How Madhav got here.

Smaller & Cleaner

• ⚡The Windows installer is about a third of its old size (133 MB, down from 372 MB), and the installed app takes far less disk space.
• ✓Old update files and stale caches are cleaned up automatically after each update. Your notes, settings and voice model are never touched.

Quick-launch Rail

• ⚡A dock at the edge of your panel to open apps, websites, folders and system tools in one click.
• ⚡Scan your installed apps to add them instantly, or add your own scripts.
• ✓See your AI usage at a glance with the new usage widget.
• ✓Three display modes, collapsible into the logo, and draggable. Clicks pass through to your desktop everywhere except the rail itself.

Make Madhav Yours

• ⚡Accent colour: pick a preset or your own. Toggles, tabs and sliders follow it.
• ⚡Card fonts: Jakarta, Geist, System, JetBrains Mono or Handwritten.
• ⚡Card look: choose a surface (Glass, Frosted, Ink) and how category colours show (None, Wash, Glow edge, Bar).
• ✓A cleaner, consistent icon set across the whole app.
• ✓Settings reorganised into Sidebar, Toolbar and Advanced tabs, with Shade sliders for the toolbar and sidebar.

AI Connections (MCP)

• ⚡Let Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode or a desktop AI app read and add notes. Off by default. You choose exactly what each app may do, and new connections wait for your approval.

Bug Fixes

• ✓The placeholder no longer sits on top of a new bullet.
• ✓Fixed click-through getting stuck, right-drag on the rail, and scrolling in Advanced settings.

Voice Capture (Experimental)

• ⚡Speak a thought — Madhav transcribes it on your device using Whisper, an open-source offline AI model. Nothing leaves your machine.
• ⚡Three ways to capture: mic button in the note composer, Alt+Shift+V to toggle from anywhere, or hold Alt+V to record and release to save.
• ✓First use shows a consent screen explaining the one-time ~150 MB download. Download it once, use it forever — no internet needed after that.
• ✓After capturing via shortcut, a notification shows you exactly what was saved — same as the screen capture flow.
• ✓A live 7-bar wave animation appears in the sidebar while recording, whether you're using the button or a keyboard shortcut.
• ✓Whisper runs in a background thread — the app stays fully responsive while it's processing. No cursor freeze, no lag.

Appearance Controls

• ⚡Font size slider — change the base text size from 12 to 18px. Every element in the app scales with it.
• ⚡Multi-monitor support (Experimental) — pick which screen Madhav docks to from a dropdown in Settings.
• ✓Top and bottom margin controls — push the panel away from the screen edge to avoid taskbars, notches, or custom OS bars.
• ✓Text colour toggle — switch between white text (for dark/glass panels) and dark text (for near-transparent setups).
• ✓All text, markdown content, and note cards adapt automatically when you switch colour mode — no manual tweaking needed.

New Splash Screen

• ⚡Brand new logo reveal video on launch — 4 seconds of Madhav's peacock feather with its own sound, then straight into the sidebar.

Bug Fixes

• ✓Hotkey mode sidebar no longer stutters or appears twice — the open/close animation is now smooth and consistent with hover mode.
• ✓Fixed a crash where the panel would go completely invisible after certain UI changes.
• ✓Screen capture (OCR snip) now works correctly on all display scaling settings — the NaN crash is gone.
• ✓Clicking anywhere on a collapsed card now expands it, not just the small chevron.
• ✓The delete animation now runs on the trash icon only — a continuous shake while confirm-delete is armed.
• ✓External links (bookmarks, URLs) now open in your system browser instead of inside Madhav.
• ✓Panel no longer blocks desktop clicks when it's hidden — the invisible overlay issue is fully fixed.
• ✓Settings sliders (opacity, width, blur) now respond instantly with no lag — debounced saves run silently in the background.
• 🔧Select-and-capture (Alt+S) has been temporarily removed — it was unreliable across apps and browsers. A more robust version is in the works.

