Magic Note Pro — User Guide

Getting Started

1. Get an Anthropic API key

Magic Note is a one-time purchase — there is no ongoing subscription for the app itself. The AI features use Claude, made by Anthropic, which you access via their API. You pay Anthropic directly for usage, like a phone bill. We don't add any markup.

1. Go to console.anthropic.com and create an account
2. Navigate to API Keys and create a new key
3. Copy the key — you won't be able to see it again
4. Optionally set a monthly spending limit under Billing → Usage limits

How much does Claude API cost?

Anthropic charges per token (roughly per word). A typical question-and-answer exchange costs a fraction of a cent. Most users spend a few dollars per month — well below any AI subscription service.

Start with claude-haiku-4-5 — it's fast, capable, and costs a tiny fraction of Sonnet. Switch to Sonnet for a specific folder when you need stronger reasoning. Set a spending limit in the Anthropic console so you're never surprised.

2. Enter your API key

Open Magic Note → Settings (⌘,) → API Keys → paste your Anthropic key. The app stores it locally in ~/.config/magic-office/creds.toml. It never leaves your Mac except when sent directly to Anthropic during AI calls.

3. Choose a model

Settings → Model. Recommended defaults:

• Haiku — fast, cheap. Best starting point for most users
• Sonnet — stronger reasoning, better for research and long documents
• Opus — most capable, reserve for complex analysis where accuracy matters most

You can override the model per-folder or per-card using Spells.

4. Start your free trial

On first launch, Magic Note will ask for your email to start a 14-day free trial. No payment required. Your trial runs on this machine — switching Macs starts a new trial. Upgrade any time from Settings → License.

Cards & Blocks

Magic Note organizes everything into cards. A card is like a page in a notebook — it holds a title and a sequence of blocks. Each block is a different type of content.

Creating cards

• Click + New Card in the sidebar, or press ⌘N
• Cards live in folders — use the sidebar folder picker to organize them
• Cards autosave every 500ms while you type

Block types

Markdown formatting

Text blocks render markdown in real time — you write plain text, the app styles it visually without changing the underlying content.

• # H1, ## H2, ### H3 — headers
• **bold**, *italic*, `code`
• - item or 1. item — lists
• > quote — blockquote
• - [ ] task — checkbox

AI Dialog

Every card has a built-in AI dialog at the bottom. Claude can read everything in the card and has access to a set of tools it can use without being asked.

Starting a conversation

Click the dialog area at the bottom of any card and start typing. Press Return to send (Shift+Return for a new line). Responses stream in token by token.

You can switch to a different card while Claude is responding — the stream continues in the background and saves when complete.

Built-in AI tools

Tips

• "Summarize this card" — Claude reads the full card and writes a summary
• "Add a bullet point for X" — Claude appends it directly to the card
• "What does my Tokyo card say about food?" — Claude finds and reads it
• "Rewrite this more concisely" — paste text, Claude rewrites it

Folders & Spells

Folders

Cards live in folders. Click + New Folder in the sidebar to create one. Move cards between folders via right-click → Move to…

Each folder can have its own AI persona — a system prompt that shapes how Claude behaves in every card inside that folder. Click a folder name → Edit Persona to set it.

Spells

Spells are reusable AI instruction sets stored as TOML files in ~/.config/magic-office/spells/. They let you define custom prompts, preferred models, and tool allowlists that you can apply to any folder or card.

Open the Spells panel from the toolbar → Spells ✦. From there you can:

• Create a new spell with a name, model, and system prompt
• Edit or delete existing spells
• Apply a spell to the current folder or card

AI persona hierarchy

When Claude responds, it composes the system prompt from three layers — innermost wins:

1. Root spell — your global baseline (set in Settings → Spells)
2. Folder persona — overrides root for all cards in the folder
3. Card persona — overrides folder for this specific card

Web Import

Import any web page as a text block. Magic Note fetches the page, strips navigation and ads, and saves the readable article text directly to your card.

How to import

1. Toolbar → Import URL (or ⌘U)
2. Paste the URL
3. Optionally tick Auto-summarize — Claude reads the article and prepends a summary block
4. Click Import

What works well

• News articles, blog posts, documentation pages
• Wikipedia articles
• GitHub READMEs and issues
• Research papers (abstract + body, not PDFs)

Paywalled pages will only import whatever content loads without a login. The imported block is tappable — click the URL to open the original in your browser.

Maps

Map blocks embed an interactive MapKit map directly in a card. They support location pinning, POI search, routing, and ETAs.

Adding a map

Toolbar → Map. Type an address or place name — the app geocodes it and drops a pin. Tap the label to open Apple Maps.

AI map tools

Claude can work with maps through the AI dialog:

• "Find coffee shops near the Eiffel Tower" → searches and pins nearby POIs
• "How long to drive from Boston to Providence?" → ETA with distance
• "Plan a route: Logan → Harvard → MIT → South Station" → multi-stop routing
• "What's at 48.8566° N, 2.3522° E?" → reverse geocode to address

Keyboard Shortcuts