Getting Binders working

Getting started

What does it need?

A Mac with macOS 14.2 or later. Binders is a universal app, so it also installs on Intel Macs, but it is made for Apple silicon: speech recognition runs on the Neural Engine, and the language model is far quicker there. On an Intel Mac, expect it to be slower.

Disk space: about 500 MB for the speech model, and, if you want AI formatting, notes and answers, a language model of 4 to 19 GB (see Do I need Ollama?).

How do I install it?

Open the disk image, drag Binders to Applications and open it. macOS says once that Apple checked it for malicious software. Binders then asks for the Microphone and Accessibility, and downloads the speech model the first time you dictate.

Why does it need Accessibility?

It is how Binders notices your shortcut in any app, types the result where your cursor is, and, only if you switch writing capture on, reads the field you are writing in. Binders does not use it for anything else. You can read the code that does this on GitHub.

Where is a setting?

Settings has six pages: General, Dictation and writing, AI and knowledge, Capture, Agents and automations, and Devices and privacy. Each page holds the parts this help names, such as Settings → AI or Settings → MCP, as sections you can scroll to, and a link to one opens it there.

Pressing fn opens the emoji picker

macOS uses the fn (globe) key for its own things too. In System Settings → Keyboard, set “Press 🌐 key to” to Do Nothing. Binders shows a reminder about this on its Home page until it is set.

Do I need Ollama?

Not for dictation: speech recognition is built in and works on its own. For the AI parts (cleaning up what you dictate, meeting notes, answers, and finding to-dos in what you write) Binders uses a language model that runs on your Mac through Ollama, free software from its own makers. If you don't have it, Binders can install it for you: it downloads the official build and checks it was signed by its makers and notarized by Apple. It then suggests a model for your Mac's memory:

You can pick another in Settings → AI, or point Binders at any OpenAI-compatible server instead, such as llama.cpp, vLLM or LM Studio, on this Mac or on another machine you reach over your network or Tailscale. If you do, the text Binders sends for those features goes to that server.

Thinking models (Qwen 3, Gemma 4 and others) are asked to skip their thinking, so answers come back quickly and whole. If a server ignores that and the model thinks until it runs out of room, the note's Digest column says so, with the fix: for llama.cpp, start the server with --reasoning-budget 0. A server that passes a model's thinking on as its answer (vLLM or SGLang without a reasoning parser, llama.cpp with --reasoning-format none) shows the thinking while the first answer is written; after that, Binders waits for the thinking to end before it shows the answer.

I already use another dictation app

Quit any other app that listens to fn, or give one of them a different shortcut: two apps holding the same key get in each other's way. If you used Wispr Flow, the Dictionary page in Binders can import your words and snippets.

When something isn't working

Holding fn does nothing

This is nearly always the Accessibility permission. Open Binders → Settings → Privacy, which shows each permission and opens the right place in System Settings. Make sure Binders is listed under Accessibility and switched on; that page in Binders says “Active” once the shortcut can be heard.

If it is on and fn still does nothing, macOS may be holding on to an entry for an older copy of the app. Reset it, then open Binders and allow Accessibility again:

tccutil reset Accessibility io.binders.mac

Paste that into Terminal and press Return. It only affects Binders. Then quit Binders from its menu bar icon and open it again.

It stopped working after I reinstalled or moved the app

macOS ties the Microphone and Accessibility permissions to the exact copy of an app. Replacing Binders by hand, or keeping two copies (one in Applications and one elsewhere), can leave the permission with the wrong one. Keep a single copy in Applications and use the reset above. Updates installed from inside Binders keep their permissions.

The text didn't appear in my app

If you switched apps while you were speaking, Binders copies the text instead of typing it into the wrong place; paste it with ⌘V. ⌃⌘V pastes the last transcript again at any time.

It hears the wrong language

Choose the speech model in Settings → Dictation. Parakeet v3 covers 25 European languages and is the fastest; Parakeet v2 is English only and the most accurate for English; Whisper Large v3 Turbo covers 99 languages and is slower.

Dictation works, but there's no formatting, no notes or no answers

Those need the language model. Settings → AI says whether Ollama is installed and running, and whether the model you picked has been downloaded.

Meeting notes only have my side of the call

Recording the other side needs the audio capture permission, which Binders asks for the first time you record. If you declined, turn it on from Binders → Settings → Privacy.

