How to Get Your Claude API Key

Getting Started in 5 Minutes

Connecting Google Calendar and Gmail

Using the Desktop App

Building Your Second Brain

Keyboard Shortcuts

What Can the AI Do?

Setting Up Automations

Automations run recurring AI tasks on a schedule. MinervaAI supports built-in automations and custom prompt automations where you write your own AI instruction that runs on a schedule with your vault as context.

Built-in automations

Custom prompt automations

The real power: write any AI instruction and schedule it to run automatically. The AI executes your prompt with your 20 most recent notes and memories as context, then saves the result as a new note.

Each run creates a new note with the AI's response, tagged as "automated" so you can find them easily.

Setting up automations via chat (easiest)

Just tell the AI what you want in natural language:

The AI figures out whether to use a built-in type or a custom prompt based on what you ask for.

Setting up via Settings

1. Click the gear icon to open Settings
2. Scroll to the Automations section
3. Click + Add Automation
4. Enter a name, schedule, and action type
5. Click Create

You can toggle automations on/off or delete them from the same section.

Schedule format

All times are in UTC. For BST (UK summer), subtract 1 hour. A 7am BST briefing = daily@06:00.

Requirements

• All AI automations (briefing, digest, custom prompt) need your Claude API key in Settings
• Create Daily Note works without an API key (no AI involved)
• Google Calendar and Gmail make briefings richer but are not required

Proactive nudges (Pro/Team)

On Pro and Team plans, MinervaAI also runs a background agent every 5 minutes that generates smart notifications:

• Meeting prep -- upcoming calendar events with context from your related notes
• Email alerts -- urgent-looking emails flagged for attention
• Overdue tasks -- daily summary of tasks that have been open too long
• Stale notes -- weekly reminder about important notes not updated in 30+ days

These appear as notifications via the bell icon in the nav bar. You can dismiss them individually or view the related note.

Teams Collaboration

MinervaAI Teams lets you create shared workspaces where multiple people collaborate on notes, documents, and projects -- with the full power of the AI assistant. Requires a Team plan ($20/user/month).

Creating a team

1. Go to Settings (gear icon)
2. Scroll to Teams
3. Click Create Team and name it
4. Share the invite code with your team members

Switching workspaces

The workspace switcher at the top of the sidebar lets you flip between your Personal Vault and any team workspace. When you switch, the sidebar, search, tasks, and AI chat all scope to that workspace.

Sharing notes

Click the Users icon in the editor header to move a note to a team. Click it again and choose "Make Private" to take it back. Notes created while in a team workspace are automatically shared.

Access control

Not every team note should be visible to everyone. Click the Lock icon to restrict a note to specific team members.

• Note creator -- always has access
• Owner / Admin -- always bypasses restrictions
• Selected members -- explicitly granted access
• Everyone else -- cannot see the note

Real-time presence

Green avatar bubbles in the editor header show who else is viewing the same note. Presence updates every 10 seconds.

Edit locking

MinervaAI automatically acquires a 60-second edit lock when you open a team note. If someone else is editing, you will see a yellow warning banner. Locks release when you navigate away or close the browser.

Team analytics

Click the chart icon next to the activity feed, or use Ctrl+P > Team Analytics. See total notes, activity trends, top contributors, and most active notes.

AI Director

Ask the AI things like "What has Sarah been working on this week?" or "Summarise team activity for the last 7 days". The Director respects role hierarchy -- members cannot view owner/admin activity.

Roles

Document Workspaces

Document Workspaces are custom document generation pipelines. Define your templates and processing instructions once, then generate professional Word documents from any case note. Requires Pro or Team plan.

Creating a workspace

1. Go to Workspaces in the nav bar
2. Click Create Workspace
3. Name it (e.g. "Client Reports", "Proposals")
4. Add processing instructions -- tell the AI how to generate your documents
5. Add templates -- the structure and mandatory wordings for each document type
6. Optionally add an intake template -- a form your users fill in to start a case

Attaching reference documents

Drag files onto the editor area (not the sidebar) to attach them to the current note. Attached files appear in an Attachments section at the bottom of the note. The document generator reads PDFs, Word docs, spreadsheets, and text files attached to the case note.

Tip: Drag files onto the sidebar to import them as separate notes instead.

Generating documents

1. Create a note from your workspace's intake template (or write your case note manually)
2. Attach any reference documents by dragging them onto the editor
3. Click the Generate Docs button in the editor toolbar
4. Wait 30-60 seconds while the AI processes everything
5. A ZIP file downloads containing your generated Word documents

Viewing attachments

Click any attached file link to open it in an in-app viewer. PDFs display inline, images show centered, and other files offer a download button. Click X or outside the viewer to return to your note.

