How to Use Learnitas

This is a plain map of everything on the site, not a sales pitch for it. Skim the shortcuts on the right or jump straight to a section. Nothing here requires reading in order.

Getting Around

  • Search — press / anywhere to jump into the header's search box, or open the full search page directly. Results update as you type.
  • Command palette — Ctrl/Cmd + K from any page opens a fuzzy-search box that reaches every note title plus common actions (toggle theme, open the graph, open review, and more), so you rarely need to click through menus to get somewhere specific.
  • Sidebar — browse by domain on the left. It auto-expands to show wherever you currently are, and a small gold badge appears next to any domain you've fully mastered (see Practice & Progress below).
  • Random note — the dice icon in the header picks something at random, useful for browsing without a destination in mind.
  • Domain pages — Programming Languages has its own live mind map grouped by paradigm; Terms & Knowledge groups computer science by domain; subjects outside CS (AI, Physics, Finance and Economics, and others) each get their own standalone section in the sidebar.

Reading a Note

  • Diagrams and interactive code — any diagram in a note renders automatically, nothing to click. Some code blocks are marked runnable and show a Run button: JavaScript runs instantly and fully offline; Python loads a small in-browser Python runtime the first time you run one (a one-time download, cached after that), and a Stop button is always available if something runs long.
  • Backlinks — if another note links to the one you're reading, a "Referenced by" list appears automatically at the bottom, no action needed.
  • Bookmark — the star icon in a note's header saves it to your bookmark list (header star icon, with a small count badge), so you can find it again without searching.
  • Print / save as PDF — the printer icon opens your browser's normal print dialog; choose "Save as PDF" there if that's what you want.
  • Translate — the translate icon next to a note's title opens a language picker and translates the note in place, with a "Show original" option to switch straight back.
  • "Dig deeper" row — at the bottom of every note: Search the web and Ask Gemini answer with real citations right inside a side panel; Ask Claude, Ask ChatGPT, and Ask Perplexity open those sites directly with the topic pre-filled; and Related resources (the book icon) lets you search specifically for Research Papers, Books, Articles & Blogs, Videos & Courses, or Wikipedia & Reference on that exact topic, one category at a time.
  • The AI-backed tools in that row (Search the web, Ask Gemini, Related resources) need you to be logged in, since they cost real money per request. Everything else on this page works without an account, see Your Account below.

Study Tools

  • Study Assistant — the chat icon in the header opens an assistant that actually searches the vault for facts instead of guessing, so its answers stay grounded in what's actually written here. Pick a teaching style from its settings gear (Direct, Socratic, or Encouraging), or tap the mic to talk to it out loud, with live captions and a spoken reply. It needs you to be logged in, unless you turn on its "local model" option and point it at your own AI running on your own machine, which works fully offline and signed out, at the cost of losing the ability to search the vault for you.
  • Study Canvas — a focused workspace that combines a read-only copy of the note, a small graph of just its closest neighbors, a drawing surface, and the assistant, all in one view. Open it from the annotation toolbar's expand button, or via the command palette.
  • Annotation / iPad mode — turn on "iPad mode" in the header to get a floating pen toolbar over any note: pen, pencil, highlighter, eraser, colors, and undo. Works with a stylus, mouse, or finger equally. Nothing is uploaded anywhere, strokes are saved only in this browser.

Practice & Progress

  • Flashcard review — cards are built automatically from every note's own definition; nobody hand-writes separate quiz questions. After each card, grade yourself Again, Hard, Good, or Easy, and the schedule adapts: cards you struggle with come back sooner, ones you know well come back much later. A small number on the header's review icon shows how many cards are due right now.
  • Progress / Mastery Map — a visual map of how much of each subject you've actually learned, based on notes you've reviewed successfully or marked known. Fully local, no account needed. A gold badge appears once an entire subject is solidly mastered.
  • Knowledge graph — every note and how it connects to every other one, laid out visually. Drag to pan, scroll to zoom, click any node to open that note.

Personalizing It

The gear icon in the header opens Settings, split into a few tabs:

  • Appearance — pick a color palette, switch between the cream and dark reading modes, turn on the retro CRT effect, or bump the text size up or down.
  • Tools — hide any toolbar icon you don't personally use, choose which AI provider answers the research tools (or let it choose automatically), and set the Study Assistant's default teaching style.
  • Canvas — toggle iPad mode from here too, same as the header button.
  • Reset all local preferences — one button, on the General tab, clears every preference above without touching your account, bookmarks, or progress.

Your Account

Logging in is optional, not a wall. Reading, search, bookmarks, review, progress, and drawing on notes all work without ever creating an account, everything stays in this browser by default.

Logging in (email and password, no social login) adds two things: it syncs your bookmarks, review progress, and assistant conversations across devices, and it unlocks the AI-backed research tools (Search the web, Ask Gemini, Related resources, Translate), since those cost real money to run per request. The first time you log in on a device that already has guest progress on it, nothing gets thrown away, it merges into your account automatically.

For Developers

  • Every note is also available as plain JSON, no key or account required, meant for scripts and AI agents that want the actual markdown rather than scraped HTML. Documented at /api.
  • An RSS feed lists the most recently updated notes, for anyone who wants to follow along outside the site itself.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Ctrl/Cmd + K
Open the command palette, from any page.
/
Focus the header search box.
Esc
Close whichever panel, modal, or search dropdown is currently open.

The secondary panel and Study Canvas's dividers can also be resized with ←/→ once you've clicked to focus them directly, a small power-user detail rather than a global shortcut.

Something on this page wrong, or a feature that isn't behaving the way it's described here? Open an issue, or read more about the project itself on the About page.