Ask Assistant 2.0
Core Changes
-
The interface is completely redesigned to function more like a chat system for long-form conversations.
-
Ask Assistant now opens a sidebar on the right when activated, replacing the original dialog within the editor.
- Multiple chat conversations can occur while using the note context.
- Each note maintains its own chat history for easy access.
- A "chat" can consist of multiple messages that follow the previous context, or you can initiate a new chat to start over.
- Each message can utilize different models.
- The title of the chat auto-generates based on the first response to the user prompt for better historical recall.
- A
Help
Dialog is available, offering tips and tricks for adapting to the new design.
Context Switching
- By default, the current note provides context for the chat. Hovering over the context in the chat prompt box displays the text sent to the AI provider.
- You can select a small portion of text in the editor and press
Cmd/Ctrl + J
or use theAdd to Chat
icon in the Bubble menu to add that text as context (indicated by the line range). - To change the context to another note in the workspace, press the “@” icon or type @ as the first character in the chat. This opens a search box to select any existing note.
URL Context
- You can provide a URL in the @ context selector, in addition to using existing files as context.
- Octarine attempts to extract readable content from the URL to facilitate chat, although some JavaScript-heavy sites may not work due to data not loading.
- Once content is extracted, hovering over the context title reveals the content. You can then
Copy Content
,Save it to a new note
(using the URL title as the file name), orGo to the link
.
New Themes!
- Pro Users now have access to 18 new themes, bringing the total to 33 themes:
- Dark Palettes: Vesper Dusk, Monokai Series (Original, Spectrum, Machine), Forest Dark, Xcode Series (Dark, Midnight, Sunset, Dusk), Synthwave, Catppuccin Series (Mocha, Macchiato, Frappe)
- Light Palettes: Vesper Light, Forest Light, Xcode Light, Synthwave Light, Catppuccin Latte
Improvements
- Sidebar widths and open/close states are saved and restored on app restarts or refreshes.
- A
Sync Now
command is added toCMDK
to force sync git changes (if set up). - Performance for data storage and retrieval from the local database has been improved.
- Icon colors now correctly change to brighter versions when hovered.
Fixes
- Resolved an issue where saving would cause the cursor to jump to the last position on Windows.
Fixes
- Resolved an issue that allowed the creation of a new note in the daily note folder using wikilinks, which caused an error.
- Implemented validations to ensure only valid named files can be created in the
Daily
andWeekly
folders for the calendar.
Editor Performance
- Improved loading times for the editor.
- Replaced the code block syntax highlighting framework with a more efficient option.
- LaTeX/Math rendering is now disabled by default; it can be enabled in
Settings → Editor → Render Math Equations
if needed.
Improvements
Graph
— Daily and weekly notes now have different colored nodes for easier distinction.Graph
— A legend has been added to explain the meaning of each node color.
Fixes
- Resolved an issue where linked note titles were not formatted correctly in the meta sidebar for daily and weekly notes.
Windows
— Fixed a problem where adding doc links resulted in an incorrect format, preventing recognition.Windows
— Corrected an issue where the Graph would fail to load if a daily or weekly note was linked to another note.
Fixes
Windows
— Fixed a bug where Graph would fail due to incorrect date-time conversions.Windows
— Fixed a bug where error toast would show up when clicking on dates without data in them.
Big changes! A little change here, a big refactor there, and we got ourselves a performance improvement patch!
Performance
-
The Notes file tree implementation has been rewritten to efficiently manage extremely long lists.
-
Using
Cmd/Ctrl + P
for file navigation now instantly updates the tree, centering on the selected note. -
The file navigation architecture has transitioned from using unique IDs to file names, ensuring more reliable note navigation.
-
Updating a note no longer triggers unnecessary file tree recalculations, reducing CPU usage.
Graph View
-
The Graph View has been completely rewritten with a custom solution for improved performance.
-
Nodes with more outgoing links are now larger, with their size increasing exponentially based on the number of connections.
-
Hovering over a node dims the rest of the graph, enhancing focus on the hovered node and its connections.