Team workspaces

On Team plans, workspaces can be shared with your team. Switch to the team workspace before creating a workspace, and all team members will see the same templates and instructions.

Use cases

• Financial advisers -- suitability letters, fact finds, compliance checklists
• Consultants -- proposals, client reports, project summaries
• Legal teams -- contract templates, compliance documents
• Agencies -- briefs, handover documents, campaign reports
• Any professional -- create your own templates for any document type

Web Clipper Extension

The MinervaAI Web Clipper is a browser extension that lets you save web pages, highlights, and articles directly to your MinervaAI vault. Unlike basic clippers, it uses AI to summarise and extract key points before saving.

Installation

The clipper is available as a Chrome extension (also works on Edge, Brave, and other Chromium browsers).

1. Download the clipper from Settings or the MinervaAI website
2. Open your browser and go to chrome://extensions
3. Enable Developer mode (toggle in top right)
4. Click Load unpacked
5. Select the clipper folder
6. Click the extension icon and enter your MinervaAI username and password

A Chrome Web Store version is coming soon -- this will remove the need for Developer mode.

Clipping a page

1. Navigate to any web page you want to save
2. Click the MinervaAI Clipper icon in your browser toolbar
3. Choose your save mode:
   • Full Page -- saves the entire page as markdown
   • AI Summary -- AI reads the page and writes a 3-5 paragraph summary
   • Key Points -- AI extracts bullet points of the most important information
4. Optionally add a folder, tags, and your own notes
5. Click Clip to MinervaAI

Clipping highlights

Select text on any web page before clicking the clipper icon. The clipper detects your selection and saves just the highlighted text with a link back to the source. Perfect for saving key quotes, paragraphs, or specific sections.

Right-click menu

Right-click on any page for quick clip options:

• Clip selection -- saves highlighted text
• Clip page -- saves the full page
• Clip link -- saves a link as a note
• Clip image -- saves an image reference

Right-click clips save instantly with a green tick badge -- no popup needed.

Smart extraction

The clipper automatically strips navigation, ads, sidebars, and scripts from the page. It preserves:

• Headings and document structure
• Tables
• Code blocks
• Images
• Links
• Lists and blockquotes

Where clips are saved

All clips go to a Web Clips folder by default (you can change this per clip). Each clip includes the source URL and timestamp. Auto-tagged with web-clip plus the domain name.

AI processing

AI Summary and Key Points modes use your Claude API key to process the page content. The original content is preserved in a collapsible section at the bottom of the note, so you never lose the raw data.

AgentAI — Proactive Intelligence

AgentAI is the part of MinervaAI that works even when you're not looking. It monitors your vault, calendar, and email, then nudges you about things that need attention — or takes action on your behalf.

Built-in agents (always running for Pro/Team)

Creating custom agents via chat

Tell the AI what you want an agent to do. It will walk you through the setup step by step:

Trigger types

Approval modes

Control how much autonomy each agent has:

• Auto — executes immediately (best for notifications and low-risk actions)
• Approve — proposes the action, you click Approve or Reject in notifications before it runs
• Draft — creates a DRAFT note for your review. Edit and publish when ready.

Agent Log

Click the bell icon and switch to the Agent Log tab to see everything the background agents have done — nudges created, actions taken, things skipped, and items dismissed. Auto-executed actions have an Undo button (available for 1 hour).

Dismissing nudges

When you dismiss a nudge, the agent remembers. That exact context won't trigger again for 30 days. The system learns what you care about and what you don't.

File Attachments & Drag-Drop

MinervaAI supports two ways of bringing files into your vault: attaching them to an existing note or importing them as new notes. The system automatically shows you both options when you drag files in.

The two-zone drag-drop

When you drag files onto MinervaAI, a full-screen overlay appears with two drop zones:

The overlay highlights whichever zone your cursor is over, so you always know which one you're targeting before you drop.

Attaching files to a note

1. Open the note you want to attach files to
2. Drag one or more files from your desktop onto the MinervaAI window
3. Drop them on the "Attach to note" zone (left side)
4. A progress banner shows each file being attached
5. The note updates with an Attachments section at the bottom:

Viewing attachments in-app

Click any attachment link to open it in an in-app viewer overlay — you never leave your note:

• PDFs open in a full-screen viewer with scroll and zoom
• Images display centred in the overlay
• Other files show a download button

The viewer has a Download button to save the file and an X to close and return to your note. You can also click outside the viewer to close it.

Importing files as new notes

Drop files on the "Import as new note" zone (right side). Each file becomes its own note:

• .pdf — text extracted, saved as markdown with a link to the original PDF
• .docx — text extracted, headings and formatting preserved as markdown
• .xlsx — converted to markdown tables
• .csv — converted to markdown tables
• .md / .txt — imported directly
• Images (.png, .jpg, etc.) — stored with an embed link
• Code files (.py, .js, .ts, etc.) — imported as fenced code blocks

You can also drag entire folders — all files inside are imported and placed in a folder with the same name.