Auto-Updates Fixed for Good

• ⚡Fixed a bug where the installer was spawned twice on update, causing both to fail and the app to stay on the old version
• ✓A smooth 'Installing…' overlay now appears before the app quits, so updates never feel like a crash
• ✓Windows artifact naming is now locked — latest.yml and the installer filename always match, no more 404 silent failures

In-App Announcements

• ⚡Bell icon in the sidebar header — blinks teal when new announcements are waiting
• ✓Slide-in announcements panel with update notes, tips, and community news — no need to check external channels
• ✓Per-device read tracking: once you've seen an announcement, the dot goes away

Other Fixes

• ✓Windows notifications now show 'Madhav' as the sender instead of 'Electron'
• ✓OCR screen capture now works correctly at 125% display scaling

Capture Anything, Anywhere

• ⚡Alt+S captures selected text from any app — browser, PDF, code editor — and saves it as a note instantly
• ⚡Alt+Shift+S opens a full-screen snip overlay: draw a rectangle around any text on screen, Madhav OCRs and saves it
• ✓The screen unblocks the moment you release the mouse — OCR runs silently in the background, no freezing
• ✓Windows notification confirms every capture so you always know it landed

Smart Category Detection

• ✓Captured URLs (with or without https://) are automatically saved as Bookmarks with a normalized link
• ✓Bullet lists detected by OCR are saved as Tasks with proper markdown formatting
• ✓Both capture shortcuts are configurable in Settings → Shortcuts

Bookmark Link Previews

• ⚡Bookmark cards now show a rich link preview — favicon, page title, description, and cover image fetched automatically
• ✓Twitter / X posts show the author name and tweet text via the public oEmbed API
• ✓Hover over any bookmark to reveal a 'Visit ↗' button that opens the link in your browser
• ✓Previews are cached per session — no re-fetching when you scroll past the same bookmark

Settings & Shortcuts

• ⚡Bookmark shortcut defaults to Ctrl+4 — hit it while typing a URL to save it instantly as a bookmark
• ✓Show completed tasks and Sound effects toggles moved above the Shortcuts section for quicker access

Auto-Update Fixed

• ⚡Fixed a bug where update download failures showed 'Already on latest' — making it impossible to update without reinstalling manually
• ✓Download button now reappears after a failed download so you can retry without restarting the app
• ✓The 'Latest ↗' button now correctly links to the GitHub releases page

Telegram Cleanup

• ⚡Removed 'Thought' as a category option from the Telegram bot — the type picker now shows Uncategorized, Task, Note, Idea
• ✓Removed /thoughts command from the bot menu — it no longer shows up or returns 'not found'
• ✓Bot command menu now self-corrects on /start so it always reflects the latest available commands

Thoughts Terminology & Category Cleanup

• ⚡All captured items now have a collective name: Thoughts. Notes, tasks, ideas, and uncategorized are all types of thoughts — one consistent language across the app and Telegram.
• ✓Category order is now Uncategorized → Task → Note → Idea everywhere — desktop and Telegram now match
• ✓Removed 'Thought' as a selectable type — the type picker tells you what kind of thought it is, not what it is
• ✓New thoughts default to Uncategorized (was Note), matching the Telegram default

Export & Data Control

• ⚡Export all your thoughts (or archive only) to a Markdown file via the native save dialog — your data, your file system
• ✓Delete all data from Settings with a 6-digit confirmation code — removes from both local storage and Convex cloud
• ✓Long Telegram messages no longer get silently dropped — notes are truncated at 3800 chars with a note pointing you back to the app

Card Improvements

• ⚡Long thoughts (>500 chars) auto-collapse in the sidebar — a clean list without losing any content
• ✓Collapsed cards show a subtle · · · indicator at the bottom so you always know there's more inside
• ✓Madhav now stays in the system tray only — no taskbar button appearing on Windows

Auto-Update Experience

• ⚡Update banner moved to the bottom of the panel — slides up cleanly without covering your content
• ✓Install Now renamed to Restart Now. Dismissing the ready-to-install banner shows a friendly note that the update will apply on next quit.
• ✓Auto and Notify modes now check for updates on startup automatically — no more manual button press to see if a new version is available
• ✓Manual mode removed from the slider. A direct 'Latest ↗' link opens the GitHub releases page instead.

Invisible Overlay Fix

• ⚡Fixed a bug where Madhav would become an invisible click-blocker on the right edge of the screen after waking from sleep or after an update restart
• ✓The panel now waits for the renderer to fully mount before moving the native window — no more ghost window blocking your screen
• ✓Waking from hibernate/sleep now reloads the renderer to reset GPU state, so the panel always comes back visible

Settings & Installer

• ⚡Exit button added to the Settings header — quit the app instantly without going to the tray
• ✓NSIS installer now lets you choose a custom install directory (not just C: drive)
• ✓Installer shows a plain-English note about the Windows SmartScreen warning so first-time users know the app is safe
• ✓Splash screen redesigned — dark background, video logo in a rounded tile, app name, tagline, and a smooth loading bar

Archive

• ⚡Archive any card with one click — it disappears from your main list without being deleted
• ✓Archived notes are never fetched with your active notes — zero bandwidth cost until you actually open the Archive filter
• ✓Select 'Archived' in the filter bar to browse archived cards. Unarchive any card to bring it back.
• ✓Telegram /archive command lists your last 10 archived notes from the bot

Settings — Basic / Advanced Tabs

• ⚡Settings panel is now split into Basic and Advanced tabs with a smooth sliding animated indicator
• ✓Switching tabs plays a directional slide animation — left/right depending on which tab you pick
• ✓Basic: Panel Behavior, Appearance, Shortcuts. Advanced: Updates, Experimental, Telegram, Feedback, Contact.

