Open the Shortcuts app and search for Header to see these actions. Notes, folders, tasks, vaults and lenses appear as pickers, so you choose them from a list rather than typing a path.

The actions that don't open Header can be chained. For example, Search Notes for “invoice”, then Get Note Content on the first result, then a text step of your own. Changes made by these actions are saved to Time Travel first, and on macOS 26 and later you can undo an Append to Note. While Header is locked, or for a locked note, they stop and tell you why. See Siri, Shortcuts and locked notes.

Asking Siri

Some actions come with ready-made phrases, such as “Add to Header”, “Open my daily note in Header”, “Add a task in Header” and “Ask Header a question”. On macOS 27, Siri can also work with Header notes and tasks more directly: create a note, add text to one, change a note's title (the file name stays the same), and add or update tasks. If you ask Siri to delete a task, Header marks it cancelled instead of removing the line.

The widget shows your vault name, a one-line focus summary, and counts for notes captured today, this month, and your open loops.

• Small: the summary and counts. Clicking the loops count opens Today; clicking anywhere else opens Quick Capture.
• Medium: adds up to three recurring themes, your two most recent captures, two open tasks, and Capture and Today buttons.
• Large: the same, with up to five open tasks.

On macOS 15 and later, clicking a task in the widget brings Header forward and marks the task done in its note. Header checks that the task text still matches before ticking it, so an out-of-date widget can't tick the wrong line. On macOS 14, clicking a task opens its note instead.

On macOS 26 and later, Header adds a control called Header Quick Capture. Add it to Control Center and one click opens Quick Capture.

While Header is running, a pencil-and-square icon sits in the menu bar. Click it for a small panel with the same composer as Quick Capture, including the destination, voice capture and attachments. After you capture, the panel stays open so you can see the confirmation and click Review or Undo.

Below the composer, Jump to Note searches every vault and shows the top five matches. Open App brings the main window forward. If you use the app lock, the panel is locked too.

Open any of these links from a launcher, a script (open "header://daily") or a link in another app. Remember to URL-encode spaces in parameters, for example Lisbon%20trip.

• header://daily opens today's daily note, creating it from your template if needed.
• header://today opens Today.
• header://capture opens Quick Capture.
• header://ask opens Ask Header.
• header://search?q=words opens search, filled in with q if you give it.
• header://open?note=Lisbon%20trip opens a note by title, alias or file name, the same way a [[link]] resolves. file= and title= work in place of note=.
• header://new?title=…&content=… creates a note at the top of the open vault and opens it. Without content, the note starts with the title as a heading.
• header://canvas creates a new canvas; header://canvas?file=Boards/Plan.canvas opens one by its path inside the vault.
• header://manuscript opens Manuscripts; add ?note= with a manuscript's path or title to open that one.
• header://task/complete?note=…&line=…&text=… marks one open task done. note is the note's path inside the vault, line counts from 1, and text must match the task. This is what the widget uses.

Every link brings Header's window forward. While Header is locked, it asks you to unlock and ignores the link; open it again afterwards.

Header has a small command-line tool, header, that can capture, search and open notes from Terminal, and an MCP server that lets AI apps read a vault you choose: read-only, with locked notes left out and every request logged on this Mac. Neither is included in the beta. The tool will be bundled with Header if testers ask for it, and the Settings section for AI-app access appears once it's installed. If you'd use either, tell us.