Documentation
LeoPad Wiki
Everything you need to know about using LeoPad — from basic editing to AI-powered file management.
Overview
LeoPad is a Windows Notepad-inspired text editor built with Electron and React. It layers four capabilities on top of familiar Notepad-style editing:
💬 AI Chat
Talk to Claude about your notes, ask questions, or let it write and edit files on your behalf.
🏷 Smart Tagging
Auto-tags appear as you type — topics, keywords, and entities extracted from your content. Add manual tags any time.
📁 File Explorer
Open any folder and browse, create, rename, and delete files without leaving the editor.
🎙 Voice Recorder
Record audio directly inside LeoPad, get a Whisper-powered transcript, and run AI actions on it.
Quick Start
Get productive in under a minute.
1
Open a folder — Click the folder icon in the Activity Bar (left sidebar) and select a directory. Your files appear in the Explorer panel.
2
Open or create a file — Click any file in the Explorer to open it in a tab, or press Ctrl+N for a blank tab.
3
Add your Anthropic API key — Click the Chat tab in the right panel and paste your key when prompted. It's stored locally and never leaves your machine.
4
Ask Claude anything — Type in the chat input and press Enter. Claude sees your current note automatically.
5
Save your work — Press Ctrl+S to save. LeoPad also auto-saves a few seconds after you stop typing.
Tabs
LeoPad supports unlimited tabs. Each tab holds an independent file with its own content, tags, and chat context.
New Tab
Press Ctrl+N or use File → New Tab to open a blank untitled tab.
New Window
Ctrl+Shift+N launches a second independent LeoPad window.
Close Tab
Click the × on a tab or press Ctrl+W. Unsaved tabs prompt for confirmation.
Restore Tab
Ctrl+Shift+T reopens the most recently closed tab.
Unsaved indicator
A dot or asterisk next to the tab title means you have unsaved changes.
Editing
The editor works exactly like Notepad — click, type, and use standard system shortcuts. A few extras are layered on top.
Open file
Ctrl+O opens the system file picker. The file opens in a new tab.
Save / Save As
Ctrl+S saves in place. Ctrl+Shift+S prompts for a new location.
Auto-save
LeoPad silently saves a few seconds after you stop typing, so you rarely need to think about it.
Insert Date/Time
Press F5 (or Edit → Insert Date/Time) to stamp the current date and time at the cursor.
Go to Line
Ctrl+G opens a prompt to jump directly to a line number.
Print
Ctrl+P opens the system print dialog for the current file.
Undo / Redo
Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y (standard system undo/redo).
Find & Replace
A floating find/replace bar appears at the top of the editor. It works on the current tab only.
→
Open Find — Ctrl+F. Type to search; results highlight instantly with a match count (3/12).
→
Open Replace — Ctrl+H. Fill in both fields, then click Replace (one at a time) or All (global).
→
Navigate — Enter / ↓ for next, Shift+Enter / ↑ for previous. Toggle Aa for case-sensitive matching and ↩ for wrap-around.
→
Close — Escape or the × button.
The find bar searches literal text (special regex characters are escaped automatically), so you can safely search for strings like
$5.00 or file[1].
Markdown Preview
When a .md file is open, the right panel shows a Markdown tab alongside the Chat tab. Switching to it renders a live HTML preview of the current file.
Live preview
Updates as you type — no manual refresh needed.
Supports GFM
Tables, checkboxes, code fences, and strikethrough all render correctly.
Switch tabs freely
Toggling between Markdown preview and Chat does not lose your chat history.
AI Chat
The Chat panel (right side) connects to Claude. Your active note is always part of the context — you don't need to paste anything.
API Key setup
Enter your Anthropic key the first time you open Chat. Click Key in the toolbar to change it later. The key is stored locally in your app settings.
Send a message
Type in the input box and press Enter. Shift+Enter adds a newline without sending.
Stop generation
Click the Stop button that appears while Claude is running to cancel mid-stream.
New conversation
Click + New to clear the current thread and start fresh. History is auto-saved.
Conversation history
Click History to browse and reload past conversations. Sessions are auto-saved 1.5 seconds after each message and can be deleted individually.
Claude always sees the current note's content (up to 4 000 characters), its filename, and its tags. You don't need to copy/paste — just ask.
Plan Mode
Switch the input to Plan before sending to engage a two-phase, approval-gated workflow — safer for tasks that touch multiple files.
1
Explore phase — Claude reads your folder structure and relevant files (read-only tools only). It cannot write anything yet.
2
Plan phase — Claude outputs a structured plan: goal, numbered steps mapped to exact tool calls and file paths, files affected, and any risks.
3
Review & approve — Read the plan. Press Enter or click Approve to execute, or start a new chat to discard it.
4
Execute phase — Claude carries out every step in order, calling the full set of write tools. Open tabs are updated in real time.
Deleted files are moved to the system Trash, not permanently removed. You can recover them from the Recycle Bin if needed.
Context — @ Files & # Labels
Attach extra context to any chat message without copying and pasting. Two trigger characters activate live pickers.
@ — attach a file
Type
@ anywhere in the input, then start typing the filename. A fuzzy-search picker appears. Press Enter or Tab to select. The file's full contents are included with your message. Multiple @ files can be added to a single message.# — attach a label
Type
# to pick a label. All files tagged with that label (open tabs and saved tags) are bundled into context together. Great for asking cross-file questions like "#work: summarize what's outstanding."Context chips
Attached files and labels appear as chips above the input. Click the chip's × to remove one before sending.
