All your maps.

Browse your maps.

Click Maps in the library column, or press ⌃⇧2, then click a map to open it in a tab. The column stays beside the map and narrows it.

From the top, the list holds:

• the Quick Capture map, where captures land, on a row of its own;
• your pinned maps;
• every other map, grouped by Space;
• a folded Archived section.

Each row shows the map's shape (in color for the open map), how many of its tasks are due today, when it last changed, and a ring that fills as its tasks get done.

Act on a map

• Pin it: point at the row and click the pin. Drag pinned maps to reorder them.
• Sort the list: click the sort button for Last Modified or Alphabetical, Ascending or Descending.
• Change it: right-click for Rename, Duplicate, Copy link to map, Share…, Archive, Move to Space and Move to Trash.
• Change several: ⌘-click or ⇧-click to select them, then right-click.

Also: swipe a row right to pin it, or left for Move to Trash and Archive. A swipe only shows the buttons.

Show, hide and resize the column

⌃⇧1, ⌃⇧2 and ⌃⇧4 show the column and go to Tasks, Maps and Search. ⌃⌘S (View → Toggle Sidebar) hides or shows it.

Drag its right edge to resize it, from 280 to 420 pixels. Until you choose, it starts hidden in a window narrower than 1440 pixels. Inside the column, Esc steps back one layer at a time and finally hides it.

Work in tabs.

Each open map has a tab at the left of the top bar, with its own undo history, zoom and view. ⌃Tab and ⌃⇧Tab move between them. Your tabs come back the next time you open Kloni.

• Rename a map: double-click its tab. The file on disk follows, and the pin, Space and links stay. The root's label is separate and doesn't change.
• Reorder: drag a tab.
• Close: ⌘W closes the map's tab, and ⌘⇧W closes the window. Closing the last tab opens a blank map.
• More: right-click for Rename, Suggest Map Name… (with Apple Intelligence), Save, Duplicate, Share…, Pin Tab, Close, Close Others and Close All.

Pin Tab is separate from pinning a map in the library. It shrinks the tab to the map's shape at the left of the strip. A pinned tab has no ×, and Close Others, Close All and ⌘W leave it open; use its menu's Close. Review is also a tab, and always comes first.

Start a new map.

Press ⌘N for a blank map, or ⌘⇧N to pick one of the twelve templates:

SWOT Analysis, Project Plan, Meeting Notes, Weekly Review, Problem Analysis, Book / Essay Outline, Decision Review, Kanban Board, Pros & Cons, Org Chart, Feature Map and Learning Roadmap.

Try Sample Maps, on the screen a new install opens with, shows these same templates; Help → Welcome to Kloni brings that screen back. Blank maps use the New map style; templates keep their own.

Also: click the + at the end of the tabs for a new map, or right-click it for New from Template…. ⌘O (File → Open Map…) opens a map from anywhere on your Mac. To start from something you already have, see Import.

Group maps into Spaces.

A Space is a named group of maps: Life, Work, a client. Each map is in one Space or none, and Spaces don't nest or have settings of their own.

Make a Space

1. In the Maps list, click the New Space button beside the sort button.
2. Type a name and press Return.
3. Drag maps onto its heading, or right-click a map for Move to Space.

Also: Move to Space → New Space… makes a Space with the selected maps already in it. The Command Palette has Create new space…, Rename space, Delete space and Move current map to space.

Drag headings to reorder them. Right-click one for Rename, New map in this space, Move up, Move down, Archive Space and Delete Space, which moves its maps to No Space and deletes none of them. Point at a heading and a + starts a new map there.

Show one Space at a time

The Space menu at the top of the library column picks what Tasks, Maps and Search all show. Kloni remembers your choice. The menu appears once you have two Spaces, or one Space with maps outside it.

• All Spaces: everything. This is the default.
• A Space: only that Space's maps and tasks.
• No Space: maps that aren't in one.
• Follow open map: the open map's Space, changing as you switch maps. The menu reads, for example, "Work · open map".

The Quick Capture map belongs to every Space, so its tasks stay in Tasks and Search whichever you pick. You can't move it to a Space.

Where new maps go

A new map goes into the Space the column shows. With All Spaces, or with the column hidden, it joins the open map's Space. With nothing open, it goes in No Space. The + at the end of the tabs says which in its tooltip: New Map in Work.

Archive a map.

Archive a map you've finished with for now: right-click it, or a selection, and choose Archive. It moves to the folded Archived section. Nothing is deleted or moved on disk.

• Its tasks leave the Tasks lists and the Done log, even while the map is open.
• Search still finds it, behind a line such as Also found in 3 archived maps. Click the line to see those results.
• Go to and the map picker show it once you type a name.
• Links into it still work.

Unarchive puts a map back with its pin and Space. Archive Space, on a Space's heading, archives all its maps, and the Archived section keeps them under the Space's name with Unarchive Space.

To take it back at once, click Undo in the notice, or press ⌘Z while the notice shows. The Quick Capture map can't be archived.

Move a map to the Trash.

Right-click a map, or a selection, and choose Move to Trash. Maps go to the macOS Trash, so restore one from there.