Using attachments with Document Workspaces

File attachments are essential for Document Workspaces (Pro/Team). When you generate documents from a case note:

1. Create your case note from an intake template
2. Drag reference documents (quotes, illustrations, reports) onto the editor to attach them
3. Click Generate Docs
4. The AI reads your case note content + all attached files + any reference documents in the same folder

The more reference material you attach, the more accurate and complete the generated documents will be.

Supported file types

MinervaAI supports a wide range of file types for both attaching and importing:

Tips

• You can attach multiple files at once — drag them all together
• Attached files count toward your storage quota (Free: 50MB, Starter: 1GB, Pro: 10GB, Team: 25GB)
• The desktop app stores attachments locally — no quota limit
• For Document Workspaces, put your firm's compliance templates and standard wordings in a Reference Documents note as attachments

AI Memory & Vault Intelligence

MinervaAI's AI gets smarter the more you use it. It remembers important facts about you across sessions, learns your patterns, and proactively analyses your vault for insights.

Structured memory

The AI stores memories in categories:

The AI saves memories proactively — when you mention a project, preference, or goal in conversation, it stores it without you having to ask. View stored memories via the brain icon in the nav bar.

Vault Intelligence

Every Sunday, MinervaAI runs a deep analysis of your entire vault and produces a Vault Intelligence Report with:

• This week's focus — what topics dominated
• Active projects — detected from your notes
• Emerging themes — topics appearing frequently without dedicated notes
• Stale areas — important notes that haven't been touched in 30+ days
• Connections found — notes that should link but don't
• Recommended actions — specific suggestions ("Create a note for X", "Link A to B")

The analysis also auto-discovers new memories — projects, patterns, and style preferences extracted from your notes and saved for future conversations.

Smart morning briefings

The morning briefing uses all of this context to be genuinely personalised:

• Good morning — personalised based on your projects and goals
• Today's focus — specific priorities based on active projects and observed patterns
• Loose threads — overdue tasks and stale notes that need attention
• This week ahead — what's coming based on your calendar, projects, and habits

Set up a morning briefing automation in Settings > Automations, or just ask the AI: "Set up a daily morning briefing at 7am"

The flywheel

Memory, Vault Intelligence, and Briefings form a self-improving loop: memories make briefings better, vault intelligence discovers new memories, and the AI gets more useful every week. Over time, MinervaAI becomes genuinely hard to leave — it knows how you work better than any other tool.

MinervaAI on Mobile

Native iOS and Android apps are on the way. In the meantime, you can add MinervaAI to your phone's home screen right now — it works like a real app, with its own icon, full-screen mode, and offline support.

This isn't a bookmark. MinervaAI is built as a Progressive Web App (PWA), which means your phone treats it like a native app once installed. You get push-ready behaviour, no browser chrome, and instant launch from your home screen.

iPhone & iPad (Safari)

1. Open Safari and go to minerva-ai.app/app
   You must use Safari — Chrome and Firefox on iOS don't support Add to Home Screen.
2. Tap the Share button
   It's the square with an arrow pointing up, at the bottom of the screen (iPhone) or top (iPad).
3. Scroll down and tap "Add to Home Screen"
   You may need to scroll past the first row of share options to find it.
4. Tap "Add"
   The name will auto-fill as "MinervaAI". You can change it if you like.
5. Done
   MinervaAI now appears on your home screen with its own icon. Tap it to launch — it opens full-screen with no browser bar.

Android (Chrome)

1. Open Chrome and go to minerva-ai.app/app
2. Tap the three-dot menu (top-right corner)
3. Tap "Add to Home screen" or "Install app"
   Some Android phones show "Install app" directly — either option works.
4. Tap "Add" (or "Install")
   The app icon appears on your home screen.
5. Done
   Tap the icon to launch MinervaAI in full-screen mode, just like a native app.

What you get

Tips for the best experience

• Log in first — sign in at minerva-ai.app/app before adding to home screen, so you stay logged in when you launch the app
• Landscape works too — rotate your phone or tablet and MinervaAI adapts to the wider layout
• It syncs automatically — any notes you create or edit on mobile sync to your desktop and web sessions
• Use the sidebar — swipe or tap the menu icon to access your full note list, folders, and tags
• Quick capture — open the app, hit + New Note, and start typing. The AI is always one tap away in the chat panel

When are native apps coming?

Native iOS and Android apps are actively in development. They'll add offline-first editing, push notifications, share sheet integration, and a touch-optimised interface. The PWA will continue to work alongside the native apps.

Want to be first to know? Drop us a message at hello@minerva-ai.app and we'll let you know when the beta is ready.