Keyboard navigation
↑ / ↓ to move through the picker, Escape to dismiss it without selecting.
AI File Tools
Claude can take real actions on your files. These tools are available in Chat mode and during the execution phase of Plan mode.
📖 read_file
Read the full contents of any file by path.
✏️ write_file
Write or overwrite a file. Creates missing parent directories. Open tabs update live.
📂 list_directory
List files and folders inside a directory.
📁 create_directory
Create a new folder (and any needed parents).
🗑 delete_file
Move a file or folder to the system Trash (recoverable).
✏️ rename_file
Rename or move a file. If the file is open in a tab, the tab title updates automatically.
🔍 search_files
Full-text search across all files in the open folder. Returns file path, line number, and matching text.
In Plan Mode's explore phase, only
read_file, list_directory, and search_files are available. Write tools are blocked until you approve the plan.
File Explorer
Click the file-stack icon in the Activity Bar to open the Explorer panel. It shows a live-updating file tree for the folder you've opened.
Open folder
Click Open Folder (or the folder icon in the Explorer header) to pick a root directory. The tree refreshes automatically when files change on disk.
Open a file
Click any file in the tree to open it in a new tab (or switch to it if it's already open).
New file / folder
Use the +File and +Folder icons in the Explorer header, or right-click a folder in the tree. Type the name and press Enter.
Rename
Right-click a file or folder and choose Rename. If the file is open in a tab, the tab title updates automatically.
Delete
Right-click and choose Delete. The item is moved to the system Trash — not permanently deleted.
Expand / collapse
Click the chevron next to any folder to expand or collapse it.
Labels & Tags
Labels help you categorize notes and power the #label context system in Chat. There are two kinds:
Auto-tags AI
Extracted automatically from your note's content ~800ms after you stop typing. LeoPad identifies topics, keywords, and entities, each shown with a color-coded dot. These update as you write and cannot be manually edited.
Manual tags you
Type a tag name in the Tag Bar at the bottom of the editor (or in the Labels Panel) and press Enter. Shown with a
# prefix. Click × to remove.Labels Panel
Click the tag icon in the Activity Bar for a full view of all tags across all open tabs. Click a tag to jump to the file, or manage tags from here.
Tag colors
Auto-tags are assigned colors automatically: blue mauve green yellow and more — purely visual, no semantic difference.
Persistent tags
Manual tags are saved per file path and persist across sessions, even when the file is closed.
Use
#label in Chat to include all files sharing that label as context in a single message — great for project-wide questions.
Voice Recorder
Click the microphone icon in the Activity Bar to open the Voice Recorder panel. It records audio, transcribes it with Whisper, and lets you run AI actions on the transcript.
Record
Click Record to start. A live waveform visualizer shows audio levels in real time.
Pause / Resume
Pause recording mid-session and resume without starting a new recording.
Bookmarks
Press the bookmark button during recording to drop a timestamped marker at the current position — useful for flagging key moments.
Transcription
After stopping, Whisper automatically transcribes the audio. The transcript appears below the waveform and can be copied or inserted into any open note.
AI actions on transcript
Four one-click actions run on the transcript via Claude: Summarize, Key Points, Action Items, and Clean Up (fixes filler words and punctuation).
Recording library
All recordings are saved locally with their title, date, duration, transcript, and bookmarks. Browse and replay past recordings from the Voice panel.
View Options
All view toggles live under the View menu.
Word Wrap Alt+Z
Wraps long lines to fit the editor width. On by default.
Line Numbers
Shows or hides the line number gutter on the left side of the editor. On by default.
Status Bar
Toggles the bottom bar that shows line/column, encoding, line ending, zoom level, and tags.
Zoom In Ctrl+=
Increases the editor font size.
Zoom Out Ctrl+–
Decreases the editor font size.
Reset Zoom Ctrl+0
Returns the editor to 100% font size.
Themes & Font
Themes
Open the theme picker from the View menu (or the theme icon in the Activity Bar). Multiple dark and light themes are available.
Font
Format → Font… opens the font dialog. Choose your font family, size, and weight. Changes apply to the editor immediately.
Keyboard Shortcuts
Full reference of all keyboard shortcuts.
| Action | Shortcut | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| New Tab | Ctrl+N | |
| New Window | Ctrl+Shift+N | |
| Open File | Ctrl+O | |
| Save | Ctrl+S | |
| Save As | Ctrl+Shift+S | |
| Ctrl+P | ||
| Close Tab | Ctrl+W | |
| Restore Tab | Ctrl+Shift+T | |
| Undo | Ctrl+Z | |
| Redo | Ctrl+Y | |
| Cut / Copy / Paste | Ctrl+X / Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V | |
| Select All | Ctrl+A | |
| Find | Ctrl+F | |
| Replace | Ctrl+H | |
| Go to Line | Ctrl+G | |
| Insert Date/Time | F5 | Inserts at cursor |
| Toggle Word Wrap | Alt+Z | |
| Zoom In | Ctrl+= | |
| Zoom Out | Ctrl+– | |
| Reset Zoom | Ctrl+0 | |
| Send chat message | Enter | In chat input |
| Newline in chat | Shift+Enter | In chat input |
| File picker (@) | Type @ in chat | Fuzzy-search your folder |
| Label picker (#) | Type # in chat | Picks from existing tags |
| Create new file | Click + File in Explorer header | |
| Rename file | Right-click → Rename in Explorer | |
| Delete file | Right-click → Delete in Explorer | Moves to Trash |