First run

The welcome window

The first time you open MindLake, a welcome window sets it up. It takes about two minutes. Continue moves on, the arrow at the bottom left goes back, and the dashes beside it show how far you are. Which steps you see depends on your answers: opening a vault you already have skips naming and organising it, and each tool you pick adds only its own permissions and practice.

While you go through it, MindLake starts your 14-day free trial in the background. That needs the internet; the last step tells you how it went. See Trial and licence.

Where your notes live

Your notes live in a vault: a folder of ordinary Markdown files. This step decides where it goes. To use one you already have, choose from the top of the list:

• Open a vault found in iCloud Drive. Vaults you made on another Mac are listed by name, up to three.
• Find a MindLake folder on this Mac…. Choose a vault from before, or any folder of Markdown notes, on this Mac or in a cloud drive. MindLake works on the files where they are.

Or make a new one in one of these places:

Name your vault

For a new vault, type its name; this is what the folder is called, and you can rename it later. The row below shows exactly where it will go. If a folder of that name is already there, MindLake opens it as it is rather than making a new one.

Organise it your way

A new vault is offered a way to organise it. Pick one and MindLake makes its folders, plus a note called Start here in the Inbox that explains the method. Hover a choice to see what it means and who it suits. You can change anything later; nothing here is fixed.

Whatever you choose, anything you record, dictate or write without a folder lands in Inbox, and Screenshots, Chats and Sources get their own folders the first time you use them. A new vault also gets a few sample meeting notes, so there’s something to look at; they’re ordinary notes you can delete. An existing vault you open is left exactly as it is.

What you’ll use MindLake for

Pick every tool you use today; you can pick several. Your choice decides what the sidebar shows at first, which downloads are ticked, which permissions are asked for and which practice steps follow. Nothing is switched off: tools you don’t pick are only hidden until you open them or show them in Settings ▸ Features.

Show Me Everything, at the bottom, skips the question: every section shows, speech and speaker recognition are ticked, every permission is listed, and the only practice is the command bar.

AI, your way

Choose how MindLake reaches an AI. A slider runs from Fully private to Most choice, and the three ways are:

This only chooses the connection. AI features stay off until you turn them on in Settings ▸ AI, where you can also change the choice. See Chats.

Downloads

Listening, transcribing and the local AI run on your Mac, so their models are downloaded once. Each row is tagged Needed, when a tool you picked can’t work without it, or Optional, with its size.

Ticked items start downloading as soon as this step appears, one at a time in the order listed, and carry on in the background after you continue. Under each, a bar says Waiting, next in line, or how far it has got, such as 40% · 240 MB of 600 MB. Anything already on this Mac is ticked and needs nothing more. The line under the list shows the total and the free space on your Mac.

Tick a row to start it. Untick one that’s waiting to skip it; the one downloading can’t be stopped halfway. If a download fails, its row says Did not download, with the reason, and Try Again.

Settings ▸ Local Models fetches speech recognition later, and Settings ▸ AI the on-device AI. Reading aloud downloads the first time MindLake reads to you, and speaker recognition the first time a recording needs it. If you skip speech recognition, the first time MindLake has something to transcribe it offers the download, and Not now leaves the recording in its note, untranscribed, for Organise to list.

Permissions

One step lists only the permissions your tools need, each with its own Grant Access button. Grant them in any order. If you refuse one, its button becomes Open Settings, since macOS asks only once. Accessibility and Screen Recording are switched on in System Settings. For those, Grant Access raises macOS’s own alert, whose Open System Settings button opens the list with MindLake in it, and floats a small card with MindLake’s icon beside System Settings: if MindLake is missing from the list, drag the icon into it. The step notices when you switch MindLake on. Opening MindLake never shows a system prompt by itself.

Every one is optional: saying no switches off only the feature that needed it. Recording the other side of a call needs one more, System Audio Recording, which macOS asks for the first time you record with Capture system audio on in Settings ▸ Audio.

Settings ▸ Permissions lists them all later, including whether MindLake can read your vault in iCloud Drive. If your notes ever look empty, check there first. To change your mind, use System Settings ▸ Privacy & Security, or System Settings ▸ Notifications for notifications; the list in MindLake updates as you do.

Set up

Set up makes MindLake ready whenever you need it, from any app. Everyone sees this step.

In Settings later: Open at login and Start in the menu bar under General ▸ Startup, Appearance under Theme, Open .md files with under General ▸ Markdown files, and the command bar’s keys as described in Search and the command bar.

Practice

Each tool you picked gets a short try, or a page on how it works, and everyone tries the command bar. Where a page asks you to do something, Continue waits until you have. Skip, at the bottom, moves on a page; press it three times quickly and it becomes Skip All, which leaves the practice.