Kloni always asks first. If other maps link to the one you're trashing, it says how many links will stop working, with Cancel as the default.

Also: Backspace or Delete once you've clicked in the list. ⌘Backspace works even before that.

Jump with Go to.

Press ⌘⇧O when you remember the words of a thought but not where you put it. Go to lists every map, most recently changed first; start typing and the nodes inside them join the list.

Return opens the map, or the node's map with the node selected and unfolded. A map that's already open switches to its tab.

Also: File → Go to…, or Go to… in the Command Palette.

Search the library.

Press ⌘F on the canvas, or ⌃⇧4 anywhere, and type. One list answers: maps whose names match, then nodes in the open map, then nodes in other maps, grouped by map. Search reads labels and notes.

Other maps join once you've typed two characters (one in Chinese, Japanese or Korean) or added a filter. In the Document, ⌘F finds within the map instead.

Before you type, Search offers your most-used tags, the filters Overdue, Due today, Blocked and High priority, and recent searches.

• ↓ and ↑ walk the results, and Return opens one.
• Esc clears the text, then the filters, then returns to the list you came from.
• Search covers the Space in the Space menu. When other Spaces have matches, the list ends with Search all spaces.

Filter a search

Type # to add tags; results must carry every tag you add. Type a filter next to your words and it becomes a chip: a one-word filter on Space, a date on Return.

Filters and words combine: book state:open due:thisweek #rome finds open tasks about booking, due this week, tagged rome. Backspace twice removes the last chip. A date Kloni can't read stays as text, marked in the field.

With Apple Intelligence you can type the search as a sentence and turn it into these filters: see Search in Plain Language.

Manage your tags.

Open the Tags sheet to rename, merge or delete tags across the library: click All tags… in Search, press ⌘⇧T with nothing selected, or run Browse Tags in the Command Palette.

It lists every tag, most used first, with how many nodes in how many maps carry it. Filter tags narrows the list.

• Find: the magnifier shows the tag in Search.
• Rename: changes it in every map. Rename it to a tag you already have and the two merge.
• Delete: removes it from every node.
• New Tag: makes a tag before any node carries it.

Kloni says how many nodes a change touches before making it. ⌘Z undoes a rename, merge or delete in the open map only; other maps are written on disk.

Go back in History.

Kloni keeps every change to a map, and you can step back through all of it.

⌘Z takes back recent steps: see Undo a change. History goes further, and survives quitting.

Look at an earlier version

1. Press ⌘⇧H, or click the clock in the top bar. History docks beside the map, and the map becomes read-only.
2. Click an entry, or step with ⌘[ and ⌘]. The arrow keys and ⌘Z step too.
3. Press Esc to return to the live map, untouched.

Entries run newest first, grouped by day, each with its time and a tally such as +2 nodes, 1 note edit. A blue dot marks a save and a bookmark marks a named version. You can still pan, zoom, select and read notes.

Compare and restore

• Show change overlay, in the panel's header, outlines what restoring would change: green for nodes that would come back, blue for nodes that would change.
• Compare one node: select it, then choose vs prior for what this entry changed, or vs current for how it differs from the map now.
• Name this version: give a moment a name, such as "Before booking", so it's easy to find.
• Restore to this version: makes it the live map, after asking. A restore is a new step, so ⌘Z takes you back and nothing newer is lost.

Where history lives

History is stored inside the map's file, so it travels to a backup or a new Mac, and so does whatever you deleted. Sharing a map leaves its history out.

Older history thins out when a map opens. Everything from the last 2 days stays, then one entry an hour up to 14 days, one a day up to 60 days, and one a week after that. Named versions are never thinned.

Kloni names some entries itself: Imported starts the timeline of a map whose history was missing, Edited outside Kloni marks a change from another device or app while the map was closed, and Replaced with a shared copy marks a map replaced by one you received. If History finds older versions in a backup copy, it offers Recover.

See what changed.

What Changed, at the top of the History panel, says what happened to a map over a period. Pick Today, Past week or Past month, or What changed since this version under the version you're viewing. Nothing runs until you pick.

It compares the map then with the map now, so you see the net change: a count line (8 edits on 3 days · 12 added · 3 removed) and, under All changes, every change in plain words, grouped by branch. Positions and folds don't count.

Click a name and History shows that node in a version where it can be seen.

With Apple Intelligence, a few sentences sum it up, and All changes stays the exact account. See the summary.

Also: What Changed This Week in the Command Palette, View → What Changed…, or What Changed Here? on a node's right-click menu, which narrows it to that branch.

Import into a map.

1. Press ⌘⇧U for a new map, or ⌘⇧M to add to the open map under the selected node. The Add to switch in the dialog changes your mind.
2. Paste a link or some Markdown, or click Choose file… or drop a .md file. A badge says what Kloni found.
3. Click Create Map or Import. For several lines of Markdown, ⌘Return does the same.

The import is one step you can undo. If a page can't be reached, the dialog says why and Return tries again.

With Apple Intelligence, a web page link brings a Summarize with Apple Intelligence switch, on until you turn it off. The page arrives with a short summary as its note and its key points as children; Import without Summary imports at once. See Summarize Web Page.