Binders says it couldn't open its library

Binders couldn't open its database, Binders.store in ~/Library/Application Support/Binders, so it runs on an empty stand-in and saves nothing new until it's reopened: a strip across the window says so, and anything you try to save says why it didn't. Dictation still types what you said, but it isn't kept in History and no recording is saved, and Binders says so; Command Mode can't add to-dos or say what's happening on your boards. Quit and reopen Binders. If it keeps happening, check that the disk isn't full and that Binders is up to date, restore that file from Time Machine, or report it. Your iPhone keeps what you save until the Mac can take it, and captures this Mac heard wait too. Until Binders is reopened, Ask says it can't answer, and search shows meetings and dictations but not notes.

My iPhone says my Mac is offline

Your iPhone tries every address your Mac has told it about at once, and uses the first that answers. At home that's your Wi-Fi; away from home it needs a VPN on both, such as Covee or Tailscale, and the Mac awake with Binders open. A VPN is the way to reach your Mac from outside: forwarding a port on your router to it isn't supported. Tap Mac offline to see which addresses were tried and what happened to each. The laptop button opens Your Mac, which lists the addresses and the one in use: tap one to test it, or add the name or address your VPN gives your Mac. On the Mac, Settings → iPhone lists the addresses it offers: add your VPN's address there to have it offered even while the VPN is down, or leave out one your iPhone can't use. An iPhone paired with Binders 0.8.0 or earlier learns your VPN's address the next time it connects at home; pairing it again once puts it in the pairing code too.

Privacy and your data

Is writing capture a keylogger?

No. It is off until you switch it on, and it shows in the menu bar while it is on. It never records keystrokes: it reads the text of the field you are writing in through Accessibility, and keeps it only at the moment you send or save. It never reads password fields, always skips password managers, terminal screens, and pages whose address mentions login, sign-in, checkout, payment, banking or wallets, and redacts labelled passwords, card numbers, social security numbers, IBANs and long keys before anything is stored. In the terminal it keeps only the prompts you send AI tools such as Claude Code or Codex, read from the history those tools keep, never the screen or your shell commands; Settings → Writing capture → In the terminal turns each tool off. Binders doesn't read Antigravity's history, so Settings → Writing capture → In the terminal has Copy Hook, a hook for you to add to ~/.gemini/config/hooks.json yourself, which hands Binders each prompt you send it. What it keeps is deleted after 90 days by default. Everything stays on your Mac, and the code is public.

Does anything leave my Mac?

With the defaults, only the one-time model downloads and, if you allow it, a daily check for updates. The privacy notes list everything, including what changes if you point Binders at a language model server of your own, share a binder with your team, or connect AI tools and agents.

Recording other people

Many places require everyone's consent before a conversation is recorded. Binders reminds you before your first recording; telling people, and not recording when someone objects, is up to you.

Where is my data, and how do I back it up?

In ordinary files in ~/Library/Application Support/Binders, which Settings can open for you. Time Machine backs it up with the rest of your Mac. Binders adds no encryption of its own, so it is protected like your other files: by your login and, if it is on, FileVault.

How do I remove Binders completely?

Quit Binders, move it from Applications to the Trash, then delete its folders:

rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Binders ~/Library/Application\ Support/FluidAudio
defaults delete io.binders.mac

The first folder holds your data; the second holds the Parakeet speech model (delete it only if no other app of yours uses FluidAudio). Ollama and its models are separate software: remove them the way Ollama describes, if you no longer want them.

Features

What are the shortcuts?

End a dictation with “press enter” to send it. Every shortcut can be changed in Settings → Shortcuts.

How do I find something fast?

Press ⌘O in the Binders window and type a few letters of a note, meeting, card, person, binder or page; Return opens it. Type # and a tag to see everything with that tag, in every binder. ⌘P, or > first, runs a command instead: a new note from a template, meeting notes, a binder's board, any Settings page.

How do links between notes work?

Type [[ in a note and pick a note, meeting, person or binder from the list; the link reads in colour and opens with a click. A link to something that doesn't exist yet makes that note when you click it. Next to every note, under a meeting's notes and on a person's page, Mentioned in lists what links there, and the notes and meetings that only name it, with a Link button to make that mention a link.

Can I draw diagrams in a note?

