Notes

Open Notes next to Workflows for the full library, or use the vertical pair beside the screen: a microphone circle above a Notes circle, both 36 pt with a 6 pt gap. They share a window and move together. Hover over Notes to reveal one Capture (Coming Soon) circle beside the still-clickable Notes circle. At the left edge, Capture (Coming Soon) appears on the right so the microphone and Notes can sit close to the edge; at the right edge, Capture (Coming Soon) appears on the left. Native Liquid Glass morphs the two surfaces; both Notes and the microphone respond to hovering. Reduce Motion uses a short transition. Circular docking outlines show where the microphone lands while you drag the pair. Clicking Notes creates a note and opens the compact Liquid Glass card with the editor focused. The card also holds the session history menu and scrollable history. The outlined session selector sits beside New Session and shows the session name, date and note count. Click it to switch sessions. Cards show their capture (Coming Soon) time, a capture (Coming Soon)/HTML label and a visible outline when selected. Click the selection count to clear the selection. It expands within a fixed transparent stage; closing it keeps your history and does not move the chat sidebar.

Connect your browser#

No extension is required for native DOM (Coming Soon) capture (Coming Soon) in Chrome, Brave, Edge, Chromium or Safari. Choose Connect browser on a capture (Coming Soon) card, or Browser DOM (Coming Soon) setup… in Notes actions. Allow Pairbar in the macOS Automation prompt. Once per browser, enable Allow JavaScript from Apple Events: Chromium browsers use View → Developer; Safari uses Develop (enable developer features in Safari settings if needed). Pairbar explains these steps and can open the browser or Automation settings. It does not turn developer settings on for you. After setup, start Capture (Coming Soon) again; subsequent captures read DOM (Coming Soon) automatically while hovering and selecting.

The native reader runs bounded, read-only JavaScript in the visible tab. It does not install a page listener, extension or debugging port. Browser-internal pages, Firefox and embedded Codex/Claude WebViews currently use the explicit screenshot (Coming Soon)/Accessibility fallback. Open shadow roots and same-origin frames are supported; cross-origin frame contents and closed shadow roots may be unavailable. Source file mapping and authored stylesheet references remain unavailable. Observed CSS variables do not prove which token produced a computed property.

Collect feedback#

Note creates a text note with a visible comment field and keyboard focus. Creating a note clears search and leaves Trash so the new item is visible. New notes and captures appear at the top; the history scrolls there after they are added. The compact card uses neutral backing beneath native Liquid Glass and stronger secondary text to keep controls readable on bright or busy backgrounds. Use the microphone to dictate; the existing voice settings and automatic language apply. The floating panel leaves room for the editor and its Save control. Captures use a thumbnail beside the compact comment editor; the full Notes page keeps the larger preview. The floating session header uses a plus button with a New session tooltip so session names and counts have more room. Long comments scroll inside their text field; the notes list scrolls separately. The panel remains within the display’s available area. Text saves locally as you edit. Save closes the editor without sending a chat message.

Capture (Coming Soon) opens a selection overlay on the display under your pointer. Hover highlights available Accessibility element bounds before clicking. Click to select an element, or drag a rectangle for an area. The outlined selection stays visible on the captured screen while a nearby rounded comment bubble opens with a focused text field. The round checkmark (Save) stores the screenshot (Coming Soon) and comment together; ⌘Return also saves, while Return adds a line. Esc cancels without creating a note. When element geometry is unavailable, the overlay explicitly highlights the visible window instead; drag to choose a smaller area. Pairbar needs macOS Screen Recording permission. Its own windows are excluded from the captured image. In connected Chrome, Brave, Edge, Chromium and Safari windows, native Capture (Coming Soon) automatically tries the DOM (Coming Soon) reader. Hover shows the HTML tag, font and colours; clicking saves the selector, bounded HTML, computed CSS, observed CSS variables and ancestor context alongside the crop. The browser window and viewport must match; a changed page, zoom or scroll requires starting Capture (Coming Soon) again. If DOM (Coming Soon) access is unavailable, the sliders icon shows the available evidence and limitations, keeping the screenshot (Coming Soon)/Accessibility fallback. Connect browser starts setup; the Notes actions menu also offers Browser DOM (Coming Soon) setup…. The PNG keeps capture (Coming Soon) time, dimensions, selection bounds and available source-window metadata. The preview is a frozen screenshot (Coming Soon), not the live page. One capture (Coming Soon) stays on one display.

