User Guide

Get a board going

Five moves take you from blank canvas to a connected, sourced board.

1. Start a case file. Ctrl+N, name it, pick a folder. Redstrings creates a .redstrings project folder to hold everything.
2. Drop in evidence. Drag a photo or document straight from your file manager onto the board and it becomes a card. Or press N to add a card by hand.
3. Say what each card is. Select it and fill in the panel on the right: a subtitle, notes, and a source (every claim gets one).
4. String them together. Select a card, hold Shift, and drag from it onto another card. The string lands with its label open for editing: keep the suggested relationship or type your own, then press Enter.
5. Rate how sure you are. Select the string and set it to Confirmed, Suspected, or Uncertain. The line itself changes to show it.

Redstrings saves as you go. There is no Save command: the board writes to its.redstring file about a second after you stop making changes.

Tradecraft

The moves that aren't obvious from looking at the screen.

• Drop files straight from your computer. Drag photos or documents onto the board and each one becomes its own card, named after the file. (Desktop app only.)
• String without moving the card. Select a card, then hold Shift and drag off it. The card stays put while a connector rubber-bands out to your target.
• Duplicate as you drag. Hold Alt and drag a card to peel off a copy and place it in one motion.
• Tilt a card. Drag the pin at the top of a selected card to cock it at an angle, the cork-board look. Ctrl+Shift+C straightens the whole wall at once.
• The arrow keys walk your strings. They don't jump by position. They follow the actual connections from card to relationship to card. Shift+arrow steps between the relationships on one card, and Shift+< / Shift+> do the same with less reach.
• Confidence is woven into the string. Tighter dashes mean more certain. It's readable at a glance, without a legend.
• Pin a label anywhere. Drag a relationship's label along the string to park it. Right-click it and choose Reset Position to send it back to the middle. Double-click the label to rename the relationship in place.
• Fork a string. Hold Shift and drag from the line of an existing string onto a third card. Choose whether to extend the same relationship to that card or hang a new, separately labelled one off it.
• Nest a board inside a board. Press N and pick Board to pin another board onto this one. Double-click the pin, or press Ctrl+↓, to walk in; Ctrl+↑ brings you back up.
• Flip a relationship. In the panel, click the arrow between the two card names to reverse which way it points.
• Edit right on the card. Double-click a card's title, subtitle, or notes to edit in place; Tab moves to the next field.
• Tab into the panel. With the side panel open, Tab drops your cursor straight into its first field, so your hands stay on the keyboard.

Case files & boards

A project (the app calls it a case file) is a folder that ends in.redstrings. Inside it you can keep as many boards as you like, organized into folders and sub-boards. All boards in a project share the same node types, relationships, and presets.

How do I start or open a project?

• New: Ctrl+N, or File → New Project…, or "Start a new one" on the empty file browser. Pick a location; Redstrings builds the .redstrings folder.
• Open: Ctrl+O, or File → Open Project…, or "Open a case file." Point it at a .redstrings folder. It also opens single .redstring board files and older .json saves.
• Your last project reopens automatically next time you launch.

How do I manage boards?

Toggle the File Browser with Ctrl+B. Its header has buttons for New Folder, New Board, and Refresh. Right-click for everything else:

Drag boards and folders to reorganize them. Sub-boards nest under their parent board and expand with the chevron. Deleting asks you to type the exact name to confirm, so nothing goes by accident. Files live as plain .redstring (JSON) on your disk; images and documents you attach are copied into the project folder, so a project is self-contained and portable.

How do I put a board inside a board?

A pinned board is a card on the canvas that opens another board in the same project. It looks like a small framed board with a name tab. There are four ways to pin one:

• Press N and pick Board under "Notes & boards", then choose which board it opens.
• Right-click empty canvas and choose New Sub-board… to create a fresh board and pin it in one step. Undo removes both.
• Right-click empty canvas and choose Pin Board to drop an empty pin, then pick its board in the side panel.
• Right-click a board in the File Browser and choose Pin to Open Board.

Pins are a fixed size. Each board remembers its own zoom and position, so walking in and back out lands you where you left off.

How is my work saved?

Automatically. There is no Save command. The board writes to its.redstring file about a second after you stop making changes, and inspector fields commit a fraction of a second after you stop typing (a small Saving / Saved indicator shows the state). Export Project is a separate snapshot for sharing or backup, not a save. Switching away from a board with unsaved work prompts you first.

Reload is disabled on purpose (Ctrl+R and F5 do nothing) so you can't lose work to an accidental refresh. To step back, use Undo (Ctrl+Z).

