Everything about Madhav.
Installation, features, shortcuts, known issues — all in one place.
01
Getting Started
Installation
Madhav is a portable app — no installer, no admin rights, no UAC prompts. Just download and run.
- Download the latest release from the GitHub Releases page.
- Double-click Madhav-Setup-x.x.x.exe (or the AppImage on Linux).
- Windows SmartScreen may warn about an unsigned app — click 'More info' then 'Run anyway'. This is expected for an indie app; the binary is safe.
- Madhav opens in the system tray and the side panel appears on the right edge of your screen.
Auto-updates are built in. Once you're running v1.2.6+, future updates download and install silently in the background.
First Launch
On first launch, Madhav walks you through a short onboarding flow:
- Welcome — introduction and tagline.
- The panel — explains hover mode, fixed mode, and hotkey mode.
- Capture types — the five thought categories (Note, Task, Idea, Bookmark, Uncategorized).
- Telegram — optional: link your bot for anywhere-capture.
- Ready — your note list opens.
After onboarding, Madhav starts in Fixed mode (panel always visible). You can change this in Settings at any time.
Telegram Setup
Connecting Telegram gives you a second capture surface — send a message from your phone, it appears on your desktop instantly.
- Open Telegram and search for @MadhavBot.
- Send /start to the bot.
- That's it — your desktop and Telegram are now linked.
Every thought you add on desktop is pushed to your Telegram chat. Every message you send the bot gets categorised and appears in the panel.
Available bot commands
- /start — link your account and see the welcome message.
- /list — show your last 10 thoughts.
- /archive — show your last 10 archived thoughts.
- /help — list all available commands.
02
The Panel
Panel Modes
Madhav has three panel modes. Switch between them in Settings → Panel Behavior.
Hover mode
The panel hides at the right edge of your screen and slides in when your cursor touches the edge. Move away and it slides back. Perfect if you want zero distraction while working.
Fixed mode
The panel stays open at all times. Best for single-monitor setups or when you're actively using Madhav throughout the day.
Hotkey mode
The panel is hidden by default. Press your configured hotkey (default: Alt+M) to toggle it open or closed. Clicking outside the panel also closes it automatically.
If you get stuck in Hotkey mode with the panel unexpectedly hidden, right-click the Madhav icon in the system tray → Reset Panel Behavior. This resets it to Fixed mode.
Panel Appearance
Customise the panel in Settings → Appearance:
- Width — drag the slider from 280px to 520px. The panel resizes live.
- Background image or video — upload any photo or MP4. Use the crop overlay to choose which part shows inside the panel.
- Backdrop blur — slider from 0 to 40px. Higher blur creates a stronger frosted-glass look.
- Background opacity — controls how much the background shows through.
System Tray
Madhav lives in the Windows system tray (bottom-right clock area). Right-click the tray icon to:
- Reset Panel Behavior — returns to Fixed mode (useful if panel is stuck hidden).
- Quit — fully exits Madhav.
Closing the panel window does not quit the app. Use tray → Quit, or Settings → Exit button to fully exit.
03
Capturing Thoughts
Thought Types
Every item in Madhav is a Thought. Thoughts have a type that determines how they're displayed and filtered:
- 📝 Note — freeform text, markdown supported.
- ✅ Task — has a checkbox. Mark done, and the card auto-collapses and moves to a Completed section.
- 💡 Idea — same as Note, different visual accent for quick scanning.
- 🔖 Bookmark — paste a URL and Madhav fetches a rich preview (favicon, title, description, cover image).
- Uncategorized — the default. Assign a type later when you know what it is.
New thoughts default to Uncategorized — it's faster. Assign a type after the thought is captured, not before.
Panel Input
The Add Note input is always at the top of the panel. Click it, type, and press Ctrl+Enter to save. Use the category dropdown to pick a type before saving, or use a keyboard shortcut.