Yes, with Mermaid, on the Mac. Write a fenced code block that starts with ```mermaid and close it with ```: when your cursor is outside the block, the note shows the diagram in its place. Click the diagram to edit its code, with the drawing under it; it's drawn again a moment after you stop typing. Right-click it for Edit Diagram and Copy Image. A diagram Mermaid can't read shows its code, with one line under it saying what's wrong. Diagrams are drawn on your Mac, with nothing loaded from the web, and follow light and dark mode. The note's Markdown stays as you wrote it, so copying, search, agents and your team get the code, and Binders for iPhone shows it as text. A block inside a quote or a list item isn't drawn.

What is Today?

A page in the sidebar that collects the day: its meetings and their action items, promises made and to-dos due, notes due or edited, cards that moved on the boards, and what you dictated. At the top is a note for the day, titled by its date, like Obsidian's daily notes; it's only made once you write in it. The arrows go back through earlier days.

Templates, tags and properties

The arrow next to the new-note button in Notes starts a note from a template: 1:1, project kickoff, interview, reading notes or weekly review, or one of your own (“Save as a Template”). Write #tags anywhere in a note. Above a note's digest you can set its status, owner and due date; the notes list shows them and filters by status or tag, and Today lists notes that are due. In a shared binder they sync with the note, and Obsidian shows them as the note's properties.

Can I put notes in folders?

Yes. A binder can hold folders, and folders can hold folders, as deep as you like. Right-click a binder in the sidebar, or use its … menu, and choose New Folder…. The sidebar shows a binder's folders under it once you open it with the small arrow on its row. Inside a folder, the binder's Notes, Meetings and Captures show what's in it, with where you are above them: click a part of that path to go back up. A new note or folder goes in the folder you're in, and so does a new note from ⌘P or ⌥⌘N, and a meeting you start there with the meeting shortcut, the menu bar, ⌘P or a binders://meeting link. So does a capture you open with Open a Binders File… on its Captures page; what All-day capture hears arrives where it always has, until it's read. ⌘O shows which folder a note or meeting is in.

Drag a note, meeting, capture or folder onto a folder, in the sidebar or in a list, or onto a binder for its top; or choose Move to in its menu. To move several notes, meetings or captures at once, ⌘-click or ⇧-click them in their list, or press ⌘A: the page and the right-click menu then offer Move to Folder (with New Folder…), Move to Binder and Delete for all of them, and dragging them onto a folder moves them all. One Undo puts the move back. Each keeps its own rules: a teammate's meeting stays where it is, and one that's still recording stays in its binder; the page says which stayed, and why. Deleting a meeting or capture can be undone, as a note's can, unless it's shared with your team. Deleting a folder asks first when something is in it, and what it held moves up to where the folder was: nothing goes to the trash because its folder went. A template can name a folder, and a note made from it is filed there; the folder is made if it's missing. On a note in a folder, Save as a Template for that folder does this for you.

Tidy into Folders…, in a binder's … menu, finds titles at the top of the binder that start with the same words before |, · or - (“DevOps | Pipeline cleanup”, “Social post · Launch week”), in two notes or more, and offers a folder for each, with those words taken off the titles. Dates, numbers and anything longer than three words are left alone. You see every folder and note, all ticked, and untick what should stay as it is; nothing changes until you choose Apply. Links to those notes follow their new titles, and one Undo puts it all back.

On a binder's Knowledge tab inside a folder, Only in keeps search and Ask to that folder and the folders inside it, and results say which folder each one is in. On your iPhone, a binder's Notes show its folders, and a note you make or dictate inside one goes in it. An AI tool you connect over MCP (see below) can make and rename folders and move notes into them, so you can ask it to sort a binder for you; it can't delete a folder.

Can I get an earlier version of a note back?

Yes: History, at the bottom of a note. Binders keeps a note as it was before you start editing it, a version for each time you edit it (until you leave the note, or after 10 minutes without a change), and one before a teammate's or an AI tool's change lands, for 30 days. Each version says who made it, the sections it touched and how many lines it added and removed. Pick a version to read it, copy it, or restore it; restoring keeps what was there as a version too.

Can Claude, Cursor or my other AI tools use it?

Yes, through the MCP server built into Binders. Settings → MCP adds it to Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, VS Code, Antigravity or Codex with one click, and shows the configuration for anything else. The tool can then search and ask your knowledge base, add notes, meetings, to-dos and calendar events, and pick up cards from your boards. It runs on your Mac, only while the tool is connected, and nothing can be deleted this way.

