Canto
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subtank⌘K and search
⌘K opens one bar for going somewhere, doing something and asking. Type a few letters of a note's title, the name of a command, a Settings row or a question. The same search, with filters, opens with ⇧⌘F. Everything runs on your Mac: nothing you type in the bar is sent anywhere.
The ⌘K bar#
Press ⌘K (⌘P works too), or click Search or run a command in the toolbar. With nothing typed, it lists what you opened recently. As you type, results come in groups:
| Group | What's in it |
|---|---|
| Selection | AI actions for the text you selected in a note, when you selected some |
| Go to | Notes, chats, canvases, projects and folders whose title matches |
| Settings | Settings pages and the rows inside them |
| Found in your notes and chats | Passages that match, with your words marked |
| Folders on this Mac | Files in folders you linked, by name or by what they say |
| Actions | Every command, and New note titled "…" with what you typed |
| Ask Canto | Ask: "…", a new chat with your question |
An action you name outright ("switch to dark mode", "new canvas") moves up to the top.
| Keys | Does |
|---|---|
| ↑ ↓ | Move through the results |
| ↩ | Open or run the highlighted row |
| ⌘↩ | Ask Canto about what you typed |
| ⇥ / ⇧⇥ | Narrow to one kind (notes, chats, canvases…) and back |
| ⌫ in an empty field | Leave the kind you narrowed to |
| Esc | Close |
↩ always runs the row you see highlighted.
Commands worth knowing#
Some things are easiest from ⌘K: Open a random note, Surprise me, Activate Canto Pro…, Search by meaning: what it's doing, Connect Apple Notes…, and every import and export.
AI actions for this note#
⇧⌘K in a note opens the same bar with this note's AI actions, and your selection's when you selected text: "Run an AI action on this note, or ask…". Choose an action, or type a question and press ⌘↩ to ask about the note. See Actions and styles.
Search with filters#
⇧⌘F (Go › Search…, or Search in the sidebar) opens the bar in search mode: "Search notes, chats, canvases and files". It shows one list of results with their passages, and filters you can combine:
- Kind: Everything, Notes, Chats, Canvases, Projects, Folders, Files (attachments) and Folders on this Mac, each with its count.
- Folder: any folder, or one folder with its subfolders.
- Tag: any tag.
- Date: Any time, Today, Past week, Past month, Past year or Older.
Clicking a tag in a note opens its tag page instead; see Organize your notes.
How search finds things#
Search looks at words and meaning together and puts the two lists into one:
- By words: every word you type, matched at the start of words, with titles counting most. Korean is found inside longer words too. A second pass catches passages that have only some of your words.
- By meaning: notes and chats about what you typed, even in other words, using a small model on your Mac. See Related notes and the graph.
Under the results, one line says how this search was done and how long it took, for example "By words and meaning · on this Mac · 38 ms". When search by meaning is off or needs attention, the line says "By words" and why.
What each kind of thing is found by:
| Kind | Found by |
|---|---|
| Notes and chats | Words and meaning |
| Attachments (PDFs, pictures, recordings) | Words, including the text Canto read from them on your Mac |
| Canvases, projects and folders | Words |
| Files in Folders on this Mac | Name and text |
Search by meaning understands English only in this beta. Notes in Korean and other languages are found by their words.
Ask from ⌘K#
Type a question and press ⌘↩, or choose Ask: "…". Canto starts a chat with it, reading your notes the way Ask does. In the ⇧⌘K bar, the row is Ask about this note: "…" and the question goes to Ask beside the note. See Ask about your notes.