Note Actions

Every note has two action surfaces.

• The Send button (paperplane) on the toolbar gets a note out of Cleft. See Sending Notes.
• The ••• menu next to it covers actions you take on the note inside Cleft.

On iOS, long-press a note in the list to open the same set of actions as a context menu. On macOS, right-click a note in the list.

Actions on a note (the ••• menu)

• Continue. Append more audio to an existing note.
• Pin Note. Keep this note at the top of your list on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. See Pin a note. Your most recently pinned note is also the one your Home Screen Pinned Note widget shows. See Widgets.
• Details. See what the note actually contains. See Note details.
• Favorite Note / Remove from Favorites. Add the note to your Favorites library, or take it out.
• Rewrite. Regenerate the summary from the transcript. Useful after you tweak your Writing Style.
• Duplicate. Create a copy of the note.
• Merge. Combine two notes into one. Pick both with Select first. See Multi-Select.
• Archive / Unarchive (⌃⌘A). Move the note in or out of your Archived filter.
• Save Audio. Save the recording as an audio file. See Save a note’s audio.
• Delete Audio. Permanently remove this note’s recording and keep everything else. See Delete a note’s audio.
• Delete. Permanently remove the note.

Note details

In Cleft 1.15.0 or later, Details in the ••• menu shows what a note contains on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. It lists tags, creation and update times, word count, and language. For a voice note, Recording shows the recording’s exact length and where its audio lives, such as 4:32 · Included. Included means your account has the audio. On this device only means you recorded with Upload audio off, so no other device has it. Deleted means you deleted the audio and kept the note. While a recording is still saving, Cleft shows the length alone. The length is measured when you press Stop, and each recording you add to the note adds to it. It follows the note to your other iPhone, iPad, or Mac, stays after a reinstall, and shows offline once the note has synced. A recording you add by saving it in the editor shows its length on this device only for now. Deleting the audio keeps the length. Cleft never downloads audio to work any of this out. Notes recorded on Apple Watch or in CarPlay, and notes recorded before Cleft 1.15.0, show no length. Under Advanced, open File metadata to see the metadata Local Export writes to the top of your Markdown file. It stays collapsed until you ask for it. Each field names its owner, so you can tell what Cleft maintains from what you edit yourself. Fields Cleft cannot read explain the problem and keep their original content. The section also names the folder an export would write this note to, or tells you Local Export is off. What the export will write reveals the finished Markdown, which you can select or copy with Copy this file. Cleft renders it with the same exporter that writes your real files, and reading it writes nothing. See Preview a file before export. Cleft remembers which of these reveals you left open and restores them the next time you open Details, per account on that device. They start closed for anyone who has not opened them. On iPhone this opens as a sheet. On wider iPad and Mac windows it opens as a popover, preserving your writing area. On a Mac or an iPad you can also put Details on the note toolbar through Customize Toolbar; Cleft leaves it out until you do.

Sending and copying

Send and copy options live under the paperplane Send button on the toolbar. See Sending Notes for the full menu, Copying Notes for copy formats, and Shareable Links for web links.

Multi-Select

Use Select at the top of your library, then pick the notes you want. Each chosen note gets a number in the order you pick them.

• Delete. Remove multiple notes at once.
• Archive. Archive or unarchive in bulk.
• Tags. Add or remove tags across selected notes.
• Merge. Combine two notes. The button names the direction, such as Merge 2 into 1. Note 2 merges into note 1, and Cleft keeps note 1.

Merge and Archive are separate controls, so neither changes meaning with the number of notes you pick. On macOS, use ⌘ + Click to select individual notes or ⇧ + Click for a range.

Audio Playback

Tap the play button on any voice note to listen back:

• Play / Pause. Drag the scrubber to jump to any point.
• If playback fails. Cleft stops trying on its own rather than retrying in the background. Press Play to reload the recording and bring its controls back.
• Speed controls. 1x, 1.5x, or 2x playback.
• Layout. On iPhone, the player opens as a sheet. On macOS and iPad, it plays inline.

Audio saving and retry

Saving audio on this device means Cleft is keeping the recording locally. Successful local saving does not show an upload retry. If local saving fails, open the note and choose Retry saving audio on this device. If an upload fails, choose Retry Audio Upload when you are online. Cleft preserves the recording for another attempt. The same actions apply to appended recordings. The status follows the storage choice captured for that recording, even if you change settings in Audio Storage later.

Storage

• Cleft transcribes audio on your device. Speech-to-text runs locally. Cleft sends no audio to AI partners.
• New recordings stay on this device by default. Upload audio is off by default, so new recordings stay on this device. Upload audio is part of Cleft Plus. With Plus, turn it on to add future recordings to synced notes for playback on your other devices and in shared notes. Cleft v1.15.0 turned it off once on every device, so if you relied on uploads before, turn it back on in Audio Storage. Use Keep audio on this device to keep a playable local copy as well. Cleft stores uploaded recordings for cross-device access and sharing. Cleft never shares them with third-party AI providers.
• Note data syncs. Titles, transcripts, and summaries sync across your devices.
• Offline support. Notes created without a connection sync automatically when you’re back online.
• Recordings from a deleted note. If you delete a note while its recording is waiting to upload, Cleft stops retrying. Cleft keeps that recording on this device.

Delete a note’s audio

Sometimes you want the note without the recording. In Cleft v1.15.0 or later, choose Delete Audio from the ••• menu on iPhone, iPad, or Mac. What stays: the title, transcript, generated notes, tags, attachments, and sharing settings. What goes: the recording, everywhere, including any copy Cleft uploaded. Playback stops and Cleft cancels any Save Audio work on your other devices once the deletion reaches them. If you continue the note with a new recording afterwards, Cleft saves that new audio as normal. To clear local recordings in bulk instead of one note at a time, use Reclaim Space in Audio Storage settings.