For Antigravity, Binders adds itself to ~/.gemini/config/mcp_config.json, which its command-line tool and its app share, after a dated backup, and Remove takes it out again; a file with comments in it is left alone, and the ⓘ button shows how to add it by hand. Older versions of the Antigravity app read ~/.gemini/antigravity/mcp_config.json instead, which Binders doesn't change. Google retired Gemini CLI for personal accounts, so its row says so, and shows only where Gemini CLI is already set up.

Why does Ask leave out some notes?

A note an AI tool wrote or changed is marked as the tool's, with a line above it such as “Claude Code wrote this note.”, and the same label in the notes list and in search. Ask, Command Mode, answers to what you said near your iPhone and the tools' own questions leave those notes out, and a #correction in one changes nothing, so an agent's words never steer an answer as if they were yours. See What Changed shows what the tool changed; Make It Mine clears the mark, and the note counts like any other from then on.

Can Binders run my Shortcuts, scripts and web hooks?

Yes. Settings → Automations has rules that run a Shortcut, open a link, run a script or call a web hook when you say a phrase in Command Mode or when something happens, such as a to-do being added or meeting notes being ready. A “To-do added” rule runs for to-dos you made yourself; to have it run for to-dos said to yourself near your iPhone, added by an AI tool or by a link too, turn on Also for to-dos said to yourself, from agents and from links on that rule. A web hook's token is kept in your Keychain, not in the rules file. A link puts what a to-do or binder says only in its query, after the ?, so a rule that puts it anywhere else is refused, with the reason. binders://card/<id> opens a card in its own window, and binders://note/<id> opens a note in its binder.

What is the board?

Every binder has one, under its Board tab: cards that move from Backlog to Ready, In progress, Blocked, Review and Done. Drag a card to move it, or click it to open it in its own window: the conversation with whoever works on it, with its description and links beside it. You and your AI tools work from the same board.

To turn the to-dos Binders found into cards, click Add To-dos on the board and tick the ones you want, or hover over a to-do in any list and click the board button next to it. The to-do stays where it is, marked “On board”, and is ticked off in its meeting, note or message when its card is done.

To turn a note into a card, click Put on Board at the bottom of the note, right-click it in the notes list, or press ⇧⌘B. The card goes in Backlog on the note's binder's board, with the note's title, its first few lines and a link back to the note; ⌘-click the link to open it. To put only part of a note on the board, select the words and Control-click: Put on Board makes one card, titled from the selection's first line, with the selection and a link back to its section; with two or more lines selected, Put Each Line on Board makes a card for each line. ⇧⌘B puts the selection when there is one. A card put on the board from a note counts as that note's work, as Distill's cards do, even with Distill off: the note shows it, after the title or at the words it came from, the Work bar and Work panel follow it, Group by Note keeps it with the note, and it says when its section changes. Distill Again never closes or rewrites it, and its agent gets its details and the link, never a way into the note. On the iPhone, it's under the … menu on a note, and with your Mac out of reach the card is added once it's back, while the note is still open. A note an AI tool wrote or changed, until you make it yours, gives the card only the link, so its words don't become the card's brief unread.

Group by Note, a switch in the board's header, off until you turn it on and remembered for each binder's board, shows each note's cards together in every column, under the note's title with how its work is going on that board (“1 of 4 done”). Click a title to fold its group in that column, and drop a card on a group's header to put it in that note's group; cards from no note come last. A card you made by hand can join a note's group, or leave it, with Part of… on its Details; a card Distill made, or one put on the board from the note, stays in its note's group.

To work on several cards at once, ⌘-click to add or take away a card, ⇧-click to add the run in that column, press ⌘A for every card on the board, or click Select All on a group's header for that note's cards in every column (⌘ with it adds them); Esc clears, and ⌫ asks to delete them. A bar over the columns then has Move to, Assign to, Part of and Delete…, and so does a chosen card's right-click menu; dragging one of them drags them all. A card an agent or a teammate is working on doesn't move or change hands, and a done card isn't reassigned: a line over the columns says what stayed and why, with Undo, and ⌘Z puts the whole action back. Assigning to an agent asks once, then hands each card over as Give to does, with a receipt on each. A card on a board shared through the team database is deleted for everyone, which can't be undone. Select on Board, in a note's Work panel, opens its board with that note's cards chosen.

