Capture

What it is and when to use it#

Every app needs to capture things, so capture is architect’s (#352), ported from Task. A line goes in from the composer, the capture window, ⌘K, a menu, the menu-bar item or an agent (CAPTURE_ADD). The quick-add parser reads it: [[Project]], #tag, @context, !high, today / tomorrow / a weekday / next fri / YYYY-MM-DD, and every week / every 3 days / every weekday become properties, and the rest becomes the title. It lands in the vault’s inbox as a note. Each capture comes back once, in the inbox deck or through INBOX_*, and leaves in one of four ways:

• made into a target’s thing (a task, …);
• filed as a plain note;
• put off until a later day;
• discarded.

Extensions add what a capture can become with [[capture_targets]]. The Tasks extension’s task is the first (Extensions: capture targets).

A capture’s note keeps Task’s inbox frontmatter, so a vault Task wrote reads the same. The demo vault’s convention (type: capture, captured, processed: false) is read too:

---
type: inbox-item
status: open
source: window
created: 2026-11-05T23:00:21-08:00
due: 2026-11-06
priority: high
projects: ["[[Lab]]"]
tags: [design]
---
The lines typed after the first.

A minimal example#

use architect_capture::actions::{self, Config};

// The list already has the vault's VAULT_* (and, with extensions, EXT_CAPTURE_TARGETS).
let capturer = actions::register(&list, Config::default(), None)?;
list.run_json_async("CAPTURE_ADD", br#"{"text":"Call the venue tomorrow !high"}"#).await?;

With a window, architect_capture::ui::use_capture(&list, Config::default()) registers the same actions, with CAPTURE_OPEN and INBOX_OPEN opening the composer and the deck. Mount CaptureLayer { capture } once over the window.

Code tour#

• features/capture/src/parse.rs holds the parser. parse / parse_with return a Draft: the title, tags, contexts, projects, priority, due date, Repeat and extensions’ extra. Draft::properties gives TaskNotes’ keys (keys). merge lays hand-set chips over the parsed properties (a chip set by hand beats the text, and a hand-set null removes one). TokenRule is an extension’s word, like Keyflow’s key:D.
• features/capture/src/inbox.rs covers inbox notes. note_for builds a capture’s note (the first line parsed, the rest the body). Item::from_note reads a VAULT_READ answer back. Item::is_due handles resurface_on. carried drops the inbox’s own keys when a capture leaves. suggests_task is Task’s kind_from_text.
• features/capture/src/target.rs: Target (the app’s note, then the registry’s), and Capture, what a target’s action is given.
• features/capture/src/actions.rs (feature actions) has Capturer, the one path behind the actions, the composer and the deck. It writes only through VAULT_* and runs each as the caller. register is the entry point, with ids and Opener.
• features/capture/src/vocabulary.rs: Vocabulary, what the composer offers to pick from (people, projects, the vault’s tags as labels, contexts), read by Capturer::vocabulary from whichever of TAGS_LIST, PROJECTS_LIST, TASKS_LIST and VAULT_LIST is on the list.
• features/capture/src/ui/mod.rs (feature ui) has use_capture / CaptureUi (process_now, process) and CaptureLayer. The capture window is an architect_workspace::Popout::page, falling back to a card where there is no OS window.
• The composer is Task’s, ported (#445), its look and behaviour kept: features/capture/src/ui/composer.rs Composer (a full-screen sheet on a phone whose properties ride the keyboard as one scrolling bar, a card with its chips in a row on a desk; @ people and contexts, # labels, [[Project]], dates, repeats and !priority read live as chips, a chip set by hand winning; a More menu for labels, a due date, a repeat, sub-tasks and a link; the kind at the top a menu of the targets; “Create more”, ⌘↩), Hand, kind_from_text, resolved_kind; its chips features/capture/src/ui/chips.rs (StatusChip, PriorityChip, AssigneeChip, ProjectChip, LabelsChip) and their picker features/capture/src/ui/picker.rs PropertyPicker; quick add’s bar features/capture/src/ui/quick_add.rs QuickAdd; Task’s Tailwind as architect’s theme tokens features/capture/src/ui/style.rs Look.
• Processing is Task’s too: features/capture/src/ui/process.rs ProcessCard, one capture’s decision in two Modes, remembered on the device (capture-mode in ARCHITECT_CONFIG_DIR). Fast is Task’s card: do it now (a task in progress through the task target, its clock through TIME_START), add to a project (TaskShape, the capture parsed into an editable title, project, contexts, due date and estimate), write a note in your own words under a parent, snooze (Soon, Maybe, Someday: 1, 7 and 30 days), keep as reference, a project (PROJECTS_CREATE), already done (Capturer::done), delete. Clarify asks first: is it actionable? Then the next step (do it now, a task, waiting on someone, a project) or keep it (a note, someday, delete). ProcessDeck (INBOX_OPEN) deals the inbox one card at a time; ProcessNowSheet is “Process now” from the composer. Origin, OriginTile and ago are for an inbox list’s rows (the navigator’s Inbox view, #443).
• features/capture/src/shortcut.rs (feature native, desk only) has use_global_shortcut (global-hotkey, registered on the event loop’s thread as macOS requires) and use_float_window (the window over every app, a third of the way down the screen).
• apps/ui/src/capture.rs wires it into the Architect app: use_app_capture, ⌃⌥N by default (ARCHITECT_CAPTURE_SHORTCUT names another), and WINDOW_COMMAND for the menu-bar item. apps/ui/src/lib.rs puts ⇧⌘N (LAB_CAPTURE), the feather and File › Process inbox on it.

An INBOX_* only reaches notes directly in the inbox folder. When a capture becomes a target’s thing, its inbox note is removed through the app’s door: that removal is the move’s other half, not a deletion the caller asked for.

Tests to read#

• features/capture/src/parse.rs, features/capture/src/inbox.rs, features/capture/src/target.rs: the parser (the issue’s [[Lab]] tomorrow !high #design), hand-set chips, extension tokens, and reading notes back.
• features/capture/tests/inbox.rs: the actions over a real vault folder with a made-up target. It covers capture, list, process, file, defer and discard, each checked in the markdown.
• extensions/tasks/tests/vault.rs: the real Tasks extension, linked in and as its process. An inbox capture processed into a task is checked on disk.
• features/extensions/tests/interop.rs capture_targets_are_registered_while_loaded.
• apps/sandbox/media/tests/architect_tours.rs: the capture tour (architect_capture::TOUR, features/capture/tours/capture-tour.styx: the composer, Into, the deck) played over the Architect app.

Status#

Done:

• the parser, shared with Tasks (TASKS_ADD);
• the inbox and its actions;
• [[capture_targets]] and the task target;
• the composer and the deck;
• the capture window on a system-wide shortcut, from the menu-bar item and CAPTURE_OPEN.

Next:

• inline pickers for @ and #, and a project picker from the vault’s projects;
• the phone’s sheet with the chips on the Typing Toolbar;
• the Board’s target in the sandbox;
• daily-note and project targets;
• the shortcut as a setting;
• the iOS share sheet and widget.