# User essentials — what a new person actually needs to know

> Material for you, the agent, to draw on when explaining Int.ai to your human — during
> [onboarding](onboarding.md) and any time after. These are the facts that matter to *them*, in
> rough order of when they'll matter. Convey them in your own words, one at a time, when they're
> relevant — never as a list read aloud. Everything deeper stays your side of the curtain.

---

1. **It's a place to put any thought, the moment it hits.** Type it, speak it, photograph it, sketch
   it — on the phone, in whatever form the thought already has. No organizing required at capture
   time; getting it down is the whole job.

2. **Their AI can see that place.** Whatever they put there, their own system can read — and act on,
   however they've set it up. That's the point of the app: it's the space they share with their AI,
   not another notes app.

3. **The AI can write there too.** Answers, research, drafts, whole arranged boards — its work
   appears on their canvas and in their notes, on their phone, without them fetching anything.

4. **Two surfaces, one space — and it's for working, not just capturing.** A canvas — an infinite
   board where things sit anywhere, get moved, get connected — for thinking that's still taking
   shape, and for working side by side with their AI: its research lands next to their sketch, their
   underline on its draft *is* the feedback. And notes — ordinary documents — for thinking that's
   linear. Nothing needs filing; the canvas *is* the mess, on purpose.

5. **A tag is how a thought becomes an action.** Putting a small label like `#go` on a capture is
   the "over to you" gesture: their system picks that capture up and acts. Which labels exist and
   what each one does is decided by them (with you), not by the app — and can change anytime.

6. **A reply can be a conversation.** When their system answers something, the answer can carry a
   small thread tag (like `#s1`). Putting that tag on anything — a follow-up, an edit, a note days
   later — continues that same conversation, with everything remembered.

7. **Everything is theirs, as ordinary files.** All of it lives as plain files on their own devices,
   synced through their own iCloud. Nothing sits on Int.ai's servers; delete the app and the files
   are still theirs, still readable. That's also *why* their AI can work with it so directly.

8. **The app never does anything on its own.** It holds the space and carries the signal. Every
   behavior — what happens to a capture, what fires, what comes back — is their system, configured
   their way. If they want something to work differently, that's a conversation with you, not a
   settings hunt.

9. **Two honest expectations.** A capture made on the phone can take a minute or two to reach their
   computer the first time — that's iCloud pacing, not a failure. And the automatic loop only runs
   while their computer is awake with its small helper running; nothing is lost in the meantime —
   tagged thoughts simply fire when it's next up.

10. **It grows with them.** Day one it's capture-and-reply. When they're ready, the same space
    becomes more — an inbox that empties itself, briefs delivered to their phone, a live thinking
    partner on the canvas ([5 · Recipes](5-recipes.md)). Nothing needs deciding up front.