Features
Everything Moss can do
Overview
Moss is a local-first markdown editor with an agent built into the work. Your notes stay on your computer as markdown files: private, portable, and always yours. On top of that, the editor gives you comments, charts, sketches, formulas, code blocks, and more.
Embedded, contextual AI. Every note is a place to work with the agent, not a separate chat window. Ask it to draft, research, reorganize, or review right in the document. Leave comments on specific passages and ask it to address them, or ask it to review your writing and leave comments of its own. When Note Intelligence is enabled, Moss can also suggest frontmatter fields like tags, people, and other searchable metadata, and surface related notes through Suggested Links.
Your files. Every note is a file on your computer. Open them in any editor, back them up however you like, or stop using Moss entirely, and your notes are still right there. You can connect folders like codebases or research archives so the agent can read from them when you need it to. Or open any external folder (an Obsidian vault, project docs, anything with markdown files) and edit them with the full Moss editor. Nothing gets imported or copied. Pin your most-used notes to the top, link ideas across documents with hover previews, and sort by recent or alphabetical to find things fast.
More than a text editor. Even though your notes are simple files underneath, the editor brings them to life. Embed charts (bar, line, area, stacked bar), sketches you draw right on the page, images, and formulas that reference each other by name and update automatically. Organize with headings, lists, callouts, tables, code blocks, and quotes, and format text with highlights, bold, italic, and more, using keyboard shortcuts, markdown shortcuts, toolbar controls, and the slash menu.
Moss Agent
Every note comes with its own AI agent, powered by Claude Code. Tell it what you need: draft a section, research a topic, reorganize your outline, review your work. It writes directly into the page. No copying into a chat window and pasting back. The agent works alongside you, in your document.
Press ⌘K to open Actions. Describe what you want and press ⌘Enter to submit. The agent reads your note for context and writes directly into it. Learn more about how the agent works in our security overview.
- Write and edit: draft sections, rewrite paragraphs, fix grammar
- Research: search the web and pull findings into your note
- Organize: restructure sections, summarize content
- Review: leave inline comment suggestions on your writing
Selection Context
Select text before pressing ⌘K to scope your action to that passage. The selection appears as a context pill in the action, so the agent knows exactly what to work on.
@ Mentions
Type @ in Actions or comments to reference other notes, folders, or external directories. In Actions, the agent reads the referenced content as additional context.
Timeline
Agent runs stay attached to the note instead of disappearing into a separate chat log. Open the Actions panel to revisit the prompt, the intermediate steps, and the note updates from each run.
Setup & Authentication
The Moss agent is powered by Claude Code. To use it, you need the Claude Code CLI installed and signed in on your machine. For the step-by-step setup flow, see Getting Started.
- Install Claude Code — follow the official install guide to set up the
claudeCLI. - Sign in — run
claudein your terminal and complete the login flow. - Open Moss — the agent is ready to use. Press ⌘K to start.
Moss does not manage credentials itself. If you haven't signed in yet, the agent will prompt you to run claude in your terminal when you first try to use it. For details on how credentials are stored, see the security overview. If the agent is not working as expected, see Troubleshoot Claude Code.
Comments
Comments keep the conversation on the page. They work best when the right move is specific: change this paragraph, check this claim, add the missing detail here.
Select text and press ⌘⇧A or click the comment button in the floating toolbar. Comments show up as highlights. Open one to edit it, delete it, or send that exact instruction to the agent.
The experiment yielded a statistically significant result across all test groups, suggesting the new approach outperforms the baseline by a meaningful margin.
Can we add the p-value here?
Today · 2:30 PM
Comments + Agent
Comments are also the cleanest way to collaborate with the agent on specific passages.
You → Agent
Leave a few comments, then ask the agent to “address all my comments.” It works through the marked spots instead of freelancing across the whole note.
Agent → You
Ask the agent to “review my writing and leave comments.” Instead of editing directly, it can leave inline suggestions for you to review one by one.
Pinned Notes
Pin your most important notes to the top of the sidebar so they're always one click away. Pinned notes from subfolders show a breadcrumb so you know where they live.
Right-click any note or click the pin icon to pin or unpin. Pinned notes appear in a collapsible section at the top of the notes list, sorted by when they were pinned.
