🎉 Arky 1.0 is Here

The new Arky looks familiar, but it's effectively a brand-new product. We threw out every external framework we used to depend on and rebuilt from the ground up. Faster, lighter, and ready for what comes next.

Read the full story in Introducing Arky 1.0.

🎨 A New Interface

The old Arky had an inset feel, like everything was carved into the screen. The new one floats. Each element sits lightly on the background. We tuned the visual language for what's coming next: PDFs and web pages floating on the canvas as references, AI chat surfacing in the center, and more.

🧭 Smoother Canvas

Heavier workloads

You can pile a lot of material onto the canvas and keep working without things grinding to a halt.

Snap

When you move things around the canvas, alignment guides now show up as you approach the same height as another object, and snap into place automatically. We also added helpers for the gaps between objects.

👥 Collaboration

You can now invite your team at the workspace level to share and organize content together. We thought through collaboration scenarios more carefully this time around, so working with teammates feels smoother.

🤖 Better AI

Skills (Beta)

The AI can now use skills. On top of the Skill presets Arky ships with, you can write your own instructions for transforming or organizing content, and trigger them with a slash.

Local files (Beta)

Download the Arky desktop app and Arky AI can read and work with files on your local machine.

📤 New Ways to Export

A new export option called Visualize. Based on what you've written, Arky generates visual artifacts: 1-pagers, slide decks for reports, and more. Pick the format (scroll, A4, 16:9) and either share via the web or download.

The context you built inside Arky doesn't have to stay there. It can become whatever final output you need.

🔌 MCP — Both Directions

Open Settings → MCP to wire Arky into the Model Context Protocol ecosystem — both as a client and as a server.

Connect external tools to Arky

Plug in Notion, Linear, or any MCP server. Once connected, the AI in Arky chat can search, read, and (where supported) update those workspaces while it answers you — no copy-paste, no context switch.

Ask "pull my open Linear issues for this milestone" or "find the onboarding spec in Notion" and the agent goes straight to the source.

Expose Arky to other AI clients

Arky is also an MCP server. Copy the MCP endpoint URL, paste it into Claude Desktop, Cursor, or any MCP-aware client, and that client signs in and reads/edits your Arky data.

Build dashboards, run agents, or pipe Arky into your own tooling — your shells, snapshots, and notes are first-class citizens for any agent you use.

Read Arky right inside Claude

Add the Arky MCP URL as a connector in Claude and your shells, snapshots, and notes become searchable from any Claude conversation. Ask Claude to summarize a project, draft from a snapshot, or pull up a note you wrote yesterday — all without leaving the chat.

📄 Read PDFs Side-by-Side

Upload PDFs from the Attachments tab in the right sidebar. Click an uploaded PDF to open it in a side viewer — read the source while you write in the main canvas.

Highlight any passage to mark the parts you care about.

Drag text or images from the PDF and drop them onto the canvas to paste them straight into your document. Drop a selection into chat to ask the AI about it on the spot.

A blue citation link is automatically appended right after each drop — click it to jump back to the original location in the PDF.

🧠 A Smarter Arky Agent

The AI now understands the content across your relevant projects.

• AI searches other projects or the web to find exactly what you need.
• Even in long conversations, it summarizes on its own so it never loses context.
• It uses arrows and sections to help keep your content organized.
• You can also mention(@) a project directly to reference it.

Use AI directly from your workspace

• Get summaries across multiple projects without opening each one.
• Pull content from the web to build a new project on the canvas — or have it organize your growing list of projects into folders.

Try the Arky Agent — it knows your knowledge base and gets smarter with every use!

🎨 Generate Images (Beta)

When you need a visual while you write, ask the AI to create one! Just drag and drop it onto the canvas.

📄 PDF Export

You can now export your content not just as Markdown or Word, but as PDF as well. The PDF downloads exactly as it appears in document view.

Customizable export styles are in the works — stay tuned!

✨ Editing Experience Improvements

Superscript & Subscript Support

You can now use superscript and subscript formatting in your documents!

Character & Word Count

Check the character and word count for your current shell — just click the ... button in the top right corner. You can switch between character count and word count in Settings - Preferences.

Tablet Touchpad Support

Arky now works on tablets like iPad and Galaxy Book. We're also working on a dedicated app — coming soon!

'Add to Chat' Shortcut Update

We've updated the shortcut to Cmd(Ctrl) + J to avoid conflicts with existing web browser shortcuts.

Welcome to Open Beta! Over the past three months during our Closed Beta, we've been heads down fixing bugs and refining features. This update focuses on logical visualization — richer ways to represent your thoughts and related information on the canvas.

🔗 Connecting with Arrows

We've added the arrow connection feature that many of you have requested. Draw arrows between shells to express relationships, and AI can now understand these connections to provide more relevant answers.