Add cards

Cards (internally, "nodes") are the things on your board: a person, a team, a document, an event, a place, or a note.

How do I add one?

• Press N (or Insert / Ctrl+Space while the canvas has focus)
• Double-click empty canvas, or right-click it and choose New Card
• Use Card → New Card… in the menu bar
• Drop a file from your computer (see Photos, files & links)

Any of these opens New Card at that spot: pick a type from theCards grid, type a name (it starts as "Untitled"), and confirm. Once a project has more than ten card types the grid scrolls and a filter box appears above it. The Notes & boards row holds the sticky Noteand the Board pin. Esc closes the dialog.

The built-in types

Each type carries a color and an icon so you can read the board at a glance.

Whether a card carries a photo, a file, or a link is a per-type setting (see Photos, files & links): Person and Place default to a photo, and every other built-in type starts plain. The Note type is special: a plain annotation with no subtitle, source, or relationships, and it connects to other cards with golden yarn instead of a string. It does not appear in the Card Types settings because there is nothing on it to configure. You can add your own types and change any of these under Types, colors & themes.

Photos, files & links

What a card can carry is set on its type, underSettings → Card Types: an Attachment mode of None, Photo, or File, plus an Allow URL toggle. Person and Place default to Photo; the rest default to None with no URL. Change a type once and every card of that type follows.

How do I attach a photo or file?

1. Select the card. The right panel shows a Photos or Files section.
2. Click Add Photo / Add File to pick from disk. Photo cards accept images only (PNG, JPG, GIF, WebP, BMP, TIFF); file cards take anything.
3. Already imported something? Use Attach existing… to reuse an asset without importing it twice. You can also bulk-import under Settings → Assets with Upload files.

A card can hold several attachments. Files are copied into the project folder, not just linked, so nothing breaks if you move the original. Click a filename to open it in your default app. Adding a photo grows the card so the image is visible. The first photo is the one the card shows (the panel marks it On card); switch it between Crop and Fit to fill the card or show the whole image.

Importing needs a saved project. If you started on a fresh, unsaved board, save it as a project first and the attachment buttons come alive.

How do I drop files onto the board?

Drag photos or documents from your file manager onto the canvas. Each one lands as a new card at the drop point, named after the file; drop several and they cascade so they don't stack. Images become photo cards, everything else becomes a file card. If a file with the same name is already in the project, Redstrings asks before replacing it. Drag-and-drop is a desktop-app feature.

First-time gotcha: a dropped file needs to know which card type to become. Set that once in Settings → Card Types: open a Photo or File type, click its ⚙ More options, and choose Make default Photo Node /Make default File Node. Until a default is set, a drop tells you to set one first. (Customizing card types is a Pro feature.)

How do I add a link?

Turn on Allow URL for the card's type first (Settings → Card Types). The inspector then shows a URL and an optionalURL Label. Enter an http / https address, and the card shows a link chip with the label (or the domain); click it to open. One link per card.

Fill in a card

Select a card and the panel on the right, the inspector, holds everything about it. Every field autosaves; a small indicator shows when it's saved.

How do I edit without the panel?

Double-click a card's title, subtitle, or notes to edit right on the card. Tab /Shift+Tab move between title, subtitle, and notes. Enter saves a title or subtitle; in notes, Enter saves and Shift+Enter starts a new line; Esc cancels. With a card selected but not in edit mode,F2 jumps into the title and Enter opens the inspector.

What the card shows

A card is a compact view of what's inside. It carries a small colored type badge, an Open details button (the panel icon) that opens the inspector without starting an edit, and a folded corner mark when it holds notes (double-click the mark to edit them). If the card has attachments it shows the first one as a photo, a file chip (name and size), or a link chip; click it to open the asset or URL, and open the inspector to see the rest. Make a cardtaller with the resize handle to reveal its photo and a short notes preview; very short cards hide the subtitle.

Arrange the wall

A pasted group appears under the pointer. If the pointer is outside the board, it appears at the center of the visible canvas. Redstrings refuses to paste a group that cannot fit inside the board frame. Right-click a card or string selection to cut or copy it. Right-click empty canvas to paste it.

Relationships between copied cards go with the copied group.

Cards with photos or files can be pasted only in the project where you copied them. Undo restores a cut selection or removes a pasted group.

Board size & frame

Each board has an edge and a frame. Cards, decorations, and pinned string labels stay inside the board. You can pan a short distance beyond the edge. PressCtrl+0 to fit the full board in the canvas.

How do I change the size?