How do AI tools work from the board?

Over the MCP server (see above). An agent such as Claude Code lists the Ready cards, claims one, reports progress and links as it goes, and asks you a question when it's stuck: the card waits in Blocked until you answer on it. While an agent you set up in Settings → Agents works on a card, a comment you add wakes it too, as your answer does; in Review, Send Back sends it your words with the card. The question also shows as a notification on your Mac, and on your paired iPhone while Binders is open on it, with a box to answer it. When it's finished, the card goes to Review for you to check, unless you let agents finish cards in that binder. A claim on work in progress lasts 30 minutes and every update extends it, so a card an agent abandons goes back to Ready on its own; a card waiting on your answer or your review stays with its agent. On the Mac, Take Over gives you any card that isn't done. Agents can also turn a to-do into a card.

Binders can also start an agent for a card itself: Claude Code, or Codex, OpenCode, GitHub Copilot CLI or Antigravity when they're on your Mac, each in a repository you choose (Settings → Agents → Add Agent). Each run works on its own in a git worktree Binders makes for the card, with that tool's own checks on and Binders' tools for that card only; Codex runs in its own sandbox with no network, OpenCode and Copilot CLI only read and edit files, and Antigravity edits files and runs only the commands its settings allow, in its sandbox, with no network. When a run stops, Binders commits what it changed on the card's branch and puts what it said last on the card.

Antigravity (Google's agy, which took over from Gemini CLI) needs one rule from you before its first run: add "mcp(binders/*)" to permissions.allow in ~/.gemini/antigravity-cli/settings.json, for example {"permissions":{"allow":["mcp(binders/*)"]}}. With no one there to approve, Antigravity refuses any tool no rule allows, so without it a run couldn't reach the board. Add rules such as "command(swift test)" for the commands its runs may use; any other command is refused, and the card names it. Sign in by running agy once in Terminal, then choose Antigravity in a Repository… and press Check. A run edits files in its worktree without asking, so it can't be set to Plans only. It can't reach the network or use your other MCP servers' tools, and Binders won't start it when your settings would let it act outside its worktree without asking: toolPermission set to always-proceed, or rules for files outside the worktree, your keys and sign-ins, the web or other MCP servers. Your own Antigravity hooks, plugins and servers still load with it, as Binders can't turn them off, but Binders won't start it in a worktree whose .agents folder has hooks, servers or plugins of its own. The card's next run carries on the same conversation, and the card gives the command to look in.

For each agent in Settings → Agents, Sends cards to says who it hands cards to, such as OpenAI, Anthropic or a server of yours, and your iPhone names it before giving that agent its first card. What it's for is a few words, such as “personal errands”, that Binders goes by when it suggests an agent for a card or a to-do, and Kinds of work say what it takes on at a glance. Binders names the agent on Give to and waits for your tap, unless you turn on Start on cards Binders sends it for that agent and your decision model can start agents (Settings → AI → Decision model says whether it can): then a card you type into Ready, a to-do you add in Command Mode, or a “Binders, …” you say on your own near your iPhone, that it hears as your voice, goes to it at once when it's clearly that agent's work, and the card says so, with Stop. With your iPhone in Auto mode (below), what you say to yourself, said on its own or thought out loud with no one else talking, goes to such an agent too, when Binders is sure enough it's that agent's work, or you named it. Nothing a conversation with someone else heard, and nothing you tell Siri or a Shortcut, ever starts one. When an agent asks you to approve something, such as sending an email, the notification only opens the card: who it goes to and exactly what it says are shown there, above Approve and Decline.

Distill a note into work items

Most notes are just documentation. A note that asks for work, such as a spec your team wrote together, can become cards on its binder's board, each meant for a person or one of your agents.