Daily Desk
-
Calendar navigation is now possible using shortcuts, which are listed below the calendar.
-
Changes to the
Migrate Incomplete
automation:- A
Migrated from <date>
line is now added above incomplete todos in the transferred date note, helping to identify their origin. - A property (front-matter) indicating where incomplete tasks were migrated is added to the extracted date note.
- A
-
Performance improvements have been made to finding incomplete todos.
Meta Sidebar
-
Note stats now display
Characters
andLines
. -
Selecting text in a note updates the stats for the selected text.
-
Linked Notes and Attached Media headers now reflect the number of items they contain.
-
External reference calculations have been optimized for better performance.
Reacting to Outside File Changes
- Octarine now reacts to in-note changes made outside the app, in addition to detecting directory-level changes (creating, deleting, moving notes/folders).
Improvements
- The Ask Assistant now fetches models compatible with your
OpenAI
server (defaulting to OpenAI) for the model selector, allowing the use of Deepseek, Grok, or any OpenAI API-compatible server without errors. - Navigation buttons have been removed from breadcrumbs.
- The notes breadcrumb now adjusts to the app's size, truncating folder names as necessary.
- The note name in the breadcrumb now features a background around its input.
- Pinning or locking a note now updates its status in the note's property (front-matter) instead of the local database, preserving its status across devices or workspaces.
- LaTeX equations now support chemical equations — See ref.
- A
Yesterday
option has been added to the slash command.
Fixes
- Resolved a bug that prevented proper recognition of Chinese characters in word count.
- Fixed an issue where moving a note containing a
.
would result in a renamed file with missing characters. - Corrected a bug where an error message regarding the existence of a note/folder during renaming would be obscured by other note items in the list.
- Relaxed the math equation regex to accommodate spaces between characters.
- Fixed an issue where pressing enter in the command bar while the editor had the cursor on a tag, would cause the tag to be entered incorrectly.
Breaking Changes
- Due to database changes, the following will be reset:
- Your recently viewed notes list.
- Any pinned or locked notes.
- A dialog will appear on load to inform you about the breaking changes and perform a fresh database cleanup for using Octarine.
Improvements
GitSync
— TogglingBackup Periodically
off, now shows the warning sign in Global Breadcrumb to notify you of it.GitSync
— Addedfiles
to ignored folders setting.GitSync
— Replaced toggles with radio groups for Including or Ignoring folders while syncing.
Fixes
GitSync
— Fixed an issue where sync would fail on Windows.Recently Viewed
— Fixed an issue where occasionally on refresh, clicking on an item in recently viewed would take you to a dead path.- Fixed an issue where pressing
CMD + N
to create a new note when not in theNotes
tab or when pressingCreate New Note
in the workspace splash screen would not focus the file name for quick rename.
Improved Tagging Experience
- Tags have been completely redesigned. They now appear as regular, visible text instead of as a separate node. This change makes them easier to search for within the file, editable, and non-blocking.
- Additionally, the tag design now uses the theme's accent color and no longer includes a background.
- Tags can now be added to existing text by placing
#
before them or using the find and replace function.
Improvements
- Creating a new note, automatically focuses the file name in the breadcrumb for quick editing.
- If the
Settings → Editor → Show File Name Input
is toggled on, then the focus would be on the file name inside the editor.
- If the
- Ignore the
d, do, dd
error if one ofP, PP, PPP or PPPP
is typed in the date format setting. - Improve selection colors for Dark and Dim themes.
Changes
- Sidebar is now NOT resizable for daily desk. It is fixed to fit the calendar (resizes automatically with zoom). Switching to search / notes / templates will still allow resizing.
Fixes
- Fixed a bug where invalid characters pasted from a migration tool (evernote) caused the app to crash.
- Fixed a bug where single
replace
would replace it with<blank>
and not the actual replace term. - Fixed an issue where typing
/<character>
in ask assistant to filter the common prompts would not allow keyboard navigation using arrow keys.
Improvements
- Pressing
Cmd/Ctrl + A
inside a code block now selects all text within that code block only. - Week numbers in the calendar now display with the accent text color.