Open Board in the canvas toolbar. The Size menu shows only sizes that contain the current content. Select a size to place its frame around the content. Card and decoration positions do not change.

If a smaller size cannot contain the content, the menu does not offer it. Undo restores the previous size.

How do I change the frame?

Open Board, then select Frame. Hover or focus a frame to preview it. Click a frame to apply it. The frame changes the board appearance only.

Minimal and Kraft & tape are included. Pro adds Case file, Metal, Wood, and Light frame collections. Frame changes also support Undo.

Decorate the board

Decorations are visual marks that sit alongside your cards and strings: use them to group a cluster, call out a lead, or make the board read the way you think. They are saved with the board, and do not change your cards or relationships.

How do I add one?

In the canvas toolbar, open Decorate and choose Tape,Paper, or Text. Then place it on the board:

Each tool returns to Select after you place one. Press Esc to cancel a decoration tool without placing it.

How do I refine it?

Select a decoration to move it. Paper has corner handles for resizing; tape has end handles; text can be resized and rotated. Double-click text to edit it on the canvas, or press Enter with any decoration selected to open its panel. There you can choose a preset or custom color, send it behind other decorations or bring it forward, adjust text size, and delete it. Del also deletes the selected decoration.

Select several decorations at once and the panel edits them together; a field readsMixed until you set it. Ctrl+D duplicates selected text labels.

How do I stop moving them by accident?

Open Decorate and switch on Lock decorations. Locked decorations ignore clicks and drags, so a click on tape or paper goes straight through to the canvas or the card underneath. Switch it off to edit them again. The lock is saved with the project.

Connect with strings

Strings are the relationships between cards. There are four ways to make one:

A freshly drawn string opens its label for editing right on the canvas: pressEnter to keep the suggestion, or type another first. Redstrings suggests a label that fits the two types. A Person to a Team defaults to "reports to," a Person to an Artifact to "owns," and so on. Where nothing fits, the label starts as "relates to." A label cannot be empty.

How do I fork a string to a third card?

Hold Shift and drag from the line of an existing string onto another card. A small menu asks what you meant: extend the relationship to that card, so the same label now reaches every card it touches, or start a newrelationship with its own label that hangs off the first one. The panel lists every card a relationship reaches under Connected to, each with a disconnect button; disconnecting the last card deletes the relationship. Deleting a relationship that has branches deletes the branches too, after asking.

Working with a string

A relationship type can be marked mutual (⇆), so it reads both ways and shows no direction. Connections to a Note are golden yarn with no label, direction, or confidence. Just a tie.

Rate confidence

On an investigation board, every relationship also carries how sure you are. Select a string and use the Confidence control in the panel: three levels, saved on the spot. New strings start at the level set under Settings → Red Strings(Uncertain out of the box).

The certainty is in the rhythm of the line, not its color, so it survives whatever color you've given the string and reads at a glance without a key. If you turn on Reduce Motion, the animated dashes become a solid line with direction chevrons, and confidence shows as line thickness instead (thicker is more certain). Confidence also flows through to exports and AI analysis, grouped so you can separate what's proven from what's still a thread to pull.

Get around

The faint dot grid is a visual reference only; cards don't snap to it, and it fades out as you zoom far out.

Navigate by keyboard

With a card selected, the arrow keys move along your relationships, not by screen position. An arrow steps from a card to the relationship heading that way, then on to the card at the other end. Shift+arrow cycles through the relationships on the current card; Shift+< and Shift+> step through the same fan without reaching for the arrows. Press any arrow with nothing selected to start from the card nearest the center. The view auto-pans to keep your target on screen. Because navigation follows connections, a card with no strings sits still under the arrows; connect it first.

Tab moves focus into the side panel when it's open; with the panel closed it keeps focus on the selected card so the arrows keep working. Esc backs out one layer at a time: a decoration tool first, then the side panel, then the selection.

Pinned boards have their own keys: Ctrl+↓ walks into the selected pin's board and Ctrl+↑ returns to the parent.

Find anything

Press Ctrl+K (or Ctrl+F, the same box) to search the whole board. It looks across card names, subtitles, notes, sources, and tags, plus relationship labels and notes. Arrow through the results and press Enter to jump; the canvas centers on the match.

AI analysis Pro

Redstrings can reason over your board through Intelligence, a panel powered by your own Google Gemini key (bring-your-own-key). It's a Pro feature and it's off until you set it up. Once enabled, a brain button appears on the canvas to open it.

How do I set it up?

1. Open Settings → Gemini.
2. Get a key from Google AI Studio, paste it in, and Save Key (it's encrypted on your machine).
3. Pick a model, then Test Connection. Once it passes, flip the switch to enable AI.