• Distill: click Distill in the note's toolbar, or press ⇧⌘D. The first click on a note turns Distill on for it and starts reading. You can also turn it on with Distill This Note, in the note's … menu or when you right-click it in the list, and a note from the Spec template has it on already. It's binders_distill: true in the note's Markdown, so it travels with a shared note and shows in Obsidian. Your model (Settings → AI) reads the note and proposes work items: each with what to do, the lines of the note it came from, what it waits for, a rough size and who it's meant for. Or choose one of your agents under Distill with, on the Work bar: it gets a card asking it to read the note and send its items back.
• Who it's for: Distill is told the names of the binder's agents, with what each is for, you, and your teammates. It names an agent when what it's for covers the work, even when you approve it at the end, such as a post it drafts and asks you about; you only for what only a person can do, such as a decision, a call or a payment; and a teammate when the note says the work is theirs. Give each agent a What it's for in Settings → Agents so Distill can pick it. When it names no one, your decision model suggests someone a moment later.
• The Distill list sits beside the note, as a tab next to Work and Digest, or over the note's right side when there's no room. Items appear while the model reads, in the note's order, each with who it's for in their colour, its size and its section; a row still being read has a dashed edge. The top of the list says what's being read, such as “Reading part 2 of 5 · 9 items so far”, with Cancel, which keeps what was found. Selecting a row, or hovering over it, lights its lines in the note, and clicking a lit line selects its row.
• Keys: click the list, then ↑ and ↓ move between rows; Return accepts, which puts the item on the note's board, in Ready unless you chose Backlog, with Undo; Delete dismisses it, and Distill Again never proposes it again; Space opens it to edit its title, who it's for, its size and where it goes; ⌘Return accepts every row left; ⌘Z undoes. Control-click a row for Split, Merge with Next, Move Up, Move Down and Show in the Note. Nothing goes on the board before you accept it. The list's … menu has Accept All, Distill Again, Turn Off Distill for This Note… and Review All…, which opens the review sheet: there you can also say what each item waits for, see who picked who each one is for, and use Suggest Who Again for items meant for no one yet.
• Briefs are written when an item is placed. So that it reads faster, Distill asks the model only for each item's title, its lines, who it's for and its size. Once you accept an item, its card shows the note's lines it came from, and Binders writes its brief and what done looks like in the background, agents' cards first. An agent's card waits in Ready, saying “Writing the brief for …”, and goes to the agent once its brief is in; your cards and your teammates' are theirs at once. A description you edit yourself is never written over.
• While it reads: a band of light sweeps down the part being read, and each item found lifts out of its lines and flies into the list, or into the Distill button when the list is closed. The button says “Distilling” with a count, and × beside it, under the pointer, cancels. With Reduce Motion on, the part being read is lit and nothing moves.
• In the background: for a note with Distill on, about 20 seconds after you stop typing, Distill reads the sections you changed, when you changed more than spacing or formatting. What it finds waits in the list, and the button and the Work bar say how many (“3 new”). It never opens a sheet, alerts or notifies you, and nothing goes on the board until you accept it. It waits while you dictate, record a meeting or have All-day capture on, on battery below 20%, in Low Power Mode or when your Mac is hot, and a reading under way stops when one of these starts, keeping what it read. Clicking Distill yourself comes first. To turn it off: Settings → AI → Distill, Distill in the background while I write.
• Distill again: click Distill on a note it has read and only the sections changed since are read again; when none changed, the model isn't asked, and the button says Up to date. Distill Again, in the list's … menu, reads the whole note again. Either way it proposes only what's new or changed since last time, offers, as rows in the list, to update the briefs of cards whose section changed and to close cards whose section is gone, and never makes the same card twice.
• Work in the note: the words each card came from are tinted in the colour of the card's state, with a chip at the end of the line saying where the card is, such as “In progress · Claude Code” or “Done”, and each heading counts its section's cards. Hover a chip to see each card's board, column, who has it and its last update, and click it to open the card. The marks are drawn, never written into the note, so they aren't copied, exported or synced. Show Work in the Note, on the Work bar, turns them off. On a card, Distilled from quotes the words it came from and opens the note there. A note distilled before Binders 0.11.0 counts its cards on its headings.
• Cards wait for each other. An agent can't take a card until every card it waits for is done; you still can. When the last one is done, Binders hands the card to its agent.
• See how it's going: the Work bar says “7 of 12 done · 3 in progress · 1 waits on you · 1 not started”, and the Work panel beside the note shows every card, its column, who has it, what its agent says it's doing and its last update. Both are in a note's own window too, and on any note with cards on the board. Report tells you what finished since you last looked, what's in progress, what waits on whom, what's held up and what's not started; Copy as Markdown pastes it anywhere. Ask “how's the checkout spec going?” in Command Mode or Ask. Each binder's Overview lists its notes with Distill on or with cards on the board, with their progress, and a notification says when it's your turn in one, when one of its cards is blocked on you, and when one is done.
• History keeps every version of the note, with who made it: you, a teammate, or an agent and whose agent it is. Compare any two, name one (“Approved”), or put one back, which adds a version rather than taking any away.
• When a section changes after its cards were made, each card from it says who changed it, when and how much, with the lines that changed, and the agent working on it is told which section changed and where to read it. It gets the changed lines themselves only when you made the change, or a teammate did and Settings → MCP lets that agent read teammates' items. A change another agent made reaches it only after you look: Looked at It on the card, or Make It Mine on the note, and even then it's told to read the section, never given the other agent's words. Hover a heading to see who last changed it, when, and its cards.
• Long notes: a long note is read a part at a time, and the list says which part it's on. Distill measures how fast your model writes and sizes the parts so each takes about two minutes. A slow model isn't stopped while it keeps writing: a part stops only when the model hasn't started within five minutes or stops writing for 90 seconds, and then it keeps the items it had finished, the Work bar says which part was cut short, and the parts after it are still read; click Distill again to read the rest. If your model answers without a list, Binders asks it once more; if it still doesn't, it says what happened and shows how its reply began, and you can Distill the note with one of your agents instead.
• Model for Distill: Binders holds the model's reply to a list of work items, so it can't answer in prose instead. How fast Distill reads depends on its model: a larger one, such as Qwen 3.8 27B, lists the work more fully and says better who each item is for, but reads more slowly. In Settings → AI → Distill you can choose a model for Distill alone, and dictation keeps the quicker one; when a reading took 3 minutes or more, the Work bar says so and offers a quicker model you have installed. Binders keeps both in memory when your Mac has room. When the Distill model runs in Binders, it loads as you open a note with Distill on, unless you're dictating or recording, or it wouldn't fit beside the models already loaded. With Ollama or a server, two parts of a long note are read at once. With Ollama, holding the reply to a list needs Ollama 0.5 or later.
• Agents may place work items (on a binder's board, off at first) lets an agent put its own items on the board without your review: in Ready, meant for the agents it picked and waiting for each other as it proposed, so agents take them in order, each as its own start switch allows.

