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An index card is a single idea. It holds a short piece of text you wrote, a compact AI-generated header that names the idea, and a topic tag that links it to neighboring cards. Index cards live in the Explore sub-tab of Outline mode and form the raw material for your plan and eventual draft.

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Anatomy of a card

Each card has four visible parts: The header is generated automatically. You do not need to name your ideas yourself, though you can edit the header text after it appears.

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Card statuses

After you submit a note, Dear moves the card through three statuses before it is ready to use:
1

Fetching header

Dear has sent your note to the AI and is waiting for a response. The header area shows a loading indicator.
2

Typing header

The header is streaming in character by character. You can already read a partial label.
3

Ready

The header is complete and the card is fully usable — reorderable, editable, and available for the outline plan.

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Topic grouping

When a card is generated, Dear determines whether it belongs to the same topic as the card above it. Cards with the same topic as their predecessor are displayed with a visual connection that helps you see clusters of related ideas at a glance. Topic tags and grouping are assigned by the AI based on the meaning of each card’s text. They update when you reorder cards.
The topic connection indicator is absent on the very first card in a document, since there is no preceding card to compare against.

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Adding cards

You can add cards in three ways from the Explore sub-tab:
  • Type — write a short note in the staging area and submit it.
  • Talk — use live transcription to speak your idea aloud; Dear converts the transcript into a card automatically.
  • Import — paste a block of text; Dear splits it into cards.
Each submission creates one or more cards. Dear fetches the header and topic tag immediately after each card is created.

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Editing cards

Click the text of any card to edit it inline. Changes you make to the card text do not automatically regenerate the header — the header reflects what the card contained when it was first submitted. If you substantially rewrite a card, you can trigger a fresh header by clearing and resubmitting the card.

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Reordering cards

Drag a card to a new position in the list. Card order matters: the outline plan and Stitch both use the sequence of cards as they appear in Explore. When you reorder, the topic connection indicators update to reflect the new neighbors.
Group related cards together before you switch to the Outline sub-tab. The plan Dear generates will be more coherent if cards on the same subject are already adjacent.

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How cards become a draft

When you are ready to draft, switch to the Outline sub-tab, review the plan, and click Send plan to Write. Stitch converts your ordered cards into heading and body blocks on the Write canvas. See Outline and Write for the full picture.