Notes & references

The library of durable knowledge alongside your tasks. Reference material, meeting notes, decisions, research, snippets — anything that isn't an action.

Press l to open Notes (when you're not already typing in a field).

Rich-text editor

Notes use a full rich-text editor: headings, bold/italic, bullet and numbered lists, task lists (checkboxes), code blocks, quotes, horizontal rules.

Type / at the start of a line to open the slash command menu for inserting elements.

Links

Three ways to add a URL as a real link:

• Paste a URL — if text is selected, the selection becomes the link text. If nothing's selected, the URL itself is linkified.
• Type a URL — bare URLs auto-linkify as soon as you finish typing.
• Cmd/Ctrl + K — prompts for a URL and wraps the current selection. Press Cmd+K on an existing link to edit it, or submit an empty value to remove it.

Clicking a link inside the editor won't navigate (would interrupt writing). Cmd/Ctrl + click opens it in a new tab.

Markdown syntax also works: typing [text](url) saves as a link.

Images

Three ways to add an image:

• Paste a screenshot (⌘V) — the image uploads to your account and drops in at the cursor.
• Drag a file from your OS — drop on the editor; uploads and embeds.
• /image slash command — opens a dialog where you can either paste an external URL or pick a local file.

Limits: 10 MB per file. Supported: jpg, png, gif, webp, avif.

Images you upload are stored in your Cloud account (same region as your tasks). Pasting an external image URL just references it — MLW doesn't re-host external images.

Floating format toolbar

Select any text and a small toolbar appears with Bold / Italic / Strike / Code / Link buttons. Standard editor pattern — no mouse-to-menu trip required.

Tables

/table inserts a 3×3 table with a header row.

• Type in a cell — click in and start typing. Tab jumps to the next cell.
• Resize columns — hover the right edge of a column; the divider becomes draggable.
• Add or delete rows/columns — click into any cell. A toolbar pops up with +Row↑, +Row↓, −Row, +Col←, +Col→, −Col.
• Toggle header row — H button in the same toolbar.
• Toggle full-width — ↔ button. Tables default to content-width (only as wide as their data) so they sit comfortably in flowing text. Flip to full-width for a prominent comparison or data block.
• Delete the whole table — × button (asks to confirm).

Wiki-links — linking notes to notes

Type [[Note Title]] inline to link to another note. On save, the text renders as a clickable teal link.

• Click a wiki-link → opens the referenced note. If no note with that exact title exists yet, MLW creates a blank one and opens it (same pattern as Obsidian and Roam).
• Rename-safe: wiki-links match by title. If you rename the target, existing wiki-links will "dangle" until you either rename them back or create a note with the new title.
• Backlinks: at the bottom of every note, a "Referenced by" section lists every other note that wiki-links to this one. Click to jump.

@mentions — linking notes to tasks and projects

The superpower. Type @ while writing and pick a task or project from the autocomplete. The mention appears inline as a pill, clickable.

(Typing @name where there's no matching task or project just creates a plain person tag — that's how you tag people in notes; see Contacts & delegation.)

What linking a task or project does:

• The mentioned task/project now shows this note in its Related Notes section
• You can click the mention to jump to that task or project
• When the task is deleted or renamed, the mention stays coherent (it's referenced by ID, not by text)

Two entry points get this automatically:

• The Task Detail pane shows a "Referenced in" section listing every note that mentions this task
• The Project Detail page shows "Related Notes" — notes that mention the project or any of its tasks

Areas on notes

Notes can be assigned an Area of Focus. When the sidebar is filtered to a specific area, only notes in that area show.

Daily pages vs cloud notes

There's a distinct type of note for daily journaling — see Daily pages. Cloud notes are durable reference; daily pages are timestamped.

The sample "Welcome to Mind Like Water" and "GTD in 5 minutes" notes

When your account was created, we seeded two starter notes in your library. Both are flagged as sample content — you can delete them anytime from Settings → Sample Content.

Tips

• Title your notes with searchable phrases. "March 2026 offsite prep" beats "notes."
• Link generously. Every note that mentions a project strengthens the web. When you open the project months later, those notes are right there.
• Don't use notes as tasks. If it's actionable, create a task instead (or use a task list inside the note). Notes are for stable reference.

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Next: Daily pages →