How to use Nool

Install

Download Nool from the home page. It picks the right file for your computer. Nool is free, 25 to 50 MB depending on your system, and needs no account.

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Nool.app

chmod +x Nool_*.AppImage
./Nool_*.AppImage

First launch

Nool opens with three short welcome steps: what Nool is, an optional AI connection (you can skip it), and you're in. Your album starts with a few sample stamps to look around. Delete them whenever you like.

Already open in another window? Open Nool from a link like the Open in app button on this site, and it brings the open window forward.

How Nool talks

Nool borrows from the post office. The words are small, but they're everywhere.

Album and stamps

The album shows every project as a stamp. Switch to List at the top right for a compact view. Nool remembers which one you picked.

Issue a stamp

1. Press New stamp.
2. Give it a title and one line about it. The stamp preview updates as you type.
3. Pick a set of stages: Studio (Spark, Moodboard, Research, Experiments, Build, Outcome), Simple (Idea, Making, Result) or Blank.
4. Press Issue stamp. You land on its desk.

Every stamp gets its own colours, tilt and pattern, drawn from the project itself. Once you add images, the latest one becomes its picture.

The desk

The desk has three parts: stages on the left, the blocks of the stage you're in, and precedents on the right. On a narrow window they stack, with Blocks and Precedents tabs.

Stages

• Click a stage to open it. The number beside it is how many blocks it holds.
• Press Edit above the stages to rename, add, reorder or delete them. A project always keeps at least one.
• Click the big stage name above the blocks to rename it in place.

Adding

Editing

• Everything is edited in place and saves on its own. The top bar says Saving… and then Saved.
• Reorder: hold the dotted handle at a block's top left and drag it, or use the up and down arrows.
• Move to another stage: use Move to… on the block.
• Remove: the bin at the block's top right.
• Images: hover and press Replace, or drop a new image on it. Clicking an image does nothing, so you won't open a file picker by accident.

Blocks sent from other apps show where they came from, like via Figma or via Phone.

Block types

Empty blocks are left off the letter, so it's fine to leave a few lying around.

Voice notes

1. Press Voice in the box at the bottom of the desk.
2. The first time, allow Nool to use your microphone.
3. Talk. A timer shows you're recording. Press Stop and add when you're done, or Cancel.

You can also drop an audio file onto the box. Add a caption so you can find it later.

Transcripts

A Transcribe button appears on voice notes when your connected AI can turn speech into text. Right now that's ChatGPT (OpenAI), or an Other service that offers speech, such as Groq. Claude, Gemini and Ollama can't transcribe through Nool. The transcript is editable and shows under the recording on your letter.

Precedents

Precedents are the works your project builds on: artworks, design objects, papers, code. They sit beside each stage, and the ones you keep become the lineage of your letter.

Add your own

Press Add in the precedents panel. Give it a title, who made it, the year, a link and a note on why it matters.

Find some

Press Find precedents. Nool searches The Met, Semantic Scholar, arXiv and GitHub, plus Cooper Hewitt if you add its free key under Connections → Museum search.

• Without an AI connected, it searches with words from your title and stage.
• With one, the AI writes better searches from your notes and picks the 8 closest, each with a one-line reason.
• Press Keep on the ones that matter and write a note on why. Dismiss the rest.
• Find again replaces suggestions you didn't keep. Kept ones and ones you added yourself always stay.

Nothing is searched until you press the button. If a source can't be reached, Nool says which one and shows the rest.

Connect an AI

AI is optional. Nool works fully without it. With it, you get stage summaries and sharper precedent picks. It only runs when you press a button, and it never makes the work for you.

1. Open Connections (top right), section 1. AI helper.
2. Pick the one you use: Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, OpenRouter, Ollama, or Other for any OpenAI-compatible service.
3. Press the link to open that provider's key page, sign in, and create a key. Some ask you to add a little credit first; you pay them directly, usually cents per use.
4. Paste the key and press Connect. Nool checks it works before saving it.

Your key is stored only on your computer and is only ever sent to the provider you picked. Press Disconnect to remove it.

Summaries

Press Summarize next to a stage's name. Nool writes 3 to 5 sentences from that stage's notes only, and is told never to add facts that aren't there. The summary opens for you to edit. Press Add as note to keep it, Try again, or Discard.

