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Feature

Docs

Docs are the default kind of item in Tana for writing, thinking, and capturing context and information.

TL;DR

A Doc is the default kind of item, with rich text, slash commands, @ mentions to reference other items, and real-time collaborative editing. Assign a type to add structured fields, run skills from the Send to menu, and use Links to see how information connects across Tana.

  • Rich text editor with slash commands for headings, lists, code blocks, math, diagrams, and more
  • Assign a type to add structured fields, or use as a freeform doc
  • Mention docs, people, and items with rich, interactive pills
  • Links show every item that points at this doc, About shows who made and changed it, and Proposals lists open changes waiting on review
  • Send to routes a doc to a chat, a skill, a meeting, a copied link, or Markdown export

Creating a doc

Select “Doc” from the create menu, or from the ”+” button on any space home or date. A Doc is the default item kind for freeform writing, and the create menu, types table, space home buttons, slash command, and AI tools all use the label Doc. The slash-menu aliases “note” and “document” still match the same option, so existing muscle memory keeps working.

When you create a typed entry inline (from the kanban board’s ”+” buttons or the slash command), the Inline document popover protects in-flight work: while the new doc is still in proposal state, clicking outside or pressing Escape no longer discards what you typed. Only the Create button (to keep it) and the Discard trash icon (to drop it) close the popover. Editing an existing doc is unchanged: outside-click and Escape still dismiss the popover.

The editor

A doc opens as a full-screen editor with an editable title at the top and a rich text area below. The title and the body behave as one piece of text for the arrow keys: pressing down on the title’s last line moves into the body, up on the body’s first line returns to the title, and the caret keeps its place across the line. The editor supports real-time collaborative editing: multiple people can write in the same doc at the same time.

Formatting

Select text to access inline formatting: bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, highlight, and inline code.

Selecting with a mouse or trackpad opens a formatting toolbar above the selection. Turn into changes the block to text, a heading, a bulleted, numbered or to-do list, a blockquote, or a code block, and the inline formats sit beside it, each shown pressed when the selection already carries it. On touch the toolbar stays out of the way, because the native selection handles occupy the same space. Everything on it is also in the slash menu, Cmd+KCtrl+K, and the keyboard shortcuts.

Slash commands

Type / anywhere in the editor to insert:

  • Heading 1, 2, 3: Section headings at different levels
  • Bullet list: Unordered list
  • Numbered list: Ordered list
  • Code block: Syntax-highlighted code
  • Quote: Blockquote
  • Divider: Horizontal rule
  • Math block: LaTeX equation
  • Audio: an audio file, which plays inline. You can also drop or paste one straight into the editor, the same as an image or video
  • File: any other file, uploaded as a card with Download
  • Mermaid diagram: A diagram written in Mermaid syntax
  • Checklist: A list of checkboxes. A heading whose section has checkboxes shows a progress bar with a count, such as 5/12, and the doc shows one under its title. Turn them off with Show checklist progress in Settings, Preferences

In the title of an untyped doc, type / to give it a type. Changing or removing a type it already has is done from the panel’s ⋮ menu.

A Mermaid block renders the diagram with a “Preview” / “Source” toggle (Preview by default); click the diagram to open it in a pan and zoom view. You can also turn any existing code block into a diagram by changing its language to Mermaid. Supported diagram types are flowchart, sequence, state, class, entity relationship, XY chart, Gantt, pie, mind map, timeline, git graph and quadrant chart.

Emoji picker

Type : in the editor or the chat composer, then at least two letters, to search emoji by name (for example :thu finds 👍). Pick one to insert it. Pressing : again closes the search without inserting anything.

Images and attachments

Drag and drop, paste, or use the attach button to add images, audio, video, and any other file to a doc, such as a PDF, a Word document, or a zip. The File slash command uploads one too. Files that can run code, such as programs and installers, are refused. A file that is not media shows as a card with Download, and so does the file’s own page. Images get AI-generated descriptions automatically. Video and audio render inline as native HTML5 players in the editor, the read-only viewer, the diff preview, and the compact editor, so attached media plays in place rather than as a separate download. Opening a video or audio item on its own shows it in a dedicated player panel with the standard toolbar, with upload-in-progress and failed states surfaced in the player area.

Mentions

Type @ to mention another document, a person, or any item. You can also paste a link to another Tana item and it drops in an inline mention at your cursor, while links to images and videos render the media inline. Each mention is a pill with a leading symbol that matches what it points to: a task’s state, a person’s avatar, an image thumbnail, a type badge for a typed item, or the document-kind icon for everything else (Doc, Canvas, Meeting, Chat, Skill, Agent, Space, and audio, video, or other assets). Long titles truncate so the pill stays one bounded shape, including inside table cells and headings.

