Quick Start Guide

This guide walks you through the most important things you can do with NoteTalker right after installing it. Follow along from top to bottom — each step builds on the last.

Step 1: Install and Open Your Vault

1. If you haven’t installed NoteTalker yet, follow the Installation guide.

2. On first launch, NoteTalker asks you to choose a vault folder. Either create a new folder (e.g., My NoteTalker Vault) or point it at an existing folder of markdown notes.

3. Activate your license. NoteTalker is a one-time $37 purchase. Open Settings → License & About, paste the key from your account at talkwithyournotes.com, and activate — a quick, one-time online step. See License & Activation for details.

4. Let the AI models download. The first time you launch NoteTalker, it downloads the on-device AI models — about 3 GB for the essential set (a local language model, Whisper Base for speech-to-text, and Kokoro for text-to-speech), up to ~8 GB if you keep the larger default model. This happens once; afterward everything runs offline.

5. Want sample notes to explore? Download the Example Vault and unzip it. You can either point NoteTalker at the extracted folder as your vault, or copy the unzipped files into an existing vault. Either way, you’ll have pre-built notes to try out search, linking, and AI chat right away.

6. NoteTalker will set up its internal folder structure and open the main window.

See Your First Vault for a detailed explanation of what NoteTalker creates.

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Step 2: Create Your First Note

There are two ways to create a note:

Using the Files tab:

1. Click the Files tab in the upper navigation bar.
2. Click the 📄 file icon in the toolbar.
3. Give it a name and start writing. NoteTalker uses standard markdown — headings with #, bold with **, links with [[note name]] for wiki-links.

By asking the agent:

Open the Chat tab and type something like:

“Create a note called Meeting Notes with today’s date and add a few bullet points about the NoteTalker onboarding.”

The agent will create the file for you and confirm when it’s done.

Tip

NoteTalker supports wiki-links ([[Note Title]]) to link notes together. The agent understands these links and uses them when searching your vault.

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Step 3: Have Your First Conversation

1. Click the Chat tab.

2. Type a question or request. For example:

   • “What notes do I have?”
   • “Summarize what I’ve been working on this week.”
   • “Help me write a weekly review template.”

3. As you type, NoteTalker searches your vault for relevant notes and includes them as context. Your responses are shaped by your own information — not generic internet knowledge.

Note

Chat runs on the local language model on your own machine — no account or internet connection is needed once your license is activated and the models are downloaded. The first reply after the app has been idle may take a little longer while the model loads.

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Step 4: Try Voice Input

If you want to use your voice instead of typing:

1. Click the microphone button in the chat input bar.

2. Speak your question or message.

3. Click the button again to stop. Alternatively, NoteTalker will stop listening after a half-second pause with no talking.

4. NoteTalker transcribes your audio and processes your request as normal.

Note

Voice input is transcribed on your own device by Whisper Base — your audio never leaves your machine. You can also enable Wake Word mode in Settings so NoteTalker listens for “Hey Jarvis” hands-free.

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Step 5: Check Your Daily Note

NoteTalker creates daily notes at daily/YYYY-MM-DD.md. You can use them as a journal, a task list, or a place to capture anything that happens during the day.

1. In the chat bar, type: “Open today’s daily note.”

   Or use the Files tab to navigate to the daily/ folder.

2. NoteTalker creates the daily note when you first access it — just ask NoteTalker to open today’s note, or click the Today button.

3. Try asking the agent to add something to it: “Add a task to my daily note: review onboarding docs.”

The agent can also generate a daily briefing for you — type “Give me a daily report” to see a summary of your tasks, recent notes, and upcoming events.

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Step 6: Explore the Memory System

NoteTalker remembers things about you across conversations. After a few chats, try these:

• Tell NoteTalker something to remember: “Remember that my preferred meeting time is mornings.”
• Ask what it knows: “What do you know about my goals?”
• Check your profile: The file atlas/identity/user.md in your vault contains your profile. You can read and edit it directly.

NoteTalker stores long-term facts in atlas/memory/long-term/facts.md — organized into sections for facts, goals, relationships, and projects. Everything is in plain markdown on your own device, so you can always read or edit it yourself.

Tip

At the end of each conversation session, NoteTalker automatically summarizes the conversation and updates its memory. You don’t have to do anything — it happens in the background.

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What to Do Next

You’re up and running. Here’s where to go from here:

Topic	Where to Go
How the vault is organized	Vault
Getting the most from AI chat	AI Chat
All 42 built-in agent tools	Agent Tools
Voice features	Voice
License and activation	License & Activation
Settings reference	Settings

Tip

The best way to learn NoteTalker is to just start talking to it. Ask it to help you take notes, organize your thoughts, or manage your tasks — and it will show you what it can do.