Which model sorts new cards?

The decision model, in Settings → AI under Language model. For a card or a to-do that doesn't say where it goes, it picks the binder and the agent whose work it is, which Give to then names. Binders suggests Tev1 0.8B, but can't download it until its makers publish the licence for its weights: copy its folder, tev1-0.8b-mlx-bf16, into Binders' Models folder (Show Models Folder opens it). You can instead download another MLX model from Hugging Face, the way the built-in language model downloads, use a model folder you already have, or use a decision server running on this Mac, such as Laya's, Kev's or OpenJev's. Binders talks to a server only at this Mac's own addresses (127.0.0.1, ::1 or localhost, with its port), sends it no key, and never starts or stops it. What the server does with a card past that port, Binders can't see: one may pass it to another program or another machine, as OpenJev's helper passes it to the model server it was started with. Start the server so it listens on this Mac only: some, such as laya-serve, listen on every network unless told otherwise. Off sorts without a decision model: what you say to your iPhone goes in the binder you name, else your language model sorts it, and cards and to-dos go where you put them, or in the binder you name.

Measure sorts 278 made-up cards that come with Binders, in about a minute for a small model, and shows the score beside Tev1's 0.79: how often its first pick was the right binder and the right agent, and how many agents it would have started on its own, wrong ones included. A model not yet measured names agents on Give to at once, but starts one on its own only once its measure found a level where it started no wrong agent, often enough to trust, and only while its numbers on this Mac stay the ones it was measured with. Nothing of yours is used to measure. Free its memory and Unload now work as they do for the language model.

What do Suggest, Add at Once and Auto do?

They're the Mode under Said to yourself, on your iPhone's capture screen: what Binders does with what it hears you say on your own. Suggest, the default, offers each one with Add and Not Now, and adds a kind at once with Undo once you've added nearly every one of it. Add at Once adds to-dos, ideas and notes at once, with Undo, and so does what you think out loud where only you speak, and offers work for an agent with Give to. Auto adds them at once and hands a to-do or an idea straight to the agent Binders picks for it, or the one you name, without asking: a to-do to do, an idea to look into and plan. Binders skips only its own question: each agent keeps its own permission checks and is told to ask your approval before it sends, posts or buys, and an agent that may send, post or buy for you, or that checks the board itself, never takes anything from Auto mode.

