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Create Your Account

Getting started with Cleve is simple and takes less than 2 minutes.

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1. Sign Up

Head over to app.cleve.ai and create your account. You can:
  • Sign up with Google for instant one-click setup
  • Use email and password for traditional authentication
  • Sign up with GitHub if you prefer developer-friendly auth
All authentication is powered by Clerk, ensuring enterprise-grade security.

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2. Complete Onboarding

After signing up, you’ll be guided through a quick onboarding flow that introduces you to:
  • The workspace layout with resizable panels
  • Your first writing creation
  • The AI chat assistant
  • Ideas for quick capture
  • Categories for organization
Don’t skip onboarding! It only takes 60 seconds and ensures you understand the core features.

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Understanding the Workspace

Cleve’s workspace is built with flexibility in mind using a dockable panel system.

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Main Areas

Writing Editor

The main canvas where you create and edit long-form content with rich text formatting.

AI Chat

Your context-aware assistant that can reference your writings and help you create content.

Ideas Panel

Quick-capture space for thoughts that aren’t yet full writings.

Categories Sidebar

Hierarchical organization system for grouping writings and collaborating with others.

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Panel Management

  • Resize panels by dragging the borders between them
  • Rearrange panels by dragging panel headers
  • Toggle panel visibility using the view menu
  • Enter zen mode (Cmd/Ctrl + \) to hide everything except your writing
Your layout preferences are saved automatically to browser storage and persist across sessions.

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Your First Actions

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Create Your First Writing

  1. Click the “New Writing” button in the sidebar (or press Cmd/Ctrl + N)
  2. Start typing in the editor—the first heading you create becomes the document title
  3. Use the formatting toolbar or keyboard shortcuts:
    • Cmd/Ctrl + B for bold
    • Cmd/Ctrl + I for italic
    • Cmd/Ctrl + K to insert a link
  4. Your work auto-saves every 750ms—no save button needed!

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Capture Your First Idea

  1. Open the Ideas panel from the sidebar
  2. Click “New Idea”
  3. Type a quick thought or snippet
  4. Press Enter to save
Ideas are perfect for:
  • Quick thoughts you want to remember
  • Quotes from articles or books
  • Unformed concepts that need more thinking
  • Voice notes transcribed to text

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Chat with the AI

  1. Open the AI Chat panel
  2. Select your preferred AI model (GPT-4, Claude, Gemini, etc.)
  3. Type a prompt like:
    • “Help me brainstorm ideas for a blog post about productivity”
    • “Summarize my writing titled ‘Project Ideas’”
    • “Create a LinkedIn post based on my latest writing”
  4. Watch the response stream in real-time
  5. Generated content appears in the Artifacts panel for easy copying
Free plan users get limited AI messages per month. Upgrade to Starter or Pro for more usage. See pricing.

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Organize with Categories

Categories work like folders but with collaboration superpowers.

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Creating Categories

  1. Right-click in the Categories sidebar
  2. Select “New Category”
  3. Name your category (e.g., “Blog Posts”, “Research Notes”, “Project Ideas”)
  4. Drag writings into categories to organize them

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Nested Categories

Create hierarchies for deeper organization: 
📁 Work
  📁 Client Projects
    📁 Acme Corp
  📁 Internal Documents
📁 Personal
  📁 Journal
  📁 Reading Notes

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Sharing Categories

  1. Right-click a category
  2. Select “Share”
  3. Enter collaborator email addresses
  4. Choose permission level:
    • Read: View only, cannot edit
    • Write: Full editing access
Collaborators will see shared categories in their sidebar with an avatar indicator.

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Keyboard-First Workflow

Cleve is designed for keyboard power users. Here are essential shortcuts to get started:
ActionShortcut
New writingCmd/Ctrl + N
SearchCmd/Ctrl + /
Toggle zen modeCmd/Ctrl + \
Save writingCmd/Ctrl + S
Bold textCmd/Ctrl + B
Italic textCmd/Ctrl + I
Insert linkCmd/Ctrl + K
See the complete keyboard shortcuts reference for the full list.

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What’s Next?

Now that you’ve set up your workspace, dive deeper into specific features:

Master the Writing Editor

Learn about auto-save, offline mode, document linking, and zen mode.

Unlock AI Chat Power

Discover context-aware prompts, model selection, and tools integration.

Search Like a Pro

Use full-text and semantic search to find anything instantly.

Collaborate with Teams

Share categories, manage permissions, and work together.

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Need Help?

Troubleshooting

Common issues and how to fix them.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions about Cleve.