Keep what you know.
Find it again.

Getting started

Create your account

1. Open app.youwantwhat.com and choose Register.
2. Enter your name, email and a password, and accept the Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy.
3. That's it for encryption: while registering, your browser creates your personal key pair. The private key is locked with your password and never leaves your browser unlocked.

Save your recovery phrase

Right after setup, StackScribe shows a 12-word recovery phrase. It is shown once.

• Write the words down in order, 1 to 12 — the order matters.
• Keep them somewhere safe and offline: a notebook, a password manager.
• Tick the confirmation and continue.

Sign in, and protect the account

Sign in with your email and password. We recommend turning on two-factor authentication (chapter 08): then a code from your phone is needed too.

Forgot your password?

On the sign-in page, choose Forgot your password?. Enter your email and your 12-word recovery phrase, then a new password. Your phrase stays in your browser — StackScribe never sees it — and all your content stays readable. Afterwards every other session of your account is signed out; two-factor authentication still applies when you sign in. Without the recovery phrase a forgotten password cannot be reset.

Finding your way

The sidebar

Press ? anywhere to see the keyboard shortcuts, and N to start a new entry.

Spaces, domains and chapters

Everything you write lives in a space, inside a domain and a chapter:

• Spaces — your personal space, and, if you belong to an organisation, the organisation itself and each of its teams. Switch between them with the space switcher at the top of the sidebar. Where you can only read, it says so.
• Domains — the big subjects. Create one from the sidebar; it comes with a first chapter.
• Chapters — sections inside a domain. A new entry goes into the chapter you pick in its form; you can move entries and documents to another chapter later.

Entries

An entry is one piece of know-how. Create one with New entry or N, give it a title, and choose its type.

Entry types

Every entry can also have a summary, a detailed description (Markdown), a category, tags — for example CKA or networking — and, in an organisation, an access level (chapter 07).

View levels — show more or less of an entry

In Free-style and Layout-based entries, each block has a level from 1 to 9 (9 by default), chosen in the editor. On the entry's page, the View level strip decides how much you see: blocks above the chosen level are folded away, with a note such as "3 blocks hidden at level 4". Give the essentials a low level and the details a high one — then level 2 reads as a summary and level 9 shows everything. Your chosen level is remembered on all your devices.

In Bundle entries, items can be marked hidden in the same spirit, with a switch to show them again.

From inbox to archive

New entries start in the Inbox. Mark them organized once filed; archive what you no longer need day to day — it stays searchable. You can select several entries and act on them at once.

On an entry's page

• E edit · D duplicate · C copy the command (command entries) · L mark as learned.
• Version history — every saved change is kept; compare an older version with the current one, and restore it.
• Comments — notes from you or, in shared spaces, from colleagues.
• Prerequisites — link entries that should be read first; the entry then shows the learning path as a small graph.
• Move — to another chapter or domain.

Layouts

A layout is a template for entries that always look alike — a runbook, a troubleshooting note, a study card. Under Layouts, build one from typed blocks:

Then create an entry of type Layout-based and pick the layout: its blocks become the form.

Documents & PDFs

Upload

Under Docs, choose Upload Document: PDF, Markdown or text files, up to 95 MB each. Give it a title, a description and tags, and pick the chapter. Files are encrypted in your browser before they are sent. Files attached to entries (bundles, file blocks) work the same way.

Read and annotate PDFs

Open a PDF to read it in StackScribe. In the viewer:

• Highlight text, and add notes to a passage.
• Freehand drawing — sketch or circle things on the page.
• One page at a time or continuous — the scroll button shows every page, one under the other, to scroll through; highlights, notes and drawings work on any page. The viewer remembers your choice.
• Zoom, and reset zoom to 100 %.
• Download with annotations — a copy of the PDF with your highlights, notes and drawings embedded.

Your annotations are encrypted too. Text and Markdown documents can be edited in place.

Search & organising

Search

Press / or Ctrl+K. Search looks in titles, the content of your entries, and the names of their tags and category; every word you type must match. Filter by category, tag, type, status and date range; tick Search in blocks and files to look inside entry blocks and attached file names as well. After a page reload, unlock with your password on the search page to search inside encrypted content.

Categories and tags

Use categories for the few big buckets (one per entry) and tags for everything cross-cutting (as many as you like). Manage both from the sidebar; Analytics shows which ones you use most.

Working together

Organisations and teams

Under Organizations you can create an organisation (up to three), add teams, and invite people with an invite link. A link works once and is shown only once — copy it right away.

Who sees an entry

In a team, each entry and document has an access level: Private (only you), Team (every team member) or Organisation (everyone in the organisation). Team and organisation content is encrypted to that team's or organisation's own key, which members' browsers receive.

Share with a person

Use Share on an entry or a document and pick colleagues. Each person gets their own re-encrypted copy of the key — the server never sees the content. You can revoke a share at any time. Sharing with someone outside the organisation needs an owner's approval first; such requests appear under Sharing outside in the sidebar.