The selection comment starts as a single-line rounded bubble centered below the selection, or above it when there is no room. It uses a lightly translucent macOS material; Reduce Transparency uses an opaque background. Longer comments expand to a full-width text area with the parameters, microphone and round save checkmark in a separate footer. The bubble grows and stays within the screen as you type. The sliders icon opens a resizable Captured parameters window with a searchable Property/Value table. Filter by Element, Font, Colours, CSS, Tokens or Source & status; select a row to read its full value and use Copy value. Closing the inspector keeps the capture (Coming Soon) comment. Escape cancels the capture (Coming Soon) even while this window is open; Escape cancels the entire capture (Coming Soon), including while typing or viewing parameters, without saving the draft; ⌘Return saves. If dictation is still finishing, confirmation waits for its final text. Hover outlines have rounded corners and use short 45 ms transitions between elements or fade when the pointer leaves. Area selection becomes available as soon as the screenshot (Coming Soon) is ready, while browser element details load. Browser viewport detection clips scrollable documents to their visible area, including Safari. Background helper windows are excluded from element detection. Reduced Motion uses immediate transitions.

Use New Session to start a separate batch of work in one click. Each session gets a short locally generated name and its creation date and time; no naming dialog or AI request is needed. The current session persists across restarts. Click the outlined session selector to open a searchable list of sessions, newest first. Long session names use up to two lines in session and move lists; hover a row to read its full name. Each row shows its date and note count; Current marks the session receiving new notes, and a checkmark marks the one you are viewing. Use ↑/↓ and Return to choose a session, or Esc to close the picker. The picker also offers All history, New Session, Archive session and archived-session restore actions. Archiving shows a message with Undo; your notes remain in All history. Undo or restoring an archived session opens its notes for viewing, while new notes still go to the current session. You can dismiss the message; archived sessions remain recoverable from the picker after restarting Pairbar. The compact Notes card keeps its size as messages and notes change; scroll its note list to read more. When browsing another session or All history, Back to current returns to the current session. Browsing an older session or All history does not change where new notes and captures are saved: they return to the current session. Existing groups remain as sessions; the old Inbox appears as Earlier notes. A card’s Note actions menu includes Copy for AI and Move to. Move to… opens a searchable list of sessions, with creation dates and note counts. The note’s existing session has a checkmark and cannot be selected as a destination. Moving waits for pending text saves; if an edit could not save, use Retry save before moving. After a move, View session opens the destination without changing the current session receiving new notes. Starting another move clears the previous confirmation; if it fails, Notes shows the error without an old success message. A moved note that leaves the viewed session is removed from the selection; other selected notes stay selected. Search matches note text and source labels. Show Trash keeps deleted notes available for Restore.

Browser elements (Coming Soon)#

Native Capture (Coming Soon) reads DOM (Coming Soon) selectors and computed CSS in connected supported browsers, and uses labelled Accessibility geometry elsewhere. The bundled Chromium adapter is an optional separate route. It is a development extension that must be loaded and registered before use. Follow NotesBrowserExtension/README.md in Pairbar’s app resources to load it unpacked and register its extension ID. Registration is not proof that the extension is enabled.

Click the extension on an HTTP(S) page. Hover highlights an element and shows its tag, dimensions, CSS colour and font declaration; click selects it, and Shift-click adds elements (up to 12). Selected elements keep separate outlines, and a blue pin returns focus to the comment. The anchored comment card has Params and Save note. Params shows captured attributes, computed CSS styles, selectors, ancestor context, sanitized selected HTML and geometry. Observed CSS custom properties and readable authored rules retain variable references where available; these are page evidence, not inferred Figma or repository token names. Cross-origin stylesheets can hide authored rule access even when computed CSS is available. Save queues the capture (Coming Soon) locally; Pairbar imports the note and crops a screenshot (Coming Soon) for each element. Native Notes supports voice comments after import.

