Documentation
How to get started, every keyboard shortcut, the Markdown syntax, and how shared folders, the assistant, publishing and encryption work.
Getting started
Mortis Cloud is a Markdown notes app. Your notes are plain .md files that sync between your devices in real time, and you can encrypt them end to end.
- Open it. Use the web app, or install the desktop app for Windows or Linux, or the Android app. There is nothing to configure.
- Create your account. An email address and a password. That password signs you in; it does not encrypt anything.
- Write your first note. Press N and type in plain Markdown. Notes save as you type.
- Link your notes. Type
[[to link to another note. Backlinks and the graph follow on their own. - Turn on encryption, if you want it. In the desktop or web app, open the command palette, run E2E encryption: enable and choose a vault passphrase. Write it down somewhere safe: it cannot be recovered.
The one shortcut to remember: P opens the command palette. Every action is there, searchable, with its shortcut next to it.
The workspace
Three areas: the sidebar on the left, the editor in the middle, and the panels on the right.
- Sidebar and file tree: your folders and notes, with search at the top. Right-click a note or folder to rename, move, pin or delete it, or to share a folder with Team Working.
- Editor and reading mode: notes open ready to read; click anywhere to edit, or press E to switch.
- Tabs and split view: open notes appear as tabs, and the editor can split in two to read two notes side by side.
- Right panels: the outline of the current note, its backlinks (and mentions that are not linked yet), and its local graph.
Keyboard shortcuts
Pick your keyboard and the keys below follow. In the web app, the browser keeps a few shortcuts for itself, such as new window and reopen tab; use the command palette for those.
Essentials
| P | Command palette: every action, searchable |
| O | Quick switcher: jump to a note by name |
| N | New note |
| E | Switch between reading and editing |
| , | Settings |
| R | Reload the vault (desktop app) |
Moving around and searching
| ← / → | Back and forward through the notes you opened (outside the editor) |
| F | Find in the note, or focus the sidebar search |
| H | Find and replace in the note |
| F3 / Shift F3 | Next and previous match |
| Shift F | Search the whole vault |
| Shift H | Replace across the whole vault, with every match shown before anything is written |
| G | Open the graph (when the editor does not have focus) |
| click | Open the note a wikilink points to |
Editing
| B | Bold |
| I | Italic |
| K | Insert a link |
| [[ | Suggest notes to link to |
| / | Slash menu: headings, lists, tasks, quote, code, table, divider, date and callouts |
| Tab | Accept the suggestion (otherwise indent) |
| D | Select the next occurrence of the selection |
| G | Go to a line |
View and files
| Shift Z | Zen mode, full screen without distractions (Esc leaves). On Mac and Linux, inside the editor, the same keys redo. |
| Shift T | Cycle through the themes |
| F2 | Rename the selected note or folder |
| Delete | Move the selection to the trash (desktop app). The web and Android apps have no trash yet: deleting there is final. |
In the note tree
| Tab | Move into the tree; it remembers where you were |
| ↑ / ↓ | Move between notes and folders |
| → | Open a folder, then step into it |
| ← | Close a folder, or go up to its parent |
| Home / End | First and last row |
| Enter / Space | Open the note, or open or close the folder |
| Type a name | Jump to it; keep typing to narrow it down, or repeat a letter to cycle |
Writing in Markdown
Standard Markdown, plus the extensions for linked notes. The live preview styles it as you type.
[[Note name]] | Link to another note |
[[Note#Heading]] | Link straight to a heading |
![[Note]] | Embed another note's content |
#tag | A tag; click it to search for it |
- [ ] task | A task; - [x] when it is done |
> [!note] Title | A callout (note, tip, warning, danger and more) |
front :: back | A flashcard for spaced-repetition review |
$E = mc^2$ | Inline math (KaTeX); $$…$$ for a block |
```mermaid | A Mermaid diagram (flowchart, sequence and more) |
```query | A live list of tasks or notes, filtered by tag:, path:, due: or status: |
--- | Properties (frontmatter) at the top of a note |
Paste an image into a note and it is saved in your vault, linked, and synced to your other devices.
Tools
Every tool is in the command palette ( P). Those marked desktop are only in the Windows and Linux apps for now.
- Graph: the whole vault as a map of linked notes. G outside the editor.
- Canvas (desktop): an infinite board to lay out notes and cards and connect them.
- Kanban boards: a note shown as columns and cards you drag around.
- Daily notes, calendar and agenda: Today's note opens the note for the day; the agenda gathers every task with a due date.