- Ctrl+1 — save as Uncategorized
- Ctrl+2 — save as Task
- Ctrl+3 — save as Note
- Ctrl+4 — save as Bookmark
- Ctrl+5 — save as Idea
Markdown is supported: **bold**, *italic*, `code`, - lists, # headings, [links](url), > quotes. A live preview appears as you type.
Quick Capture (Alt+C)
Press Alt+C from anywhere on your desktop — a floating capture window appears instantly without opening the full panel. Type your thought, pick a category, press Ctrl+Enter to save. The card animates away toward the sidebar. Press Esc to cancel.
- Works from any app — games, browser, code editor, anything.
- The window can be dragged by its top bar.
- Shortcut is configurable in Settings → Shortcuts → Quick Capture.
Selection Capture (Alt+S)
Select any text in any application, then press Alt+S. Madhav reads your clipboard and saves the selection as an Uncategorized note instantly. A Windows notification confirms the save.
Works in browsers, PDF viewers, code editors, Word, Excel — any app that supports text selection and copy.
OCR Screen Snip (Alt+Shift+S)
Press Alt+Shift+S to open a full-screen snip overlay. Draw a rectangle around any text on screen — menu items, dialog boxes, images, screenshots. Release the mouse and the overlay closes instantly.
Madhav runs Tesseract OCR in the background and saves the detected text. Smart category detection applies automatically:
- URL detected → saved as Bookmark with https:// prefix.
- Bullet list detected → saved as Task with markdown formatting.
- Everything else → saved as Uncategorized.
The screen is immediately interactive after you release the mouse — OCR runs silently in the background, no freeze.
Markdown Support
All thought types support GitHub-flavoured markdown. The panel renders it with syntax highlighting.
- **bold text** → bold
- *italic text* → italic
- `inline code` → code
- - item or * item → bullet list
- 1. item → numbered list
- # Heading → heading
- > quote → blockquote
- [text](url) → link
Press the M button in the note input to open a quick reference card showing all supported syntax.
04
Tasks
Using Tasks
Create a Task thought and you get a checkbox. Click the checkbox to mark it done. The card automatically collapses and moves to a Completed section at the bottom of your list.
- Uncompleting a task expands it back to its original position.
- Completed tasks are grouped in a collapsible 'Completed · N' section.
- The section is collapsed by default — keeps your active list clean.
- Completed cards render at 60% opacity so you can tell at a glance what's done.
Reminders
Set a reminder on any thought via the bell icon in the card action bar. Choose a time and Madhav fires a Windows desktop notification + a Telegram message at that time.
05
Bookmarks
Link Previews
Save any URL as a Bookmark thought and Madhav automatically fetches a rich preview:
- Favicon from Google's favicon service.
- Page title and description (2-line clamp).
- Cover image (og:image) as a banner.
- A teal domain badge.
- Hover the card → a 'Visit ↗' button appears to open the link in your browser.
Twitter / X links use the public oEmbed API to show the author name and tweet text.
Previews are cached per session. Scrolling past the same bookmark multiple times only fetches once.
06
Search & Filters
Search
Click the search icon (🔍) in the filter bar to open the search input. Type to filter your thoughts in real time. Matched text is highlighted in amber directly inside rendered cards — works inside markdown.
Press Escape to close search and clear the query. Search stacks with category filters.
Filters
Click the Filter button to open a dropdown with checkboxes for each category. Select multiple types to filter by. Active filters appear as dismissible chips below the button.
- All filter types can be combined.
- Tasks have two sub-filters: Completed Tasks and Open Tasks.
- Filters and search both apply simultaneously.
- Press Escape to close the filter dropdown.
Archive
Archive a card with the archive button to soft-remove it from your main list without deleting it. Archived thoughts never load unless you explicitly select the 'Archived' filter — zero bandwidth cost until you need them.
From Telegram: /archive lists your last 10 archived thoughts.