Auto mode hands over only to an agent you turned on Start on cards Binders sends it for in Settings → Agents (one turned on before Auto mode asks once more there) and said yes to on that iPhone, only what your iPhone heard as you on your own, past the bar Calibrate sets, and only once your decision model has been measured for it (Settings → AI). On your own is a sentence said on its own, with a cue like “I need to”, or without one when Binders’ rules and Apple’s model on your iPhone both read it as something to do; or a capture in which your iPhone heard only you. Thinking out loud on a walk goes once it's written down, each to-do, fix or idea in it on its own, with only the sentences it came from on its card, and a name counts only when you said it in those sentences and meant it. A cough or a passer-by's word doesn't spoil it; anything more from anyone near you does, and that capture keeps asking. Before you talk with someone, Wrap Up on the Lock Screen keeps what you thought out loud until then as only you. For a walk, turn on Write down while the iPhone is locked: then what you think out loud goes a few minutes after you stop, for up to 15 minutes of speech; a longer capture waits until you open Binders or plug in, and Wrap Up halfway keeps each part under that. Auto mode asks your yes for each agent once more, with words that name what you think out loud, before it hands over anything from a capture. Nothing goes while your iPhone plays audio as you speak. Something said in a conversation with someone, told to Siri or found in the transcript of such a conversation never goes, and a note never does. Words that reach your Mac late, because the link was down or the capture waited to be written down, still go, saying when you said them, up to 12 hours later, and at most five every ten minutes, counting everything a capture hands over. Each hand-over sends a notification with Stop, which ends a run Binders started and puts the card back in Backlog (an agent Binders sent the card to keeps what it got), Undo, which also takes back the to-do until the agent has reported on it, and Not Me. A capture sends one notification for what it handed over, with Stop All; its page has each one's Stop, Undo and Not Me, and Not Only Me, which asks first and takes back everything it made. Turn Auto off from the page any hand-over opens; two Not Me's among its last ten hand-overs turn it off for you.

“Binders, …” works the same in Suggest and Add at Once: done at once, with Undo. In Auto mode it's handed over the same way as what you say on your own. Until Binders on your Mac is updated, Auto mode works as Add at Once, and your iPhone says so.

Can I ask Binders from my iPhone?

Yes. On iOS 26, tap the control at the bottom of the screen to dictate, or hold it to ask: Binders listens while you hold, shows your words as they're heard, and asks when you let go. Let go before saying anything and Ask opens for you to type. Ask also has a microphone button beside the question: tap it, speak, and tap it again to ask. A question asked aloud isn't kept with your dictations, and All-day capture pauses while you speak and picks up again after.

Can I share a binder with my team?

Yes, through a folder you already sync, such as OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive or iCloud Drive. There is no server of ours in between.

One of you makes a folder for the team in your drive (not the top of the drive itself), chooses Settings → Team → Create team space… on it, and shares that folder with the others, with permission to edit. Share the whole folder: it holds Meetings, Notes and _binders.

A folder shared with you only reaches your Mac once you add it to your own drive. In OneDrive, open Shared on the web and choose Add shortcut to My files; in Google Drive, Add shortcut to Drive; in Dropbox, Add to my Dropbox. When it shows up in Finder, choose Settings → Team → Join team space… and pick it.

There are no accounts: each Mac has its own member id, and your name comes from Settings → Team. Whoever the folder is shared with can join, so the drive's sharing decides who is on the team.

Folders go with a shared binder: everyone sees the same ones, and anyone in the binder can make, rename, move or delete them. In the team folder, a note in a folder is in the matching subfolder of Notes, so it reads the same in Obsidian. While a teammate still has a Binders from before folders, notes stay where they are in the team folder and their folder is kept in each note's file instead; Settings → Team says who it waits for.

How do updates work?

On its second launch Binders asks whether it may check for updates. If you agree, it checks at most once a day and installs signed updates from inside the app. Settings → General has the switches and a Check Now button.

About Binders

Why is it free?

Because there is nothing to pay for: no account, no servers and no cloud of ours. Everything runs on your Mac. Binders is open source under the GNU General Public License, version 3, and published by Helder Feixas.

How do I report a bug or ask for a feature?

Open an issue on GitHub, or write to hello@binders.io. For a security problem, please write to security@binders.io before making it public.