• Shared with me — what others shared with you.
• Shared with the organisation — what teams shared with the whole organisation.
• Held for the team — when someone leaves, what they wrote is not lost: it is held by a colleague, who can accept it or pass it on.

Your account

Click your name at the bottom of the sidebar: the menu has Profile and Export / Import.

Security

• Change password — your content key is re-locked with the new password in the same step.
• Two-factor authentication — scan the QR code with an authenticator app, confirm a code, and save the backup codes: each works once, if your phone is not at hand.
• Sessions — see where you are signed in, sign one device out, or sign out everywhere.
• Automatic sign-out — after 30 minutes without activity (a minute before, the app asks whether you want to stay signed in) and, however active, 24 hours after you signed in. Reading and scrolling count as activity; save your work before stepping away.

Your data, and leaving

Exporting everything, importing it here or into another account, and deleting your account: Your data: export, import, leave.

Your data: export, import, leave

Everything you keep in your personal space is yours to take: decrypted, in open formats, readable without StackScribe — and you can bring it back, here or into another account. Menu (your name at the bottom of the sidebar) → Export / Import.

Export everything

One ZIP file with all of your own data, decrypted in your browser: entries with every past version, their comments and files, documents with their annotations, domains and chapters, categories, tags, layouts, your settings and suggestions. Unlock your key first.

• Protect it with a passphrase (recommended) — the app suggests seven random words; write them down. The file is then saved as .zip.age and opens only with them. Without them nobody can open it, us included. Or choose your own (at least 20 characters), or none — then anyone with the file can read it.
• Not included: what you wrote inside an organisation or team (it isn't yours alone — it stays with them), and what others shared with you.
• The archive is built in your browser: very large accounts (over about 2 GB of files) can't be exported in one go yet — the app says so.

Open it without StackScribe

• A protected file: age -d stackscribe-export-….zip.age > export.zip with the free age tool, then type the words.
• Unzipped: Entries/ holds each entry as a Markdown file, by domain and chapter, with its files beside it — open the folder in Obsidian, VS Code or any editor. Documents/ holds your documents as they were (a PDF with annotations also drawn in). data/ is the exact copy StackScribe imports.

Import an export

1. Choose the file (and type its passphrase). A damaged file is refused before anything is written.
2. The preview shows what it holds and what already exists: domains, chapters, categories and tags of the same name are used, not duplicated; a layout too if its sections are the same. If it doesn't fit your plan, nothing is imported.
3. For each entry already here (same title, same domain): skip, keep both or replace — the entry takes the archive's content; what it had stays in its history. For a document: skip or keep both. "All…" sets every one.
4. Import. Everything is encrypted again for this account; entries keep their dates, past versions and comments. The result says where the entries went — Open switches to that domain.

Stopped half-way? Run it again with the same file within 24 hours: it continues where it stopped. You can undo an import for 24 hours — what it created is removed, what it replaced is put back.

Import one entry from its PDF

An entry's PDF (Export as PDF on the entry) can be imported by anyone: the entry becomes theirs, in the active domain, with its category, tags and layout found by name (or created), encrypted like any new entry.

Leaving

Export, then Profile → Danger Zone → Delete. Your account becomes read-only for 30 days — sign in during that time to cancel, and you can still export — then it is deleted with your personal content. You can do this without accepting new Terms: while they wait for your answer, the export and your profile stay open.

Privacy & encryption

StackScribe follows the model of private-by-design services: your browser encrypts, the server stores what it cannot read.

The full details are in the Privacy Policy.

Limits & plans

StackScribe is a free beta. Personal accounts start on the Basic plan; Pro raises the limits — switch under Profile → Plan, free during the beta. Limits count per person and per space; nothing you already have is ever removed when you reach one — you just cannot add more until you make room.

Daily limits reset at midnight UTC. When you get close to a limit, the app warns you; when you reach it, it tells you which one. Organisations have their own plans (Enterprise, Enterprise Pro) with their own limits.

Keyboard shortcuts

Suggestions for improvement

Missing something, or found something that could work better? Open the menu under your name and choose Suggestions for improvement.

1. Write a short title and your suggestion; pick a category if one fits — Missing feature, Improvement, Problem or Other.
2. Send. It appears under My suggestions.
3. We read every one. Each suggestion shows its status — New, Under review, Planned, Done or Declined — and, when we have something to say, our reply.

Up to 10 suggestions a day.

Try it in a sandbox

When the sign-in page offers Try StackScribe — no account needed, you can try everything in a sandbox: a throw-away account with a few example entries, deleted after a few days.

1. Choose Try it, accept the Terms and the Privacy Policy, and Start my sandbox. No email, no password: your browser creates and keeps them, and signs you in at once.
2. The banner at the top says when the sandbox will be deleted. Back on the same browser before then, choose Continue your sandbox on the sign-in page.
3. Like it? Keep my work (in the banner) turns the sandbox into a free account on the Basic plan, with everything in it: enter your email and a password, then write down your recovery phrase.