Using Claude Desktop instead

Have a Claude plan but no API key? Nool can hand summaries and precedents to the Claude desktop app.

1. Connect Nool to Claude Desktop once (see chat apps).
2. On the desk, press Summarize or the precedents panel's Find with Claude Desktop.
3. Nool copies a ready-made request and opens Claude. Paste it with Ctrl/⌘ + V and press Enter.
4. Claude reads the stage and writes the summary or suggestions back into Nool. Switch back to Nool and they appear.

Claude, Cursor and Windsurf

Connect a chat app and you can say things like "add a note to my Tidal project: the float held for six hours".

1. Open Connections → 2. Chat apps.
2. Press Add Nool next to the app. Nool adds itself to that app's settings and keeps a copy of the original next to it.
3. Quit the app fully and open it again.
4. Keep Nool open while you chat.

What a connected app can do in Nool:

Connected apps can't delete or change what's there. They can only read and add.

Figma

The Send to Nool plugin sends the frames you select to the project and stage you pick. You set it up once.

1. Open the Figma desktop app (not the website) and any design file.
2. From the menu choose Plugins → Development → Import plugin from manifest…
3. In Nool, open Connections → 3. Figma and press Show plugin file. Pick the manifest.json it shows.
4. Run Plugins → Development → Send to Nool. Paste the address and token from that same Connections section and press Connect.
5. Select one or more frames, pick a project and stage, add a caption if you like, and press Send selection.

Your phone

Capture while you're away from your desk: a photo of a sketch, a quick note, a voice memo. It works over your own Wi-Fi; nothing goes through the internet.

1. Open Connections → 4. Phone and turn on Let my phone send to Nool.
2. If your computer asks whether Nool may accept connections, allow it on private networks.
3. With your phone on the same Wi-Fi, point its camera at the QR code and tap the link.
4. Pick a project and stage. Send notes and links, Photo to take or pick pictures, and Voice to record with your phone's recorder or pick a recording.

Your phone can only add things, and only with the pairing code inside the QR. Press Unpair all phones to make a new code, or turn the switch off.

Scripts and the API

Anything that can make a web request can add to Nool while it's open: a Blender script, a shortcut, a build step. Find your token under Connections → For developers. Projects and stages can be named instead of using ids; leave the stage out and it goes to the stage you worked in last.

curl -X POST http://localhost:5173/api/inbox/blocks \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"project":"Tidal","stage":"Build","type":"note","data":{"text":"Render 12 done"},"source":"Blender"}'

Block data by type: note {text}, image {src, caption}, link {url, note}, quote {text, cite}, todo {items:[{text, done}]}, palette {colors}, voice {src, caption, transcript, duration}. If you make a new token, update your scripts and reconnect your apps.

Posting and the letter

Press Letter on the desk at any time to preview the case study. When it's ready, press Post: the stamp lands on an envelope and gets its postmark, and the project is marked posted in your album. Recall takes it back to mint.

The letter is laid out like an editorial feature:

• A masthead with the dates you documented, how many blocks and stages, and how many works it builds on
• Each stage as a numbered section, with images numbered as figures
• Kept precedents as notes in the margin, numbered to match the Lineage list at the end

Sharing

On the letter, press Share at the top right.

In the desktop app, the web page and folder are saved to your Downloads folder, which then opens. PDF opens the letter in your browser with the print dialog ready.

Backups

Your projects only live on your computer, so back them up. Open Backups (top right).

To a file

Press Save backup file to download a .nool file with every project and image. Keep it anywhere, or move it to another computer. To bring it back, press Restore from file and pick it. Restoring replaces what's in Nool, and Nool saves a safety copy of the current state first.

To Google Drive

Press Connect Google Drive and sign in. Nool can only see the files it creates, in a Nool backups folder, and nothing else in your Drive. Press Back up now, or turn on daily backups while Nool is open. Any backup in the list can be restored. The 10 most recent are kept.

Where your data lives

Everything is in one folder on your computer: a database file and an uploads folder with your images and recordings.

Uninstalling Nool leaves this folder alone. Delete it yourself if you want everything gone.

Troubleshooting

Feedback

This is an early build for friends, so tell me everything: what was confusing, what broke, what you wished it did. Message me directly. Screenshots help a lot.