Notes

New notes and saving

Press ⌘T (or ⌘N), or choose New Note in the “+” menu at the right end of the tab bar. A new tab is titled New Note until you type in it; then it’s saved as Untitled (Untitled 2 if that name is taken). A new note you leave empty isn’t kept.

The status line at the bottom of the panel says where the focused note stands: New note — saved once you type, Untitled — Edited, then Untitled — Saved. Notes save half a second after you stop typing, when the panel hides and when you quit; ⌘S saves at once.

The editor is plain text, written in Markdown. It doesn’t change what you type: no smart quotes, dashes or autocorrect. Monospaced font and Check spelling while typing are in Settings › Editor. ⌘= and ⌘- change the text size for every note (from 9 to 48 points), and ⌘0 goes back to 14. Each tab has its own undo (⌘Z, ⇧⌘Z).

Typing lists

• Return continues a list: -, * and + bullets, 1. and 1) numbers, and - [ ] checkboxes. Numbered items after it renumber.
• Return on an empty item ends the list. In a nested list, it steps out one level.
• Tab and ⇧Tab indent and outdent list items (select several lines to move them together). An indented numbered item starts again at 1. Outside a list, Tab types a tab.

Want a checklist with its own keys and a Done section? Use a task list instead.

Editor, Both and Rendered

A note can show its Markdown text (Editor), the formatted note (Rendered), or Both. Switch with the three icons at the top right of the note, with Show Editor, Show Both or Show Rendered in the tab’s menu (right-click the tab), or press ⌘E to go through them in turn. Each note remembers its choice.

• Both puts the editor and the formatted note side by side in a wide pane, or one above the other in a narrow one. Drag the divider between them. The formatted side updates as you type and scrolls along with the editor.
• Rendered is for reading. Click a checkbox to check or uncheck that task in the note (⌘Z undoes it). Click a link to open it. Double-click anywhere to edit that line in the editor. Escape hides the panel.

What renders

GitHub’s flavor of Markdown: headings, emphasis, lists, block quotes, code, links, images and rules, plus tables, task lists, strikethrough (~~text~~), web addresses as links, and footnotes. A line break inside a paragraph stays a line break. Front matter shows as it is. A link to a heading ([Go](#my-heading)) scrolls to it.

Rendered notes are safe to open: HTML in a note shows as text and never runs, links that could run code do nothing, and nothing loads from the internet. An image from the web shows as a link instead, so opening a note never tells a server you read it.

Links between notes

Link to another note by its name, in any of these ways:

• [[Plan]]
• [[Plan|the plan]], to show other text
• [the plan](Plan.md)

In the rendered view, clicking one opens that note (or task list). If there’s no note by that name, Brink beeps and the status line says so. When you rename a note, links to it in your other notes change to the new name.

Links to web pages, email addresses and phone numbers open in their apps.

Images

An image in a note needs a full path, such as ![chart](/Users/you/Pictures/chart.png) or a file:// address, in a folder Brink is allowed to read. Brink is sandboxed, so that means a folder you’ve opened with Open Folder… (a folder tab, part of Brink Pro). A note isn’t in a folder, so an image with a relative path such as ![chart](chart.png) shows as its description instead. A full path to a folder opens a folder tab, and to another file opens it in its app.

Find, search and open

• Find in the note: ⌘F, then ⌘G and ⇧⌘G for the next and previous match. It works in the editor (and the editor side of Both).
• Search all notes: ⇧⌘F. It matches titles loosely (wkpl finds “Weekend plans”) and the notes’ text, ignoring case and accents, including edits not saved yet. Title matches come first; it shows up to 50 results. Task lists are searched by their tasks.
• Open Note… (⌘O, or the “+” menu): every note, newest first, with its first line. Type to filter by title.
• Open Task List… (⇧⌘O) does the same for task lists.

In each, ↑ and ↓ choose, Return or a click opens the note in the focused pane, and Escape closes the list without hiding the panel. A note that’s already open is selected where it is; one that isn’t takes the place of an empty new note, or opens in a new tab.

Recent, in the menu bar icon’s menu, lists the 10 notes and task lists you changed most recently.

Rename and duplicate

Double-click a note’s tab (or right-click it and choose Rename…), type a name and press Return. Escape cancels; clicking elsewhere keeps what you typed. A name can’t contain / or :, start with a period, or match another note’s name (ignoring case), and a trailing .md is dropped. Changing only the case is fine.

Duplicate in the tab’s menu makes a copy named like Plan copy, next to the original.

Move to Trash and Recently Deleted

To delete a note, press ⌥⌘⌫ or choose Move to Trash in its tab’s menu. Its tab closes and the status line offers Undo for 8 seconds.

After that, it waits in Recently Deleted for 30 days: choose Recently Deleted in the “+” menu. Each item shows when it was deleted and how many days it has left.

• Restore (its button, Return or a double-click) opens it in a tab. If its name was taken meanwhile, it gets a number, such as Plans 2.
• Delete Now (the header button, ⌫, or the item’s menu) and Empty Recently Deleted delete for good, after asking.
• After 30 days, items are deleted for good on their own.

While a note is in Recently Deleted it’s left out of everything else: search, Open Note…, Recent, Spotlight, links and Export. Its name is free to use again.

Spotlight

Your notes and task lists show up in Spotlight, by name and by text, as Brink Note and Brink Task List. Choosing one opens it in the panel. Spotlight follows every save, rename and deletion.

Export and import

In Settings › Notes:

• Export… saves every note as a Markdown file (Plan.md) in one zip archive, named like Brink Notes 2026-10-30.zip. Task lists are written as - [ ] checklists. Notes in Recently Deleted aren’t included.
• Import… adds the .md, .markdown and .txt files in a zip archive as new notes, named after the files (with a number if a name is taken). A file of nothing but checkboxes comes back as a task list. Other files are skipped. If anything can’t be imported, nothing is.

Where notes are kept

Only on your Mac, in Brink’s own storage (its App Sandbox container):

~/Library/Containers/tech.cynaptic.brink/

Time Machine backs it up with the rest of your Mac. Nothing syncs between Macs yet; to move notes to another Mac, use Export and Import.