Ask about your notes

Ask is Canto's chat. It answers questions about the note in front of you, a folder, a project or all your notes, cites the passages it used, and can edit the note beside it when you ask for a change. It runs on a model on your Mac unless you choose a server or a cloud model.

Where to ask#

• Beside a note or a canvas: press ⌘J, or Ask in the toolbar. Ask opens in the inspector and reads the document in front of you.
• About your selection: select text in a note and press ⌘. to open Ask with the selection quoted, or ⌘L to quote it into what you're already writing.
• From the command bar: press ⌘K, type a question and press ⌘↩.
• On Home and on a chat page: each has its own message field. All chats in the sidebar lists every chat.

Every one of these is the same composer, so it works the same way everywhere.

The composer#

The composer is one row. On the left:

• + adds to your message: Attach files… (⌘U), Mention a note or file (or type @), Actions (or type / at the start of a message) and Presets, which save or apply a composer setup.
• Sources says what Canto reads, with a globe while the web is on. See Choosing what Canto reads.

On the right:

• The model chip: the model's mark inside a ring that shows how full this chat's memory is, with Think as its attached half. An amber cloud means the model runs off your Mac.
• One button that changes with what you can do: the microphone for dictation while the field is empty, Send once you type, Research when you've armed Research instead, and Stop while Canto works.

The composer stays one row at any width. As it narrows, words give way to icons.

Choosing what Canto reads#

Open Sources to choose. Under Canto reads:

Beside a note, Ask starts on This note; elsewhere it starts on All notes.

Below that:

• Search the web lets Canto look things up for this chat. It's off for every new chat. With it on, Canto may search on any message and decides when. Searches leave your Mac: the search words go to the search services set up in Settings › Assistant › Web search, and pages are read from their sites. What leaves this Mac has the details.
• Recall past chats lets answers draw on your earlier chats. It's there while searching past chats is on in Settings › Memory & privacy › What Canto remembers.
• Research instead (⌘↩) turns this one message into a planned, cited report, without changing the chat or turning on the web for it. See Research and research notes.

Answers and citations#

An answer about your notes cites the passage it used; click a citation to open it. A web source shows as a citation like [W3]; point at it to see the source.

Under each answer:

• Sources is one row that opens to the full list, cited sources first.
• Copy.
• Save as note: This answer, Entire chat, or As a research note for a well-sourced answer (a research note is deep research: Pro, or one of the free tries).
• ⋯: Export as Markdown (this answer or the entire chat), Remember this… and Regenerate.
• A line that names the model, its build and the style it used. For a cloud model it also says where the answer ran; what it cost is one click away.

How I got this says in plain words what was searched and read.

You can also just say it: "make this a note", "save this answer". Once a chat has an answer, Ask can always save it as a note.

Ask can edit the note#

When you ask for a change to the note beside you ("check off the first task", "add a summary at the top"), Ask edits the note instead of answering in the chat. The line under the composer says so, for example "Can edit “Launch plan” with your review". You see each change before it lands, and one Undo takes the whole edit back. A question about the note is answered in the chat as usual.

Edits to one note at a time are free. Edits across many notes are Pro. Let Ask edit covers reviewing, citations in edits and canvases.

Models and Think#

Click the model chip to choose a model. The list has tabs for the models on your Mac, your servers and cloud models, and shows each model's maker, its build and what it can do. Choosing a model never loads it or starts a download: it loads when you send, and the chat says so. A model you don't have yet opens Settings › Models.

The same menu has:

• Memory for this chat: how full the chat's memory is, what's loaded now, and what to do when it fills (compact older messages, or start a fresh chat).
• How it answers: Think first (slower, better for hard questions; ⇧⌘R in the composer), the Style (Canto's usual voice, or a style such as Researcher, Critique or Companion) and Reply in (Auto answers in the language you write in).

Canto remembers Think for each model, and you can turn it on before the first message. Some models always think, or never do; the switch says so.

Models on your Mac explains which model suits your Mac, and Servers and cloud models covers Ollama, LM Studio and OpenRouter.

While Canto works#

One line under the answer says what Canto is doing, with a live count and the time so far, for example "Reading the results · 54% · 31,600 of 58,400 tokens". Steps read plainly: searches show their query, pages their sites, and edits link the note.

• Stop (or Esc while the field is empty) stops at once, even while the model is still reading a long prompt. A stopped answer says how long it ran and whether the note changed, with Try again or Try without Think.
• Write now: after a minute of thinking on your Mac, Canto offers to end the reasoning and start the answer.
• When a model reads slowly, Canto offers a faster one for the chat.

When an answer doesn't work#

A failed answer is one card that says what happened and offers what fixes it:

• Couldn't finish writing, with Write from the top 8 sources or Save sources as a note when sources were found.
• This chat is full: the chat and an answer no longer fit in the model's memory, even after Canto condensed older messages. Nothing was lost. Choose Compact older messages or New chat.
• When a model writes nothing, the card names it and says only what Canto knows, with Try again (and Try without Think if it was thinking).

A cut-off answer says whether the chat filled the model's memory or your Longest answer setting stopped it (Settings › Assistant › Answer length and long chats).

Cloud models in a chat#

Before your first message to a cloud model, the chat shows what will be sent, to whom, and about what it costs. While a chat's model runs off your Mac, one line inside the composer says so; ✕ hides it for that chat and model. What a cloud chat sends is your question, the chat so far and the notes it reads, never background work. Cloud models are off until you connect one: see What leaves this Mac.

Keys in the composer#

All of Canto's keys are in Keyboard shortcuts.