🤖 Create Diagrams with AI (Beta)

Attach your content to AI and have it create appropriate diagrams. For example, you can generate a Sankey diagram to visualize how a company makes and spends money during a business analysis.

🧠 Mind Map View: See Your Structure at a Glance (Beta)

When you're organizing content, sometimes you just want to zoom out and see the big picture. Now you can visualize your entire project's Shell structure as a mind map! Double-click any node to jump straight to that Shell.

We're also working on letting you edit directly from the mind map view.

📂 Organize by Category with Sections

Create sections to organize content by category. Use sections when a Shell becomes too long, or when you want to categorize without adding hierarchical depth.

🔗 Mention External Links, Projects, or Shells

You can now mention other projects or shells using the @ key. Paste external links to display them as inline blocks. All referenced content can be viewed together in the References tab in the right sidebar.

👥 Real-time Sharing & Collaboration (Alpha)

Invite colleagues or friends to Arky to share document content in real-time or collaborate together. Share via link or send an email invitation to existing Arky users. Shared projects can be found in the Shared tab of your workspace.

Real-time collaborative editing is in Alpha, so occasional sync delays or conflicts may occur. We'll continue improving stability based on your feedback.

✨ Other Updates

• You can now copy and paste Markdown seamlessly into Arky.
• You can open multiple AI chat tabs, with each conversation saved separately.
• You can now import your Notion page via ZIP export.
• Arky now supports LaTeX equations for notes and documents.
• Your last viewing position is now remembered when switching document views.
• You can now add captions to images on the canvas.
• Improved checkbox behavior and reliability.
• Blockquotes are now more stable and easier to use.

🔍 Global Search is Now Available!

Now you can navigate anywhere instantly. Just press Cmd (Ctrl) + K or Cmd (Ctrl) + P to find other projects or specific content anytime, with ease.

🎨 Added Shortcut for Recent Colors

Highlighting text is now smoother than ever. Simply select your text to apply your most recently used color with Cmd + Shift + H (The default is a classic yellow highlighter!)

🗂️ Expand Everything in List View!

Now you can view all sub-items directly in the List View.

Simply click the folder icon to expand specific folders, or use the button next to Title to expand or collapse all items at once.

🖥️ The Desktop App is Here!

• Now you can use Arky without a web browser.
• We support both macOS and Windows.

Download the app now for a faster, seamless Arky experience!

You can also download it by clicking the button in the top-left corner or at this link.

🧠 AI Just Got Smarter!

New Features

• AI Agent: The AI can now create and edit content on the canvas directly.

• Attached Context: Attached shells or blocks are now displayed as chips above each message.

Model Updates: Goodbye, Gemini 2.5 Flash

We are discontinuing support for Gemini 2.5 Flash.

Try GPT 5.1 Instant instead! It delivers faster, higher-quality responses.

👀 More Workspace Views

• Layout Options: Choose your preferred view on the dashboard: Grid, List, or Column.

💬 Improved Shell Dragging Logic

We heard your feedback that dragging shells on the canvas often caused child content to detach unintentionally.

Now, dragging a shell keeps all its nested content intact, making it much easier to reorganize your canvas.

✨ What Else is New

• You can view our Roadmap directly in Settings.

• We've added a new page dedicated to Feedback and Feature Requests.

• Image Zoom: Double-click any image in the editor to view it in full size.

🐛 Bug Fixes & Improvements

• Fixed an issue where keyboard shortcuts were conflicting on macOS.
• Enabled horizontal scrolling on the canvas using Shift + Scroll on Windows.
• Added a prompt message if you try to proceed without selecting an AI model.

1. AI Model Updates

You can now use the smarter AI models GPT-5.1 and Gemini 3 (preview).

2. Design Improvements

• Dashboard cards now look cleaner and more polished.
• The cursor design on the canvas has been updated for a smoother editing experience.

3. Interaction Improvements

• You can now add images with simple drag and drop.

4. Language (Korean)

• We updated a few parts that weren't translated before.

5. Other Bug Fixes & Improvements

• Overall performance is now faster.
• You can now check your server connection status from the top-left corner.
• The login screen has been redesigned.
• Back-swipe gestures no longer interrupt your work on the project screen.
• After logging in, you'll safely return to the page you were viewing.
• Fixed an issue where deleted projects were still accessible.

Hi everyone!

We're kicking off our official changelog to keep you updated on what's new in Arky.

If you're signed up for Arky, you'll get our updates by email. And you can unsubscribe anytime.

We're still in closed beta for now, aiming to move into open beta once we hit the quality bar we're shooting for. That'll likely be around late this year or early next year.

Thanks so much for using Arky.

Minseo from Arky