- Text selection colors for
Dark
andDim
theme have been changed to blue for better visibility. - Added a
Paste Raw Markdown
shortcut to the Keyboard Shortcut Cheat Sheet. - When creating a new folder, the rename process now begins instantly, with the text highlighted for quicker renaming.
Ask Assistant
- No longer requires OpenAI configuration if Ollama is setup and running.
- Instant server check for Ollama, eliminating the need for a refresh.
- Improved text copy for the
Taking Context
andStarting Fresh
help options in Ask Assistant. - Displays a warning if neither OpenAI is configured nor Ollama is running.
- Includes a copy button next to the entered prompt.
- Fixed a bug preventing up/down arrow functionality in the text area.
- Added support for the
o1-mini
ando3-mini
models. - Shows a
no model selected
warning if the last selected model is unavailable. - Improved auto scroll for AI responses.
Fixes
- Resolved an issue where pressing
up
when a code block is the first element in a note did not function. It now creates a new paragraph above. - Fixed a problem where the selected background color would not display for pinned file items in the tree view when a pinned file was being viewed.
- Addressed an issue where images and videos would not appear on Windows.
- Fixed a bug where switching between workspaces sometimes caused incorrect data to display or data from the last workspace to show if the new workspace lacked attachments or weekly notes.
- Fixed a bug where switching workspaces would sometimes wipe out the
pinned
notes.
Focus Mode (Pro)
- A new Focus Mode has been introduced, which dims everything except the currently edited text or sentence. This feature enhances concentration and reduces distractions.
- Focus Mode also hides the global breadcrumb, the note breadcrumb, and collapses any open sidebar.
- While in Focus Mode,
CMDK
remains accessible, but all other actions (e.g., Workspace Search, Recently Viewed) are disabled until you exit Focus Mode. - To enable Focus Mode, use:
CmdK → Focus Mode
- To disable it, use the
CMDK
bar or click theeye
icon at the top. - Available to users on the Pro License.
Custom Date Formatting
Settings → Preferences
now includes an option to modify the date formatting throughout the app.- The following areas will be impacted:
CMD + D
,Graph
,Doclinks
, andDaily Desk Breadcrumb
. - Note storage will remain unchanged, continuing to use the format
Daily/YYYY-MM-DD.md
.
- The following areas will be impacted:
Improvements
CMDK
— Daily and Weekly notes display available commands in the command bar.
Changes
App
— Call to action buttons across the app now have consistent design.Graph
— Increased zoom threshold before showing node names.
Fixes
Editor
— Resolved an issue where pasting links containing#
in the title caused them to be treated as tags upon refreshing or reloading the note.Sidebar
— Corrected a problem that caused the meta and tags sidebar to appear on the left when the screen width was less than 768 pixels.Workspace
— Resolved an issue that caused the creation of a workspace to fail when a folder with the same name as an existing path was already present.Attachments
— Include a condition to identify local image links on Windows.CMDK
— Fixed Lock Note command not showing up for a note.
Ask Assistant - Ollama Support & Custom Servers
- Local LLMs (with Ollama) are now supported for Ask Assistant.
- In
Settings → AI
, you can —- Change the
BASE_URI
for both OpenAI and Ollama integration. - Edit the system prompt if the default setting isn’t helpful.
- Change the
Note — You must set up ollama
and have it running to use it in Octarine. Ask Assistant will notify you if Ollama is not running.
Improvements
Ask Assistant
— The text area now automatically focuses for typing after the response stream ends.Ask Assistant
— The system prompt has been refined for more precise responses.Search
— Debounce timing has been increased to prevent spamming the results list.
Fixes
Daily Desk
— Resolved a bug that caused the app to crash when the searched text appeared in a weekly note.Ask Assistant
— Fixed a bug where APIs were not whitelisted for Windows/Linux, rendering the assistant unusable.Ask Assistant
— Corrected a bug preventing the error toast from displaying.Editor
— Fixed syntax highlighting issues in several pro themes.