Sounds & Polish

• ⚡Tab switching and accordion expand/collapse now play synthesized UI sounds — swoosh on tab switch, soft pop on expand
• ✓Collapsed card height is now consistent across all sections — no more taller-than-expected collapsed headers
• ✓Feedback form no longer pre-fills the contact field with a URL; gap between settings cards made uniform
• ✓Version shown at the bottom of both Basic and Advanced tabs

Community

• ✓Telegram community and Discord server links added to the Contact section in Settings and to this landing page footer

Quick Capture

• ⚡Press Alt+C anywhere on your desktop — a floating capture window appears instantly, no need to open the sidebar
• ✓Pick a category, type your note, hit Ctrl+Enter to save. The card animates away toward the sidebar, or Esc to cancel.
• ✓Click outside to close — the exit animation plays even on blur, no jarring disappearance
• ✓Drag the window anywhere on screen by the top bar. Shortcut is configurable in Settings.

Polish

• ⚡Both the Quick Capture input and sidebar note input now cycle through animated placeholder phrases — 'Drop that idea here…', 'Something to remember?', and more
• ✓Markdown guide accessible from Quick Capture — 2-column reference panel slides up inside the card

Task UX

• ⚡Completed tasks now live in a collapsible 'Completed · N' section at the bottom — your active list stays clean and focused
• ✓Section is collapsed by default, expands with a smooth animation. Arrow rotates to show state.
• ✓Whole card fades to 60% opacity — border, background, and text dim together, not just the text. One glance is enough to tell open from done.

Polish

• ✓Pin icon now uses the same button style as Edit, Copy, Delete — consistent 22×22 size, tinted background, and spacing

Icons

• ⚡Switched to Lucide React icons for all action controls — crisp, pixel-perfect, consistent on every machine
• ✓Hybrid approach: category labels (📝 Note, 💡 Idea, ✅ Task) keep their emoji warmth. Edit, delete, copy, pin, remind, fold all get clean vector icons.
• ✓No more rendering inconsistencies between Windows, macOS, and Telegram

Filters

• ⚡Task filter is now split into two: Completed Tasks and Open Tasks — filter exactly what you need
• ✓Lucide CheckSquare and Square icons in the filter rows — perfectly aligned, no more emoji baseline mismatch
• ✓Filter dropdown closes on Escape key and when the panel slides away

Markdown Composer

• ⚡Live markdown preview in the note input — type '- item' and see the bullet list render instantly below as you type
• ✓M button in the composer footer shows a quick reference card of all supported markdown: lists, bold, italic, code, headings, quotes, links

Settings & Cards

• ✓Panel Behavior section now in a consistent card — all settings headings at the same alignment
• ✓Appearance section is now collapsible (expanded by default)
• ✓Action buttons and fold button enlarged (18 → 22 px) for easier tapping — card height stays fixed, no layout shift
• ✓Completed task text opacity tuned: slightly less aggressive so long notes remain readable while still clearly done

Performance

• ⚡Every toggle — complete, fold, pin — is now instant. No more 1–2 second wait for Convex to respond.
• ✓Optimistic updates across the board: UI reacts immediately, syncs in the background, reverts if it fails

Smart Task Fold

• ⚡Mark a task done → card auto-collapses with a smooth animation. Undo it → card expands right back.
• ✓Fold/unfold animation now runs over the real content height — smooth at any note length, not a jarring snap
• ✓Fold state is local-only — expanding or collapsing never triggers a Telegram notification or server round-trip

Telegram Notifications

• ⚡Edit a note's content → Telegram gets a notification with the updated text
• ✓Change a note's category → Telegram tells you what it moved to
• ✓Complete a task → Telegram confirms with a ✅ message

Card UX

• ✓Category dropdown no longer hides behind other cards — it floats freely above everything
• ✓Opening the panel always shows a clean slate — no stale dropdowns or menus left open from last time
• ✓Double-click to edit removed — the dedicated ✎ button is the only way in, no accidental edits

