Quick start

This walkthrough takes a fresh install to a board with real, sourced material on it. It uses DeepState AI, the model access that comes with every license, so there is nothing to configure first.

1. Activate and pick a model

   Paste your license key when the app asks. Then open Settings (gear icon in the title bar) → AI Provider, make sure DeepState AI is selected, and pick a model. Sonnet-class models are the best default for investigation work; the cheaper Haiku-class model is fine for the Summarizer slot, which handles background jobs like article summaries and feed filtering.

2. Create a board

   On the board select screen type a name into New investigation and press Enter. A board is a self-contained investigation: its own nodes, connections, narratives, AI conversations and media. You can come back to this screen any time by clicking the board name in the title bar.

3. Ask the assistant to start

   The chat on the left is the research assistant. It is in Investigate mode by default, which means it can create and edit nodes. Try something concrete:

   Research the 2023 collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. Create actor nodes for the key executives and regulators, an organization node for the bank, event nodes for the main dates, and connect them. Cite sources.

   Watch the tool calls stream in: search_board first (it always checks what already exists), then web_search, search_wikipedia, scrape_url, and finally create_actor, create_event, create_connection. Nodes appear on the canvas as they are created.

4. Look around

   Scroll to zoom, drag empty space to pan. Click a node to select it: the right-hand context panel shows its details and an Edit button. Double-click empty canvas to drop a Note. Press / to search node titles. Click the timeline button in the title bar to see the events you just created laid out by date.

5. Add your own material

   Paste a URL onto the canvas (Ctrl/Cmd+V): a tweet, Reddit or Bluesky post becomes a Social node with the post fetched; a YouTube link becomes an Embed; a news article becomes a News Article node that is scraped and summarized in the background; an image becomes a Media node. Or use the Quick actions grid at the top of the context panel, or the Shift+letter shortcuts (Shift+N for a note, Shift+E for an event, and so on).

6. Connect and group

   Drag from the handle on one node to another to draw a connection, then click the line to set its type: causes, funds, controls, contradicts, confirms and so on. Right-click a node → Add to narrative to start grouping findings into storylines, or ask the assistant to "create a narrative for the regulatory response and add the relevant nodes".

7. Let it run on its own (optional)

   Start a new chat, switch the mode to Autoresearch, and give it a direction:

   Map the bank's largest depositors and what happened to them.

   Autoresearch runs up to fifteen investigation rounds, deciding the next question itself from what it found, until it judges the topic covered. Use Plan mode when you want to discuss approach without the assistant changing the board.

8. Keep it fed

   Press Shift+R to add an RSS Feed node and paste a feed URL (or r/subreddit, a YouTube @handle, or a Bluesky handle). New items arrive on the board on the interval you choose, optionally filtered by keywords or by AI relevance to the board.

Where to go from here

• Working on the canvas - selection, editing, paste, undo.
• Node types - what each of the 14 node types is for and what it captures.
• AI assistant - modes, context, reasoning depth, conversation management.
• Tools reference - every tool, grouped, with what it needs and which tier it belongs to.
• Collaboration - share the board with a colleague.

Everything is saved as you go

There is no save button. Every change is written to the local database immediately and undo (Ctrl/Cmd+Z) covers node creation, deletion, moves and connections.