Filters
On iPhone and iPad, switch between Inbox, your saved Views, and All with the Views strip. Tap the menu button at the top left of your notes list for Favorites, Archived, and Shared, plus Manage Views… and Settings. While a tag filter is on, the menu also offers Save as View…. With a left-hand layout, the menu button is on the right. On Mac, use the header chooser to switch between built-in scopes and saved Views. It also contains Manage Views… and Save as View….- Inbox. Every working note until you save a View, then your untagged working notes
- All. Every note in your library, including archived notes
- Archived. Notes you’ve put away but kept
- Favorites. Notes you’ve marked as favorites
- Shared. Notes with an active shareable link
Dates on your note cards
Your notes sit under Today, Yesterday, the day of the week, and then older months. In the Today, Yesterday, and weekday sections, each card shows the time instead of repeating the day. Pinned notes and older sections keep their date. Times follow the 12-hour or 24-hour clock your device uses, in every locale.Favorites
In Cleft 1.15.0 or later, favorites have their own library on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. To add a note, open its••• menu and choose Favorite Note. Choose Remove from Favorites to take it out. Open Favorites from the menu button at the top left of your notes list (on Mac, from the header chooser) to see them all. Favorites shows current notes only, so a note you star and then archive stays in Archived rather than turning up in two places.
Pin a note
Pin the notes you keep coming back to and they gather at the top of your list, above Today, on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Choose Pin Note from a note’s••• menu. Unpin Note puts it back in its usual place by date.
Pins follow you through iCloud to your other devices signed in to the same Cleft account, and survive signing out and back in. You can pin a note before it has finished syncing.
Pinning used to mean “Pin to Widget,” which filled a single slot in the Home Screen widget. Pin Note now keeps as many notes as you like at the top of your list, and the widget still follows the note you pinned most recently.
Tags
Tag your notes so you can find them later. Open a note and tap or click the tag button. A menu lists your tags and checks the ones on the note, or offers suggestions if you have none yet. Tap or click a tag to add or remove it. Choose New Tag… to name a new one, or Manage Tags… to search a long list.
On Mac, you can also press
⌘L to open the full list of your tags with the note’s tags checked. Search it, click a tag to add or remove it, or type a new name and choose Create.
You can add up to 3 tags per note.
Activate a tag in a note to open a temporary View of working notes with that
tag. The Views control shows its name and Save as View…. Choose another
destination to leave it, or save it to keep it. Use Manage Views… to choose
several tags for a saved View; every chosen tag must match.
Views
Saved Views are not in a released build yet. This guide is ready for their release; until then, filter by tag from the tag menu.
#work
finds every working note tagged work.
On iPhone with iOS 26, the Views strip sits above the bottom controls. On iPad,
it sits in the library header above the notes. Tap or swipe through Inbox,
your saved Views and All; use the library menu for Favorites, Archived and
Shared. On Mac, click the current View name above the list to choose a
destination. Hold Option while scrolling over that chooser to switch Views.
Activate a tag in a note to open a temporary View. Its name appears in the
Views control, with Save as View… if you want to keep it. It lasts for the
current selection unless you save it; choosing another destination leaves it.
There is no separate tag-filter row or Browse Tags destination.
Choose Manage Views… to create a View, change its name or tags, reorder it,
or delete it. The editor has no library-section picker or Also show in Inbox
switch. Deleting a View keeps your notes and tags. Deleting the selected View
returns you to Inbox. If a tag disappears, edit the View to repair its filters.
Once all notes have loaded, an empty View hides from the strip and chooser.
With VoiceOver, the strip is one adjustable control called Views: swipe up or
down to switch. From Favorites, Archived or Shared, swipe up to reach Inbox
and down to reach All. On iPhone before iOS 26, use the library menu to choose
Inbox, a saved View or All. Settings > General > Views opens the same
manager, and saved Views follow you through iCloud.
Tag while you write
You can also tag a note from its text. While editing the Notes or Transcript view, type a hashtag such as#project and save. Cleft adds the tag to the note, and your text keeps the hashtag exactly as you typed it. Find the tag in search and in your Views.
Markdown headings and code stay as they are. A # that starts a heading, or one inside inline code or a code block, never becomes a tag.
Bulk Tag Management
Select multiple notes to see their shared tags, add a tag across all of them, or remove tags in bulk.Remove a tag from a note
Open the note, choose Tags, and deselect the tag. This removes the assignment without changing your saved Views. Separate tag catalogue management is planned.Tags work with Apple Shortcuts and Zapier for automated workflows.
Search
Type in the search field above your notes, or press
⌘ + / on Mac to jump to it. On iPhone with iOS 26, tap the magnifying glass in its capsule at the bottom of your notes. Tap Cancel when you are done. Search looks at each note’s title and text, and results update as you type.
In Cleft 1.15.0 or later, search also finds notes by their tags. A note tagged Work turns up for “work” even if its text never says the word. Type #work to narrow to tags alone.
Spotlight
Spotlight searches deeper, across titles, transcripts, summaries, and tags. Requires iOS 18+ or macOS 15+.- iPhone and iPad. Swipe down from the home screen and start typing
- Mac. Press
⌘ + Spaceand start typing - Works offline, no internet connection needed