Sort & organize
Sort notes by Recent (newest first) or A–Z (alphabetical). Click the sort button again to reverse direction. Folders sort independently using the same mode.
Note stats
Open the note menu to see word count, character count, reading time, and image count at a glance.
Split View
Split view is for when one note is the source and the other is the work. Right-click a note in the sidebar, or any wiki-link in the editor, and choose “Open in Split Tab.”
Each side keeps its own history, so you can follow links, go back, and compare notes without losing your place in the other pane.
Connected Folders
A lot of what you write about lives outside your notes: codebases, research archives, project files. Connected folders let the agent read from those sources when you need it to, so your notes can reference real material without you having to copy anything in.
Grant the Moss agent read access to any folder: a codebase, research archive, or project directory. Type @ in Actions to mention files, and the agent reads them on demand.
Access model
Moss does not scan connected folders behind your back, and agent access is read-only. Moss keeps folder listings around so you can browse and @ mention files, then the agent reads the files you point it to. It cannot modify anything in connected folders.
Codebases and project directories
Link a repo and the agent can browse its files when you mention them. Ask it to explain how something works, find patterns across your code, review Claude Code plans, or draft documentation grounded in what's already there.
External Folders
If you already have markdown files somewhere (an Obsidian vault, a directory of project docs, a research collection), just open that folder in Moss. You get the full editor on files that stay exactly where they are. Nothing gets imported, copied, or converted. Edits save back to the original.
Full editor support
Open any markdown file from an external folder and edit it with the full Moss editor: charts, formulas, sketches, comments, and all. Changes write back to the original file on disk.
Obsidian vaults
Add your Obsidian vault and work with your notes in a rich editor. Your vault stays exactly as it is. Moss uses the same markdown files and adds nothing proprietary.
Auto Properties
When Note Intelligence is enabled, Moss can suggest frontmatter so notes start organized without a separate cleanup pass. You can still edit or remove any field by hand.
Those fields also make the workspace easier to navigate. Click a tag, person, tool, framework, project, or other property value to pull up related notes.
The same property values that help organize a note also become handles for moving around the rest of the workspace.
Suggested Links
Suggested Links is a lightweight nudge toward notes that probably belong together. Moss scores nearby notes using folder context, title overlap, and frontmatter from the current note when it points to similar topics in other note titles.
Suggestions only show notes you haven't already linked, and external system notes stay out of the list.
Note Links
Link any note to any other note to build a map of how your ideas connect. When you hover over a link, you see a preview of the note so you can decide whether to jump there without losing your place.
Type [[ to search and link to any note, or use /link. Click a link to navigate. Add # to jump to a specific heading within a note.
See Project Overview for background, or jump to Meeting Notes › Action Items.
Hover a link to preview the note
Project Overview
Charts
When a note needs a chart, keep it in the note. Moss ships four chart types today: bar, line, area, and stacked bar.
Insert one from the slash menu, edit the data inline, and keep the chart next to the writing it explains. Multi-series charts, stacked breakdowns, and the built-in palettes all live in the same note.
Sketches
Sketches are for rough thinking on the page: layouts, flows, UI passes, and annotations that belong next to the writing they support.
Type /sketch to drop in a canvas. Keep it loose, keep it in the doc, and keep moving. It works well for rough UI mockups when you want the sketch and the spec to stay in the same place.
Interactive Mockups
The agent can generate interactive HTML mockups directly in your notes — dashboards, UI prototypes, data visualizations. Each mockup renders as a screenshot in the editor with a “Mockup” badge. Click it to open a full-size lightbox where the HTML is live: buttons work, charts animate, tabs switch.
Use “Send to Agent” to ask for revisions.
Images
Images live with the note, on disk, next to the rest of your files.
Use /image, paste from the clipboard, or drag from Finder. Moss supports PNG, JPG, GIF, WebP, and SVG.
Click any image to open it larger without leaving the note. Mockup images open an interactive preview instead.
Block Elements
Notes need more than paragraphs. Use headings to organize, lists to track things, callouts to flag what matters, tables to compare, code blocks to document, and formulas to calculate.
Headings
Four levels. Type #, ##, ###, or #### at the start of a line, or use the heading menu in the toolbar.