- Flashcards: write
front :: backin any note and run Review flashcards. Reviews use SM-2; progress is kept on each device. - Templates: three built in, plus every note in a
Templatesfolder, all available from the palette. - Properties: Edit properties shows a note's frontmatter as fields.
- Version history (desktop): earlier versions of a note to compare and restore. Up to 40 per note, at most one every 90 seconds.
- Trash (desktop): deleted notes and folders, until you empty it.
- Activity wall and statistics: your writing over time, and figures about the vault.
- Export: one note as HTML, or as PDF in the desktop app. Export the whole vault gives a .zip of your
.mdnotes (attachments and canvases are not included yet), from Settings or the palette. - Pins and random note: pin the notes you come back to, or open one at random to find old ideas again.
Team Working
Team Working shares one folder with other people. Everything else in your vault stays private.
Share a folder
Right-click a folder and choose Team Working. Shared content is always end-to-end encrypted with the folder's own key, so encryption must be on for you and for everyone you invite.
Invite people
- By link: copy an invitation link and send it yourself. It works once and expires after 7 days; up to 10 can be open at a time, and Cancel open invites withdraws them all.
- By email: Mortis Cloud sends the link for you. That link passes through our server, so until it is accepted the server could open that folder. If that matters, send a link yourself.
Only the owner can invite. A folder holds up to 24 members, an owner can share up to 100 folders, and a shared folder counts toward its owner's storage.
Working at the same time
A dot shows who is online, and a line tells you when someone else has the same note open. Changes made at the same time are merged line by line, then word by word. If two people rewrite the same words, both versions stay in the note between conflict markers, and it is not uploaded until someone settles it. When no merge is possible (no common earlier version, a note over 2,000 lines, or two different attachments with the same name), a conflict copy is kept beside the original.
Members
The owner can remove a member at any time: they keep what they already read, nothing new reaches them, and every open invitation is cancelled. A member can leave on their own and needs a new invitation to come back.
The assistant New in the desktop app
The assistant summarizes a note, extracts its tasks, writes flashcards in the app's own syntax, suggests tags, tidies raw notes, rewrites or translates a selection, and answers questions across your vault with its sources. It is optional and off until you choose who answers.
- An agent from the ACP registry: Claude, Copilot, Gemini, Codex, OpenCode and others, downloaded from its publisher when you pick it and checked against its published checksum. It runs for one question in an empty folder, with no file or terminal access, and every permission it asks for is refused.
- A model you point it at: Ollama or LM Studio on your computer, so nothing leaves it, or a provider such as Mistral or OpenRouter with your own key, kept in the system's key store.
When you ask across the vault, the app picks the most relevant passages, shows you the list, and sends only those once you agree. Keys or passwords pasted in a note are removed from the question and from the answer. With an agent or a provider, the text you send goes to that company; with a local model it stays on your computer.
Encryption and sync
End-to-end encryption
- Off until you turn it on. Run E2E encryption: enable from the command palette in the desktop or web app, and choose a vault passphrase of at least 8 characters. It is not your account password.
- How. Each note is encrypted on your device with AES-256-GCM and a random IV. The key is derived from your passphrase with PBKDF2-SHA256 (600,000 iterations, random salt) and never leaves your device.
- What the server keeps to check your passphrase: the salt and a verifier. Someone holding a copy of the server's data could try to guess the passphrase offline, slowed down by PBKDF2, so choose a long one.
- No recovery. Lose the passphrase and nobody can open your encrypted notes, us included. To change it, turn encryption off, then on again with the new one.
What stays readable
- File and folder paths (so note titles and your folder structure), sizes and dates: sync matches on them.
- For shared folders: the folder's name, members' email addresses, and which note each member has open.
- Anything you publish or share as a link.
- Notes on your computer: the desktop app keeps them as ordinary files. An optional locked vault, encrypted on disk, is planned for the next version. The web app's local copy is stored encrypted once encryption is on.
Your account
Your account password is stored as a bcrypt hash. You can reset it by email; that signs you back in but does not unlock encrypted notes. Data is hosted by Infomaniak in Geneva, Switzerland.
Sync
Each app keeps a stream open to the server and pulls changes as soon as another device saves. If the stream drops, the app checks again every two minutes, when its window comes back to the front, and when the connection returns. Changes made offline wait in a queue and are sent when you reconnect.
Get the app
Free, no ads, no trackers. Download it for your system, or open the web app now.