07
Telegram Sync
How Sync Works
Madhav uses a Convex cloud backend as the sync layer. Your thoughts are stored there (encrypted) and available to both the desktop app and the Telegram bot simultaneously — even when the app is closed.
- Desktop → Telegram: Every thought you add on desktop is pushed to your Telegram chat instantly.
- Telegram → Desktop: Send any message to @MadhavBot, pick a category, and it appears in the panel in real time.
- Always-on: The Telegram bot is hosted on Convex — it works 24/7 even when your PC is off.
Actions from Telegram
Every thought pushed to Telegram has inline action buttons:
- Done / Undo — mark a task complete or revert it.
- Edit — tap to enter Editing Mode, then send the new text to update the thought.
- Del — delete the thought from both Telegram and the desktop.
- Copy Content — silently copies the text to your clipboard (no message sent).
Update Notifications
Madhav notifies your Telegram chat when you make changes on desktop:
- Edit content → ✏️ Note updated + preview.
- Change category → 🏷️ Recategorized + preview.
- Complete a task → ✅ Task completed + preview.
- Set a reminder → 🔔 Reminder set + time.
08
Security & Privacy
AES-256 Encryption
All thoughts created on desktop are encrypted with AES-256-GCM before leaving your device. The encryption key is generated locally on first launch and stored only on your machine — it is never sent to any server.
Even the developer cannot read your note content. Convex stores only encrypted ciphertext.
- Algorithm: AES-256-GCM (Node.js crypto module).
- Your key: 30 hex characters in 6 groups (e.g. XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX).
- Telegram-created notes are stored plaintext (your Telegram account is already trusted).
Your Encryption Key
Your encryption key is shown once during onboarding. Save it somewhere safe — if you lose your device, you'll need it to decrypt your thoughts on a new machine.
To view or recover your key: Settings → Advanced → Encryption Key. Paste your saved key in the Recovery field and restart the app.
If you lose your key and lose your device, your encrypted thoughts cannot be recovered by anyone — including us. Back up your key.
09
Auto-Updates
How Updates Work
Madhav checks for updates from GitHub Releases automatically on startup. If a new version is available, it downloads silently in the background and shows a banner at the bottom of the panel when ready.
- Click 'Restart Now' to install immediately.
- Dismiss the banner — the update installs automatically the next time you quit Madhav.
- The 'Latest ↗' link in the update section always opens the GitHub Releases page.
Updates require v1.2.6+ to work automatically. If you installed earlier, download v1.2.7 manually once — all future updates are automatic after that.
10
Keyboard Shortcuts
Global Shortcuts
All global shortcuts are configurable in Settings → Shortcuts.
In-Panel Shortcuts
Known Issues
Known Issues
Panel invisible after sleep
After your laptop wakes from sleep or hibernate, the panel may appear blank or not respond to hover. Fix: right-click the tray icon → Reset Panel Behavior. This is a Windows GPU state issue that Madhav works around by reloading on resume.
Windows SmartScreen warning on install
Madhav is unsigned (code signing certificates cost ~$400/year for an indie app). Click 'More info' → 'Run anyway'. The binary is safe — you can verify the SHA256 hash on the GitHub Releases page.
Telegram bot not responding
Send /start to @MadhavBot first. If the bot still doesn't respond, check your internet connection. The webhook runs on Convex — if Convex has a brief outage, wait a few minutes and retry.
OCR capture is inaccurate
OCR accuracy depends on font size and contrast. Larger text, dark-on-light or light-on-dark renders best. Very small fonts (under 12pt), cursive fonts, and images with complex backgrounds may produce errors. Zoom in before capturing if possible.
Auto-update stuck or showing wrong version
This was fixed in v1.2.7. If you're still seeing stale version info, go to Settings → Auto Update → Latest ↗ and download the latest release manually. Once on v1.2.7+, auto-updates work reliably.
Still stuck?
The community is friendly and fast. Drop your question.