Add notes and files

A note is the quickest way to tell Cranes something directly: a view you’ve settled, a decision and its reasons. Files bring in what you’ve already written. Both go to Just me unless you choose another place.

Write a note

1. Open Entries from the sidebar.
2. Type in the bar at the bottom, which reads Add a note.
3. To put it somewhere other than Just me, choose the place beside the bar.
4. Press Enter.

For a longer note, choose + at the top of Entries, then Your thinking. Write it, then choose Add.

To add instructions you give your AIs, choose + › A skill or instructions instead. Give it a name, paste it, and choose Add skill.

Add files

1. Open Entries.
2. Choose + › Files, and pick one or more. You can also drop files anywhere on the page.

Each file becomes its own entry. A single file can be up to 100 MB.

In a thread, choose + › Add files in the message box, or drop files onto the thread. They become entries when you send the message.

Bring a batch of files

Bring history takes up to 20 files at once, into Just me in your personal workspace.

1. Open the account menu (your photo and name, at the bottom left) and choose Bring history.
2. Under From what you’ve written, choose Files.
3. Drop the files onto the page, or click to choose them. Remove any you added by mistake.
4. Choose Bring it in.

It takes PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and text files, up to 25 MB and 400,000 characters across all of them. If you hit a limit, bring them in smaller batches. Scanned pages, pictures, and videos go through Entries instead.

Where it goes

From the bar at the bottom of Entries, a note goes to Just me unless you pick another place beside it. From +, what you add goes to the place the Place filter is set to. With All places, it goes to Just me unless you choose another under Goes to. In Everyone or a group, everyone who reads that place sees what you add.

What Cranes reads in a file

• Spreadsheets (Excel, including macro-enabled workbooks): every sheet, hidden ones too, with cell addresses, formulas and their results, cell notes, named ranges, and charts.
• Slides (PowerPoint): every slide in order, with tables, chart data, and speaker notes.
• Documents (Word and PDF): headings, tables, and comments, even very long ones. Scanned pages are read like pictures.
• Pictures (PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP, and similar), and pictures inside slides, documents, and sheets: the text, numbers, tables, and charts in them.
• Videos (MP4, MOV, WebM, and similar): what’s on screen over time, and what’s said.
• Text: Markdown, plain text, CSV, JSON, XML, and YAML.

Pictures, scans, and videos take a little longer. The entry appears at once, and learning starts once Cranes has read it. Reading them counts toward your learning limit; once you reach it, they wait until it resets. What Cranes read from a picture or video is marked as its reading, so you can tell it from words in the file.

Other kinds of file are kept by name only. A file with nothing Cranes can read is refused.

If a file is refused

• “…is empty”: the file has nothing in it.
• “…does not contain readable content”: Cranes couldn’t read it. Check that it opens normally. In Bring history, a scanned PDF is the usual cause; add it from Entries instead.
• “…is not a supported document”: Bring history doesn’t take that kind of file. Add it from Entries.
• “That file is too large”, “Those files are too large together”, or “…too much text for setup”: choose fewer or smaller files.