Under the Hood

• 🔧Fixed a memory leak — with many cards open, background listeners were accumulating silently. Gone.
• 🔧Fixed 'Note not found' errors when folding or completing synced notes

Experimental

• ⚡New Experimental section in Settings — try different UI variants and vote on which you prefer
• ✓Action button experiment: V1 (click to expand a footer bar) vs V2 (icons appear inline in the card header on hover)
• ✓Built-in upvote system — your vote is counted in real time to help decide what ships by default

Edit Mode

• ✓Edit hint bar replaced with two clear buttons: Esc / Cancel (grey) and Ctrl+Enter / Save (green)
• 🔧Cursor now correctly lands at the end of text when entering edit mode — no more caret jumping to position 0

Card Layout

• 🔧Card header is now a fixed 38px height — hover icons no longer push content down when they appear
• ✓V2 hover icons match the fold button size exactly (18×18 px) with a smooth slide-in animation
• 🔧Checkbox and TASK category label now sit on the same baseline — the misalignment is fixed

Settings Polish

• 🔧Scrollbar no longer shifts the panel content left when it appears — layout is rock solid
• ✓All collapsible settings sections have consistent spacing whether open or closed

Sounds

• ⚡Realistic UI sounds — filtered noise for clicks, ascending chime for task completion, distinct sounds per action
• ✓Toggle sounds on/off in Settings

Experience

• ✓Confetti burst when you complete a task
• ✓Action button hover transitions — 75 ms snap instead of sluggish 150 ms
• ✓Click to expand card actions (replaces hover-only reveal)
• ✓Max 5 pinned notes — pin button disabled with visual cue when limit reached

Appearance

• ✓Custom sidebar width slider (280–520 px)
• ✓Backdrop blur slider with live preview
• ✓Image background with draggable crop overlay — choose exactly which part shows in the panel
• ✓Animated logo splash screen on app launch

Shortcuts

• ✓Ctrl+1–5 in the note composer to instantly save as a specific category
• ✓All shortcuts configurable in a new Settings section

Telegram

• ⚡Notes save instantly as Uncategorized the moment you send a message — no more lost notes if you forget to pick a category
• ✓Category picker now shows Task → Note → Idea → Thought → Cancel in a consistent order
• ✓Cancel keeps the note as Uncategorized — nothing is ever lost

Panel

• ✓Hotkey mode — panel stays hidden, opens with your keyboard shortcut, closes when you click away
• ✓New Telegram-created notes always appear at the top of the list

Panel

• ⚡3 panel modes — Hover (auto-hide), Fixed (always visible), Hotkey (AutoHotKey shortcut to toggle)

Search

• ✓Expandable search bar with live filtering across all notes
• ✓Keyword highlights rendered inline inside markdown cards

Cards

• ✓Drag to reorder — right-click hold on any non-pinned card, drop it anywhere
• 🔧Edit mode preserves card height — no more jarring collapse to a tiny textarea

Telegram

• ✓Edit, delete, and mark tasks done directly from Telegram — desktop not required
• ✓Category-aware message display — notes render as notes, tasks as tasks

UI

• 🔧Ctrl+Enter label fix (was incorrectly shown as ⌘ Enter)
• 🔧Panel behavior info button moved inline with section heading

Architecture

• ⚡Moved to server-side encryption — Convex stores encrypted at rest, decrypts for authorized Telegram delivery
• ✓Bidirectional sync — create from desktop → appears in Telegram; send to bot → appears in panel

Telegram

• ✓Messages now render with markdown, category labels, emoji, and action buttons (Done / Edit / Del)
• ✓Pinned notes, completed tasks, and folded cards — all synced across both surfaces

Backend

• ⚡Shifted to Convex as central backend — always-on, real-time, serverless
• ✓Notes now persist and sync even when the desktop app is closed

Security

• ✓AES-256-GCM client-side encryption — your key, never sent to the server

Onboarding

• ✓QR link-code flow — connect Telegram in 30 seconds, no manual token entry

Known limitation

• 🔧Client-side encryption meant Telegram couldn't decrypt note content — showed ciphertext instead of notes

What we built

• ✓Simple Telegram bot + Electron desktop app, connected via long polling
• ✓Desktop sent notes back to Telegram via the bot
• ✓Worked great… as long as the app was open

The aha moment

• 🔧Close the app → bot goes silent. No backend, no persistence — everything peer-to-peer
• 🔧People wanted capture-anywhere, not capture-only-when-laptop-is-open