Every note is its own small window on your Mac. The rest wait in a stack.
macOS 15 or later, Apple silicon or Intel. Source available.
A card is typed: the first line becomes its title, typing “[] ” starts a checklist, Tab nests an item. The first item is ticked, the card is collapsed, and a one-line summary appears in place of the body.
Write. The first line is the title. - , 1. and [] start lists, Tab nests. Collapse a card and one line stands in for the body.
Five cards and a stack on a board. Clarity on the stack’s ribbon is clicked and every card collapses to a one-line summary. The Hook ideas card is clicked and expands alone. Clarity is clicked again and every card expands.
Clarity. One click and every card shows its gist. Click a card to open just that one.
Five cards and a stack cover a mail window. Control-Option-I is pressed: every card disappears and the stack shrinks to its ribbon, leaving the mail readable. The shortcut is pressed again and everything returns.
Hide all. ⌃⌥I from any app clears the desk. The ribbon stays, so New and Clarity stay in reach.
A card is dragged off the grid and left where it was dropped. Dragged again near the empty slot, a guide fills in and the card snaps into place. Another card is dragged onto that slot and the two swap.
Arrange. Cards snap to an invisible grid, or stay exactly where you drop them. Drop one on a taken slot and the two swap.
The stack shows one card at a time. Two-finger swipes flip through three cards to a blank page. Typing on the blank page makes a new card and the count badge goes from 3 to 4. A click on the stack’s edge flips back to the first card.
The stack. Swipe through it with two fingers, or click its edge. Type on the blank page at the end and the thought is a card.
A card named Reading list is edited; in a Finder window beside it, the file Reading list.md in Documents/Ideator updates its modified time.
Files. Each card is a Markdown file in ~/Documents/Ideator. Open them in anything, back them up like anything.
The early build is not notarized yet, so macOS asks you to allow it once. Get the disk image from the GitHub page, then:
Open the disk image and drag Ideator to Applications.
Open Ideator from Applications. macOS blocks it the first time.
Open System Settings › Privacy & Security, scroll to the message about Ideator, click Open Anyway, and confirm.
Ideator opens with a welcome card. Press Continue, and allow access to your Documents folder when macOS asks. Your notes live in ~/Documents/Ideator.
Each new version repeats the Open Anyway step until the build is notarized. Ideator is a menu bar app with no Dock icon; look for the stacked-rectangles icon at the top right.
Summaries come from the Anthropic API with a key you provide. Without one, everything else works; collapsed cards say “Summary unavailable”.
Get an API key from Anthropic.
Click the menu bar icon, or ⋯ on the stack’s tan ribbon, and choose Settings…
Paste the key into Anthropic API key and click Save.
The key stays in your login Keychain, never in the notes folder. Only a card’s text goes to Anthropic, with your key, to write its summary. Remove the key and nothing is sent.