Move between mentions with the arrow keys, and open one by pressing Enter or clicking: a Doc opens in a peek side panel, other kinds navigate to the item. Modifier-clicks open the mention in a new tab, window, or split, the same as any other link. You can also drag a mention to move it within the doc.

Types and fields

Any item can be assigned a type to add structured fields. For example, assign a “Bug” type to add fields like priority, assignee, and status. Set the type from the overflow menu (“Set type”) or via slash command in the title.

Fields render inline on the document: a member field as an avatar, a link field as the referenced title, and an Options field as a chip you pick from the field’s list.

When a type with a workflow is assigned, the item becomes a task with state tracking and assignment.

Task state

An item with a task state shows a checkbox next to the title. Click the checkbox or press Cmd+EnterCtrl+Enter to toggle between open and closed. See Tasks for full task management.

Send to

Every item has a Send to menu in its toolbar, and on meeting tiles, that routes the item without leaving it:

  • Start new chat: start a chat about the item with Tana, and send it to one of your custom agents or a teammate from the Agents and Team sections of the same menu. This creates a new chat with the item attached and opens it, ready for your first message. Choosing a teammate makes a shared private chat with just the two of you; if they do not already have access to the item, Tana offers to grant it.
  • Skills and integrations: run any skill attached to the item’s type, or a connected integration like GitHub or Linear. If a skill creates an external issue, it links to it once run.
  • Pin to meeting: attach the item to a meeting so everyone in the call can see it.
  • Copy link: copy a link to the item. Docs also show a Copy public link row that turns on link sharing (if it is not on already) and copies the public URL in one step.
  • Download Markdown: download the item as a .md file, with the title as an H1 heading and the full content in Markdown.

In the Team section, the people you have recently shared docs, chats, and canvases with come first, shown with their profile photos.

Open in chat

Right-click a doc and choose “Open in chat” to iterate on it with AI in a split view: proposed edits on the left, an iteration chat on the right. Describe the change you want and the AI updates the proposal in place. Accepting lands the edits on the original doc; rejecting or closing leaves it unchanged. These iteration chats are owned by the doc itself, so they stay out of your main chats list.

Side panels

The doc’s More menu (⋮) opens side panels:

  • Table of contents: Headings from the doc, for quick navigation within long documents
  • Recent meetings: The meetings the doc is pinned to, the ones that have started first, latest first, then upcoming ones. The + in its heading starts a meeting now with the doc pinned to it
  • Links: All items that point at this doc, most recently active first. Links update automatically as other items link to it.
  • About: Where the doc lives, who created it and when, the chat or meeting it was created in, who has edited it, and which chats and meetings changed it.
  • Changes: Chronological history of edits showing what changed, who made the change, and when. Click an entry to see details.
  • Proposals: Open proposals to change or delete the doc, each under the meeting or chat it came from. Review opens one for review in place. The panel shows only while there are some
  • In common: Items shared between the doc’s participants. Only visible when the doc has multiple participants.

Every panel except Table of contents and About is pinned open by default.

Links

Links are a key part of how information connects in Tana. When any item links to or mentions this doc, that reference appears in the Links panel, grouped by how it connects: chats, the meetings and spaces it’s pinned to, items that reference it through a field (shown as “Type > Field”), its subtasks, the meetings where it was discussed, items created inside it, and other items that mention it. Each group shows five rows at a time, with Show more for the next five. Each row says when you last opened it or when it was last updated.

Location and access

The doc toolbar shows two adjacent buttons for location and access:

  • Location (“Lives in”) names the space or meeting the doc lives in. Click it to go there, or right-click it for Move to…. A doc that does not live in a space or on a meeting reads Docs, and clicking it opens Search filtered to docs.
  • Access opens access mode, participants, and Guest link. See Spaces and sharing for the access modes and Link sharing for the Guest link behavior. Someone who can only view the doc sees the Access popover read-only.

When you share a doc into a chat or meeting and someone there can’t open it, anyone who can edit the doc sees Hidden from with that person’s name, or a count, and a Grant access button. Members get edit access and guests get view access.

Every doc panel’s overflow menu also has Move to (Doc, Canvas, Chat, Skill, Agent, Artifact, Type, Space Home, plus Image, Asset, Audio, Call, and Transcript panels), and so do the meeting event overflow menu and the inline document popover. It opens a submenu of your organization and top-level spaces, with a check on where the doc lives now; a top-level space with subspaces opens a submenu of its own: the space itself, then all its subspaces, with deeper ones indented. Pick one to move the doc there; the toast that confirms it has Undo.

Deleting a doc

Delete from the overflow menu or context menu. A confirmation dialog warns before proceeding. A deleted document is soft-deleted: opening it shows a “Document deleted” panel with a “Restore document” button, so you can bring it back if you removed it by mistake.

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