This adapter supports Chromium's top-level pages. Restricted pages, cross-origin iframe contents and the embedded Codex browser do not have DOM (Coming Soon) support here; use Capture (Coming Soon). Source file mapping is not available. Params includes all available computed CSS styles up to a bounded limit, plus safe attributes and geometry; it cannot expose every internal application property. URLs lose credentials, query and fragment; visible text and images can still contain private information.

Transfer and drag#

Select notes and choose To chat to prepare Pairbar's composer. Review the target, folder and message before sending. No model runs merely from preparing the package. The package contains brief.md, manifest.json and copied images, with a stable ID and revision for each note. Agents must read the images and report a result or blocker per ID.

Drag a note from anywhere on its card—its date, comment preview, image, padding or Drag label—into a file-capable composer. Dragging a selected card includes all selected notes, including those hidden by search, in one package with their images. Dragging an unselected card includes only that note and keeps the selection unchanged. Buttons remain clickable, and the open text editor keeps text selection and editing. To chat and Drag session export the displayed session in full, regardless of search or selected cards. In All history they export only the current session. Selected notes can still be transferred separately. The primary drag is a Markdown brief with paths to its persistent image package. External applications vary in attachment support; Export package… reveals the package in Finder as an alternative. Files remain available after the drag. Editing a note does not change an exported package. Local paths are usable only by agents with access to this Mac; they are not automatically uploaded to cloud chats. The Notes transfer opens in Local mode; cloud sending of this local package is blocked until a supported upload flow exists.

Create workflow draft creates a disabled, read-only draft attached to the selected snapshot. Review its folder, permissions and schedule before saving or running. The draft asks for a per-note plan; it does not automatically fix feedback or certify completion.

Storage#

Notes live in ~/.pairbar/notes/library.json. Cropped PNGs use content-addressed files in assets/; exports are independent snapshots under exports/. Notes, sessions and revisions persist across restarts. Browser captures wait in browser-inbox/ until imported successfully. Malformed entries and failed screenshot (Coming Soon) imports remain recoverable without blocking later valid captures; successful imports are acknowledged only after a durable save. Import batches are limited to 100 valid captures or approximately 64 MB of queued JSON. Files are private to your macOS account. Pairbar does not upload this library automatically.

A failed save displays an error. Do not export while text remains unsaved. Closing the card keeps drafts; it does not delete files. Show Trash opens a clearly labelled Trash view for the selected session or All history. Use Back to notes to return. Switching between Notes and Trash clears the card selection. Each deleted card has Restore; select several cards and choose Restore in the footer or Restore selected notes in the actions menu to recover them together. Restore notes before copying, transferring or dragging them. Trash shows deleted-note counts and keeps the session filter; it does not offer note or session creation.

Trash is recoverable; automatic retention and a library backup/import interface are not included yet.

Exports include the selected element’s available selector, HTML, font properties, CSS variables and ancestor context in the brief as quoted evidence. The full bounded parameters remain in manifest.json. Accessibility-only exports explicitly say no DOM (Coming Soon)/CSS was captured. Existing packages are immutable snapshots and are not retroactively enriched.

Capture (Coming Soon) uses a comment-bubble cursor on the selection canvas. Hover an element to see its type and size. In the browser DOM (Coming Soon) picker, the hover label also shows the CSS font family, size, weight, line height, text colour and background colour, with colour swatches. Connected native browsers show DOM (Coming Soon) font and colour values too. The Accessibility fallback labels these values as unavailable; connect a supported browser to capture (Coming Soon) DOM (Coming Soon) evidence. The comment field keeps its text cursor.

At the top dock, the microphone and Notes circles sit horizontally. Hovering Notes reveals Capture (Coming Soon) to its right. Side docks keep the vertical pair. Both circles move together, and the docking preview follows the target orientation.

