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Quick capture

The lowest-friction path from a thought to a note (#285). A single command opens one title prompt and writes a fleeting note straight to your Inbox — no canvas, no wizard, no folder decision. The point is speed: get the idea out of your head before it's gone, and develop it later.

Using it

  1. Run ZettelFlow: Quick-capture a fleeting idea from the command palette (bind your own hotkey — there is no default, to avoid clashing with your setup).
  2. Type a title and press Enter (or click Capture).
  3. ZettelFlow creates Inbox/<title>.md with state: fleeting frontmatter and an # <title> heading, then shows a notice.

It works on mobile (a plain modal, Enter to submit) as well as desktop.

The capture → develop loop

A quick capture is deliberately raw. ZettelFlow Home closes the loop: whenever fleeting notes are waiting it shows a growth nudge — "N fleeting notes ready to develop" — with a one-click jump to the latest capture, so nothing you dumped into the Inbox is forgotten. Promote a note by advancing its lifecycle state as you flesh it out and connect it.

Details

  • Folder — notes land in a top-level Inbox/ folder, created on first use.
  • Filename — the title, with characters unsafe for a filename replaced by spaces; a timestamp is appended if a note of that name already exists (captures never overwrite).
  • Offline — writes a single Markdown file through the Vault API; no network, no AI.