Project Overview
Research Phase
Key Findings
Lists
Bullet lists, numbered lists, and checklists. Use markdown list syntax, toggle a checklist with ⌘⇧C, and indent with Tab.
Bullet list
- Research methodology
- Data collection
- Primary sources
- Secondary sources
- Analysis
Numbered list
- Define hypothesis
- Gather data
- Analyze results
- Write conclusion
Checklist
Slash Commands
Type / to open the Slash Command menu. All of the editing features in this section are available there, along with quick inserts like /date, /day, /month, and /emoji.
/Dividers
Type --- on its own line to insert a horizontal rule.
Quotes
Use quotes for notes, pull quotes, and commentary that should stand apart from the rest of the text.
Quote
“The only way to do great work is to love what you do.”
— Steve Jobs
Callouts
Type /callout to insert an attention block. Moss supports info, warning, and priority callouts for notes that should stand out from the rest of the page. Use the menu in the callout header to change the type, and if you choose Priority, you can also set the level.
Tabs
Tabs let one note hold several threads without turning into a scroll trench. Type /tabs to create a group. Each tab gets its own editor, so you can put basically anything in there: writing, tables, formulas, images, quotes, or code.
Rename tabs from the tab menu or by double-clicking the label. You can also keep only the active tab or delete it when the group has served its purpose.
Code Blocks
Code blocks are real blocks in the editor, not pasted screenshots or fenced text pretending to be UI. Type /code to insert one, then choose the language and theme. Line numbers are shown automatically.
HTML
Type /html to insert an editable raw HTML block. This is different from Interactive Mockups above: HTML blocks are for hand-written or pasted snippets that render directly in the note.
Just moved all my research notes to a local-first setup. No more worrying about cloud sync conflicts or subscription fees. The markdown files are mine.
Tables
Type /table to insert a grid with a header row. Tab moves between cells. Add or remove rows and columns from the toolbar that appears when a cell is selected.
| Feature | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Rich text editing | Shipped | Bold, italic, highlights, links |
| Inline formulas | Shipped | Named references, cross-note |
| Charts | Shipped | Bar, line, area, stacked bar |
| Cloud sync | Coming soon | End-to-end encrypted |
Formulas
Formulas are live calculations that render as inline pills. They can reference each other by name and update automatically. Place each formula on its own line. Multiple formulas on the same line may not evaluate correctly.
1. Inline formulas
Type = followed by a math expression, at the start of a line, after a space, or after punctuation. Press Space or Enter to evaluate. The expression collapses into a pill showing the result.
2. Named formulas
Give a formula a name by typing name=expression. The name must start with a letter and can contain letters, numbers, hyphens, and underscores. Named formulas display as name: result and can be referenced elsewhere.
3. References
Inside any formula, type the name of another formula to reference its value. A typeahead menu appears after operators (+, -, *, /, () showing available names with their current values. Use arrow keys and Enter to select. References work across notes.
Hover a formula to see its expression
TOTAL
$141,700
= q1 + q2 + q3
$52,727
= total / 3 * 1.115
Formats are inferred automatically: $ prefix for currency, % suffix for percent, decimals for division. Click any pill to edit it. Press Backspace to convert back to text.
Formulas work anywhere, including table cells
| Quarter | Revenue | Growth |
|---|---|---|
| Q1 2024 | q1:$42,000 | 12% |
| Q2 2024 | q2:$48,500 | 15.5% |
| Q3 2024 | q3:$51,200 | 5.6% |
| Total | total:$141,700 | 11% |
| Projected Q4 | $52,727 | 3% |
The Total row uses total=q1+q2+q3, and Projected Q4 uses total/3*1.115, chaining references for live calculations.
Text Formatting
Bold, italic, highlights, strikethrough, links, and more. Select text to open the floating toolbar, or use keyboard shortcuts.
This text is bold, this is italic, and this is strikethrough. You can also underline or mark something as inline code.
Highlight important passages with a single shortcut.
| Style | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Bold | ⌘B |
| Italic | ⌘I |
| Underline | Toolbar |
| Strikethrough | ⌘⇧S |
| Highlight | ⌘⇧H |
| Inline code | ⌘E |