Keyboard in Notes#

Shortcuts apply only while the Notes view has the keyboard. Non-Latin input layouts, including Russian, use the same shortcut key positions; Latin layouts keep their normal letter mappings. ⌘A or ⌃A selects all visible notes, respecting search and session. Inside a comment or search field, ⌘A selects text; ⌃A also selects text. ⌘⇧A clears the note selection. ⌘F focuses search, ⌘N creates a note, ⌘⇧N starts a new session, and ⌘⇧C starts Capture (Coming Soon). Esc clears note selection or search before collapsing the floating card. During Capture (Coming Soon), Esc cancels and ⌘Return saves.

Hide the Notes button#

Right-click the Notes circle and choose Hide Notes button to hide it without deleting notes or sessions. The microphone keeps its circular design; turning Notes back on restores the pair. Choose Hide both buttons to turn off both resting controls; the dictation shortcut still works. These choices survive a restart. Restore Notes with Settings → Voice → Show Notes button. Restore the microphone by setting The dictation pill to Always visible, in one place; turn on Also under Claude and Codex's message box if you want that second control too. The microphone's right-click menu also has Show Notes button and Hide both buttons.

Copy and find feedback#

Copy for AI (the copy icon in the footer, or ⌘C while focus is on the Notes cards) copies all selected notes, including selected notes hidden by search. With no selection, it copies the displayed session; in All history it copies the current session. The card’s actions menu copies that card, or the whole selection if that card is selected. Text fields keep their normal ⌘C behaviour.

Copy saves pending edits and creates an immutable package first. The clipboard offers both the complete Markdown brief and its local file URL. File-capable apps can attach the brief; text-only apps receive the evidence summary and paths. Screenshots (Coming Soon) remain in the sibling package. A cloud chat cannot read local paths: attach the package’s images and manifest yourself. Copy does not send a message or run an agent. The copy icon briefly becomes a checkmark on success.

Search matches comments, source information and captured parameters, including HTML selectors, classes, fonts and CSS variables. Selection survives filtering.

DOM (Coming Soon) captures prefer a unique data-testid, data-test, data-cy, ID or aria-label over a positional selector. If none identifies the element, Capture (Coming Soon) builds a path from a unique ancestor or a structural path. Params and the brief include target.selectorKind, target.selectorMatches, target.selectorVerified, target.selectorScope, target.role and target.name. These describe the captured snapshot, not a permanent binding: selectors must be checked again after the page changes. Names use explicit aria-label or captured visible text; they are not a complete accessibility-name computation. Shadow-root and frame selectors remain scoped by their captured context. Layout values such as gap, padding, margin and corner radius accompany font and colour evidence in the brief; the full captured CSS remains in the manifest.

If saving fails because this Mac is out of disk space, Notes says so. Free space or restore storage access, then use Retry save; no further text edit is needed, and existing saved notes stay in the library. Details shows the underlying storage error. The message clears only after the draft saves successfully. Failed text edits remain in the current editor, but a new capture (Coming Soon) that could not be saved must be captured again. Pairbar does not erase history to make room.

The floating card’s close button works on the first click after another app takes focus. Closing or hiding Notes cancels any pending return from Capture (Coming Soon); cancelling Capture (Coming Soon) normally returns to the card. Reopening Notes restores the card at full opacity.

Search feedback#

When no note matches your search, Notes shows No notes match… and Clear search, which restores the session list without deleting notes. The footer reports how many were found. Narrow sidebars keep the search field and session name readable by hiding decorative details; the shortcuts still work. While browsing an earlier session, Back to current moves below its explanation when space is limited. To chat still sends the whole displayed session, including notes hidden by search; its tooltip gives the count. In All history it sends the current session.

A text-only note without captured parameters does not show the parameters button. Each note's selection, editor, microphone and actions expose their own accessible controls.

The Capture (Coming Soon) hint keeps ⌘Return to save and Esc to cancel visible after selection and wraps on small capture (Coming Soon) canvases. In Captured parameters, search and section filters show No properties match when nothing is found; Clear filters restores the complete table.