How do I use it?

Open the panel and switch to Ask. Type any question about your board; with Include board context on (the default), your cards and strings go along with the question, and a selected card is sent as the focus. The empty state offers preset prompts (Write Narrative, Analyze Structure,Find Gaps, Key Players, Key Insights); these are defaults you can add to, edit, delete, or reset under Settings → Prompt Library. Each answer has Copy,Save, and a Report link for flagging bad output.

Reports

Any answer worth keeping, hit Save to store it as a Report inside the board. Reports keep the prompt and the response, travel with your project when you export it, and open again from the Saved Reports tab.

Your key and your board go straight to Google's Gemini API and nowhere else; Redstrings has no server in the middle. Redstrings also has an experimental local MCP server for working through a supported AI client. See below.

MCP server Pro · Experimental

The local MCP server lets a supported AI client, such as Claude or Cursor, work with the project you have open in Redstrings. The bundled server talks to the running app over standard input and output and a local loopback bridge on your machine; it does not send your board through a Redstrings server.

How do I connect a client?

1. Go to Settings → MCP Server and switch MCP on.
2. Click Copy configuration, then paste it into your MCP client's settings and restart or reconnect the client if it asks you to.
3. Open the project and board you want the agent to work on. That is the only project it can see.

The configuration carries no project path, so you set it up once. The agent always acts on whatever project and board are open in Redstrings and follows along when you switch. If Redstrings is closed, MCP is off, or no project or board is open, the agent gets an error that says which of those to fix.

What can it do?

Read tools see the live board, unsaved edits included: the board and a summary of it, a card with its relationships, search, the list of boards, the project tree, and the card types. Write tools create and edit boards, create project folders, move, rename, and re-parent boards and folders, pin a board onto another board or point a pin elsewhere, manage card types, attach a file to a card, and export a board image. Every write runs through the app's own commands, so it shows up on the canvas at once, autosaves as usual, and each batch is one Ctrl+Z step. Still, an AI client can change your project: review its work, and turn MCP off when you are done.

For a connected agent that can create a board from a brief or make an existing board easier to read, see Board Generation.

This feature is experimental. Client setup and tool support vary, so review the work while the agent is using your project.

Types, colors & themes Pro

Redstrings ships opinionated defaults; Pro lets you reshape them to your work.

Custom node & relationship types

Under Settings → Card Types you can add your own card types, rename them, set each type's Attachment mode and Allow URL, filter and drag to reorder them, and give each an icon and color. Per type you also define its Red Strings: the label, the target type, the color, whether it's directional or mutual, and which one is suggested first. Those definitions drive the label suggestions you get when connecting cards. Deleting a type that's in use lets you reassign its cards to another type first. The Note type is not listed here; it has nothing to configure.

Icon & color picker

Click a type's colored icon to open its appearance: 10 preset swatches plus a custom color, and a grid of 41 icons. Set it once and every card of that type follows.

Themes

Under Settings → Themes, choose a board theme: Dark (the free default), Cork Board, Midnight, Noir, or Blueprint.

Export & share

Before exporting the PNG, choose the Area (Full board or Current viewport), the Resolution (1×, 2×, or 3×; 2× is the default), and theBackground: the current board appearance, a solid color, or transparent.

The Markdown report includes a summary with counts, every card grouped by type (with subtitle, tags, notes, source, and its outgoing relationships and their confidence), and a full relationships table: From / Relationship / To / Confidence.

Settings

Open with Ctrl+, or the gear in the top-right. The sidebar splits into Free and Pro:

The menu bar's Help menu opens this guide (User Guide) and Send Feedback…, a link to the project's issue tracker. The File Browser's footer has the same guide link.

Right-click menus

Right-clicking is a shortcut to almost everything. It selects what's under the cursor first.

On Mac, Ctrl+click does not open the menu; use a right-click or two-finger click. ⌘+click is multi-select.

Every shortcut

On Mac, ⌘ replaces Ctrl and Option replaces Alt. This page is the reference; the app's Help menu links here. Single-key shortcuts like N, E, and Del pause while you're typing in a field.

Pro features

Free covers the whole core: unlimited boards and cards, all built-in types and relationships, confidence, search, keyboard navigation, board decorations, and .redstring export. Pro is a one-time purchase with no subscription through the app store you installed from, with Restore Purchase if you reinstall. It adds:

Project files stay on your computer by default. The core board works offline. Gemini analysis sends selected board content and your API key directly to Google when you run it. Web links, store purchases, and purchase restoration also use the internet.