Dictation

1. Test your microphone. Speak and watch the bars move, and pick another microphone if you need to. Built-in and wired microphones work best.
2. Your dictation key. Choose Fn, Right Option, Right Command or Right Control, and hold it to check MindLake hears it. Turn On Dictation Everywhere lets you dictate into any app; macOS asks you to allow MindLake under Accessibility, because it types the words for you.
3. Dictate a reply. Answer a short message by holding the key and speaking, or click Talk.
4. Speak naturally. Read a line, ums and all, and see the fillers taken out.
5. Your speed. How many words a minute you spoke, compared with typing.

Dictate a reply and Speak naturally need speech recognition on this Mac. If it’s still downloading, they show Getting speech recognition ready… and start by themselves when it lands, or you can skip them and come back to dictation later. If you didn’t tick it, they say Dictation needs speech recognition (600 MB, once), with Download It Now; if it didn’t download, they offer Try Again.

Meeting notes

After the microphone test, Record a meeting shows how recording works: starting one, both sides of a call, telling speakers apart, and writing it up. Its one switch, Offer to record when a meeting starts, turns on Show upcoming meetings in Settings ▸ Audio: when a meeting on your calendar begins, a pill offers to record it. MindLake never starts recording by itself. See Recording meetings.

Screenshots

1. Check your screenshot shortcuts. MindLake’s are ⇧⌘1 an area, ⇧⌘2 a window and ⇧⌘3 the screen, each on a row that says whether MindLake has it. Click one to record a different chord. While the Mac’s own screenshot shortcuts hold a chord (its ⇧⌘3 is on unless you have turned it off), the Mac takes the picture and MindLake never hears the keys: switch them off in System Settings ▸ Keyboard ▸ Keyboard Shortcuts ▸ Screenshots, and the step ticks itself when that is done. Afterwards, change them in Settings ▸ Screenshots.
2. Take a screenshot. Press the area keys, or click Capture an Area, and drag across anything on screen.
3. Every way to capture. An area, a window, the whole screen, or just the text. The M in the menu bar has every mode, including scrolling capture and a timer.

Snippets

Type :thanks in the box and watch it expand. The switch underneath, Expand snippets in every app, makes snippets work outside MindLake too, after you allow it under Accessibility. See Snippets.

The command bar

Press the command bar’s keys in any app. They light up on the step when the bar opens, and ⎋ puts it away. Below them, what it does: search notes, transcripts, tasks, people, lists and screenshots; add a task or a note without leaving the app you’re in; work out sums and conversions; paste snippets and recent copies (/clip); and, with nothing typed, today’s meetings to join or record. See Search and the command bar.

Finding your way around

• Hover any button to see its name and shortcut. The switch on this step, Show hints when I hover a button, is also in Settings ▸ General.
• Hold ⌃ and the sidebar shows each section’s number. ⌃1 to ⌃9 jump straight there.
• Press ⌘K to find any note, or type / to run a command by name. See Search and the command bar.
• Press ⌘? for Help: a tab for each section, and a switch between About (what a section is for), Shortcuts and Tips. It opens on About, at the section you’re in.

You’re all set

The last step lists the tools you set up and says where your trial stands: started, how many days are left, or that your licence is active on this Mac. If MindLake is still starting the trial, Get Started waits for it. If this Mac is offline, it asks you to connect, with Try Again; it also carries on by itself once you’re online. If the trial on this Mac was used before, Continue takes you to the window that lets you buy or sign in.

Make your first note

• ⌘N starts a recording straight away. If you’d rather it made a text note, change “⌘N creates” in Settings ▸ General.
• ⇧⌘N makes a text note, and ⌃⌘1 always makes a note that records.
• New, the first row in the sidebar, makes a note too. Right-click it for a recording, a list or a canvas.

Type a title on the first line and keep going. MindLake saves as you write, and names the note’s file after its title. See Notes and the editor and Recording meetings.

MindLake also sits in the menu bar as an M, and in the notch at the top of the screen (on a screen without one, a short handle under the middle of the top edge). The M’s panel starts a note, a recording or a screenshot, and searches your notes, tasks, contacts and sources. The notch opens when you point at it, with dictation, recording, a new note, a capture and your next meeting. Closing the library window keeps MindLake running: click the M, or the Dock icon, to bring the library back. Both can be switched off in Settings ▸ General ▸ Notch & menu bar, and MindLake stays in the Dock either way. See The menu bar and The notch.

Choose what you see

If you only need part of MindLake, hide the rest. Hiding only changes what’s drawn: nothing is deleted and nothing stops working, so a checkbox in a note is still a task while Tasks is hidden.

• Right-click a section in the sidebar and choose Hide. Unhide, in the same menu, brings it back.
• Settings ▸ Features has a switch for each section that can be hidden, and Show everything to turn them all back on.

Run setup again

Settings ▸ Features ▸ Start over ▸ Answer the setup questions again, then Run setup, opens the welcome over your library. It asks about your tools, AI, downloads and permissions again and offers the practice, but skips the vault steps, since your vault is already chosen. Your answer replaces the choices in Show in MindLake; it never touches a note.