Capture

Capture is the entry point to everything Atomus does. If it's not fast, nothing else matters. Press ⌥ A from anywhere, write an atom, hit ⌘ ↵. The whole interaction is designed to stay under ten seconds.

Opening the window

The global shortcut is ⌥ A by default. It works from any app, any desktop, even when another app is in fullscreen. macOS's Accessibility permission (granted during installation) is what lets the shortcut reach you everywhere.

The window drops down from the notch, sits in the center of your screen, and disappears the moment you save or press Esc. You can remap ⌥ A to any other key combination in Settings → Shortcuts if it clashes with something you already use.

Writing the atom

The simplest atom is one line with ==.

What did Ebbinghaus prove in 1885? == That memory decays exponentially
in the first 24 hours after learning.

Everything before == is the front, everything after is the back. On review you see the front, try to recall the back, rate yourself.

Atomus also accepts multi-line answers, multiple choice, numbered lists, cloze ({{...}}), and tasks with a deadline (- [ ] ... @YYYY-MM-DD). Creating atoms walks through every shape with examples.

Atomify: let the AI write atoms for you

If you'd rather think out loud and let Atomus do the structuring, skip == and just write. Click the atomify button and the AI reads your note, suggests front/back pairs, and lets you accept, edit, or reject each one before saving.

Atomify takes a beat longer than writing the atom yourself, so use it when you're capturing a longer thought that could become several atoms at once.

After you save

When you press ⌘ ↵:

• A Markdown file lands in your vault with the full note
• Every atom Atomus found in the note enters the review queue
• FSRS schedules each one for its first review
• The window closes and Atomus drops back into the menu bar

The whole cycle takes about a second from keystroke to saved on disk.