Also: drop a .md file on an empty part of the canvas; on a map with content, it asks before replacing it. For a single link, paste it into a label (see Links).

Export a map.

Press ⌘E, pick a format and set its options.

Exports show every note, tag and date, however zoomed or folded the map is on screen. The Document PDF prints notes, folded branches and code in full, has a bookmark for every heading, works with a screen reader and keeps links working.

Also: Copy as Markdown, in the Command Palette, puts the whole map on the clipboard in the Clean form.

Share a map.

Send one

1. Press ⌘⇧E (File → Share…).
2. Choose Kloni Map (a .kloni.zip) for someone with Kloni, or PDF, Image or Markdown for anyone.
3. Click Share… for AirDrop, Mail, Messages and the rest, or Save to File….

A Kloni Map carries the map and the pictures and files it uses. Its history stays with you, and no account or server is involved.

Also: Share… on a tab's or a map's right-click menu, and in the Command Palette.

Receive one

1. Double-click the .kloni.zip to unzip it.
2. Double-click the .kloni inside, or drop it on Kloni's window.

Kloni copies it into your library and opens it, and leaves the file you received alone. If you already have that map, whatever it's called:

• The same version opens yours.
• A different version asks, showing when each last changed. Keep Both, the default, adds the shared copy under a new name. Replace writes it over yours, keeping your copy's name, pin, Space and history, with your version one step back in History.

Pictures or files that pointed somewhere on the sender's Mac, rather than into the map, don't come across. A map shared from a newer version of Kloni asks you to update first.

Sync with iPhone.

Kloni syncs through your own iCloud Drive, once you move your library there. Nothing changes until you do.

1. Open Settings → Library and turn on Sync with iPhone.
2. Click Move to iCloud Drive. Kloni copies every map and your pins, Spaces and archive flags, checks each copy, switches over, and moves the old copies to the Trash.
3. Open Kloni for iPhone, which opens the same maps. See Getting started.

Cancel, or a failure, before the switch leaves your maps where they were. If iCloud Drive is off, the row says to turn it on in System Settings.

Kloni never merges two libraries. If iCloud Drive already holds one, choose Use the iCloud library to switch to it as it is, leaving your current folder untouched, or Cancel.

While you sync

• Not downloaded: a map iCloud keeps only online says so on its row. Opening it, or following a link to it, downloads it first. Search, the Tags sheet and Tasks skip these maps and say how many.
• Waiting for iCloud: if iCloud takes away a map you're editing, a banner says so and its tab shows a cloud. Your changes are kept and save by themselves when the map returns.
• Changes from your iPhone: pins, Spaces and archived maps show up here while Kloni is open.
• Two libraries: if your iPhone uses the iCloud library while this Mac uses another folder, a banner says so, with Switch.

Stop syncing

Turn off Sync with iPhone and click Choose Folder…. Kloni copies your maps to that folder and uses it from then on. The copy in iCloud Drive stays, because your iPhone may still be using it.

Changing the Location instead switches this Mac to the new folder and leaves your maps behind in iCloud Drive; Kloni asks first.

Continue with Handoff

The map open on your Mac, with its selected node, can be picked up on a nearby iPhone, and a map open on the iPhone can be continued here. There's nothing to set up in Kloni.

Find your files.

Your library is an ordinary folder, ~/Documents/KloniMaps unless you choose another. To move it or open it, click the folder under Location in Settings → Library: see Library settings.

Each map is a .kloni bundle: a folder holding map.json, an assets folder for its pictures and files, and its history. Pins, Spaces and archive flags sit in the library folder, in .kloni-prefs.json.

To back up your maps, back up the whole folder with whatever you already use. Export is for handing a map to someone. Attachments a map no longer uses go to the macOS Trash when the map closes.

Saving

Kloni saves about two seconds after each change, when you switch tabs or leave the window, and when you close or quit, without asking. Saves are written so a crash can't leave a map half-written.

When a file changes outside Kloni.

Kloni watches the library folder, so changes from another app or device come in by themselves. A map with nothing unsaved reloads and keeps your place. What happens otherwise depends on the change.

A Quick Capture landing in a map with unsaved edits joins them without asking. For edits on both your Mac and iPhone, see Working with your Mac.

Add the Tasks widget.

The Tasks widget puts one Tasks list on your desktop or in Notification Center. It needs macOS 14 or later.

1. Right-click the desktop, choose Edit Widgets and find Kloni.
2. Add Tasks in small, medium, large or extra large.
3. Edit the widget to pick a Chip (Today by default, or Overdue, Doing, Blocked, Not planned or All open) and a Space. Leave Space empty for every map.

• Small shows the count and the next task.
• Medium shows the first 3 rows, and large and extra large show 7, with each row's map.
• Click a row to open its map at that task, or anywhere else to open the Tasks list on that chip.
• The green + opens Quick Capture without bringing the main window forward.

Archived maps stay out. Kloni refreshes the widget after any change to the library, when the Mac wakes and just after midnight.

Also: on macOS 26, add the Quick Capture control to Control Center or the menu bar. The iPhone has widgets of its own.