search box, a note, or any other field, or while a dialog or menu is open.

The grid is a single stop when you Tab through the page. Once a card has focus:

With a card open:

Anywhere in your library:

Outside Trash, with cards selected, F, T, E, and Delete act on all of them, like the bar across the top. Menus, button tooltips, and the sidebar show the key beside each action that has one. Moving past the last card loads more. With nothing focused, J or K returns to the grid.

Command palette

Press ⌘K (Ctrl+K on Windows and Linux) on any page to jump anywhere without the mouse. Type to filter, use the arrow keys to move, and press Enter to choose:

• Go to Everything, Favorites, Archive, Trash, Tags, Settings, or any folder or smart folder by name.
• Find a card: after two characters, the palette lists up to 8 cards from your search, qualifiers included (#design, type:link, site:github.com). Choose one to open it, or choose Search all to see every match. From Archive it searches your archive, and Search all stays there; it never shows cards in Trash.
• Run an action: New note, Upload files, Import, Export, Toggle theme, Shuffle, Keyboard shortcuts, and Sign out.

Press ⌘K again or Esc to close it, and focus goes back where it was. While you write a note, ⌘K still adds a link, and while another dialog or menu is open it does nothing.

Sort and share a search

Cards are ordered by the date you saved them, newest first. Choose Oldest first from the View menu beside the search bar to start from the beginning.

A search with words starts in Best match: the cards that best match what you typed come first. Teak scores your search’s top results the moment you search; if that takes more than a moment, the results stay in their usual order instead of moving while you look at them. Choose Newest first from the View menu to see your matches by date instead. Imported bookmarks keep their original dates, so they land where they were first saved.

To rediscover what you saved long ago, choose Shuffle from the View menu. Your cards appear in a random order that stays put while you scroll, so nothing repeats or goes missing. Click Reshuffle (the dice beside the View menu) for a new order; Back returns to the previous one. Shuffle works in search, tags, folders, Favorites, Archive, and Trash too; a tag or folder with more than 2,000 cards shuffles its newest 2,000.

To tidy up as you go, choose Revisit from the View menu. Revisit shows 20 random cards from what’s on screen (your library, Favorites, a folder, a smart folder, a tag, or a search), one at a time. Press ← or A to archive a card, with Undo, and → or K to keep it; on a touch screen, swipe left or right. Space opens the card’s details, Z takes back the last archive, and Esc leaves. When you reach the end, Revisit 20 more brings the next cards of the same shuffle, so none repeat; once you’ve seen them all, Start over shuffles again. Revisit isn’t offered in Archive or Trash.

Your search, sort (including the shuffled order and Revisit), and card types stay in the address bar, so reloading the page, the browser’s Back and Forward buttons, and links you copy all bring back the same view. A very broad search is sorted within its 400 best matches; add a type, date, or more words to narrow it.

AI enrichment

Each card is processed automatically:

Refresh details

If a summary or tags miss the mark, or a link’s preview looks out of date, open the card and choose Refresh details from its More menu, or right-click it in the grid. Teak clears the card’s summary, tags, and transcript and processes it again, reading the link’s page again for its preview. If the page can’t be reached, the card keeps the preview it has. Your own tags and notes stay. You can refresh a card once a minute, and up to six cards a minute.

Replace a link’s image

If a link’s preview image is wrong, missing, or not the one you want, open the card and choose your own: drop an image on the preview, paste one with ⌘V (Ctrl+V on Windows) while no text field has focus, or choose Replace image from the card’s ⋯ menu. Use a JPEG, PNG, WebP, GIF, or AVIF image under 20 MB; SVG and HEIC images aren’t supported yet. A link without an image shows Add an image where you can drop one.

Your image shows in the grid and in the card on the web, and in the grids of the iPhone, iPad, and Mac apps. It stays through Refresh details. Undo in the message that follows puts back the previous image for two minutes. Reset to original image goes back to the image Teak found, or its screenshot of the page, and deletes yours.

Card details

Link cards show who wrote the page and when it was published, next to the site name, when the page says so. Product links show their price as a tag on the card, such as “$24.99”, “€1,299.00” or “Free”, when the page states one. Refresh details on the card reads the price from the page again. Details, beside an open card, lists the author, publisher, and publish date, and for photos the camera, exposure, aperture, focal length, ISO, and when the photo was taken. Teak never shows a photo’s location.

Places, apps, and games get their own facts when the page publishes them: a restaurant or home’s address, cuisine, price range, and rating; an app’s platform, category, and rating; and a game’s platform, genre, rating, and release date. Code repositories on GitHub show their stars, forks, and language.

Social posts: a saved post from X, Instagram, Bluesky, Mastodon, Reddit, TikTok, Threads, LinkedIn, or Substack Notes keeps its text and author, and its date when the site shares it. Bluesky, Mastodon, and Reddit posts keep up to 10 photos, and a video when the site offers it as a file (otherwise its cover image). A TikTok keeps its caption and cover image, and Threads, LinkedIn, and Substack Notes keep the text and image their page shares. A private, deleted, or login-only post is saved like any other page.

Apps and access

Everything syncs in real time — pick your apps on the Apps page.

Sign in with your browser, or create a long-lived key under Settings → Security → API keys.