Living Doc widget

A Living Doc is a document you never have to write. You tell it what to keep track of, in a sentence called the brief, and it reads everything else on the desk and writes a short summary against that brief. As you add notes, fill in tables or record voice notes, it rewrites the summary so it stays current.

Use it when a desk holds a lot of material and you want one place that says where things stand: a running summary of a project, the decisions made so far, the open questions, or a status update you could share.

More about this widget Coming soon

Before you start

• The Living Doc is on every plan.
• You need a desk open to add one.
• It uses AI. Sign in to use your PlexiDesk AI credits, or add your own Anthropic key in Settings > AI. See AI settings.
• It summarises what is on the desk, so add your notes, files, tables or other widgets first, or add them as you go.

Add a Living Doc

1. Open the desk you want summarised.
2. Click Add widget in the centre of the header.
3. Click Living Doc.

The Add widget menu groups widgets into columns by what they are for. Living Doc is in the Write & capture column, with Sticky, Note, Markdown, Page, Voice note and Card. You can also type living in the search box at the top of the menu and press Enter to add it.

A new Living Doc is 500 × 400. It opens on a short setup screen headed A doc that writes itself.

Other ways to add one

• Command palette. Press ⌘ K on a Mac or Ctrl K on Windows, type living and choose Add Living Doc.
• Tool rail. Rest the pointer on the tool rail at the right of the desk so it opens, then click its Add widget button. Expand Advanced to find Living Doc, or type living in the search box. See The tool rail on the right of a desk.
• Right-click the desk. Right-click an empty part of the desk and choose Add object > Advanced > Living Doc. It appears where you clicked.

Living Doc has no single-key shortcut.

Start it

1. Click in the box on the setup screen. It suggests e.g. a running summary of everything on this task.
2. Type your brief: what you want the document to keep track of.
3. Click Start living doc, or press Enter.

The Living Doc reads the desk and writes its first summary straight away. From then on it keeps it up to date by itself.

What you see

• The bar along the top shows a sparkle, then your brief. When automatic updates are paused, the word paused appears after it.
• Pause auto-updates (the pause button) stops automatic updates. While paused, it becomes Resume auto-updates (the play button).
• Regenerate now (the circular arrow) writes a fresh summary straight away. It spins while it works.
• The document fills the rest of the widget. It is read-only, but you can select and copy its text.

Any message from the Living Doc, such as a reason it could not write a summary, appears in a strip just under the bar.

Write a good brief

The brief decides what the summary is for. A specific brief gives a more useful summary than a general one. Some examples:

• A running summary of everything on this task.
• The decisions made so far, and who owns each next step.
• Open questions, grouped by topic.
• A short status update I could send to the team.
• Risks and blockers, most urgent first.

To change the brief, click it in the bar, edit it, then press Enter or click anywhere else. The Living Doc writes a new summary straight away. Press Esc to leave the brief as it was.

What it reads

Each time it writes, the Living Doc reads:

• the desk's name and notes,
• the text of every other widget on the desk, such as stickies, notes, pages, cards, table rows, documents and voice-note transcripts.

It does not read other Living Docs or living pages, so two summaries on one desk never summarise each other.

The summary is written only from what is on the desk. It uses headings, bullet points and to-do items where they help, and can name the widgets it drew on in bold, so you can find the source. If the desk does not hold enough to answer the brief, it is asked to say so rather than guess.

How it keeps up to date

• When you change something on the desk, the Living Doc waits until the desk has been quiet for about 45 seconds, then writes a new summary. This means it does not rewrite after every keystroke.
• It writes no more than once every 90 seconds, however much is changing.
• It follows changes made while the desk is open in PlexiDesk.
• When it is paused, it waits until you click Regenerate now or Resume auto-updates.
• Regenerate now works at any time, paused or not.

You can also right-click the Living Doc and choose Regenerate now.

Right-click menu

Right-click the Living Doc to see Regenerate now at the top, followed by the menu every widget shares. AI Assist is not offered on a Living Doc, because its text is rewritten by the document itself. See Right-click menus.

The title bar

Rest the pointer on the Living Doc to show its title bar. There you can rename the widget, pin it to a corner of the screen, open it larger or in focus mode, and remove it. See The controls on every widget.

If something goes wrong

• It says there is no source material yet. The desk has nothing else on it to summarise. Add some notes, files or pages, then click Regenerate now.
• It says no AI key is set. Sign in to use your PlexiDesk AI credits, or add your own Anthropic key in Settings > AI, then click Regenerate now. See AI settings.
• It has not changed after an edit. Check that the bar does not say paused. Otherwise wait about a minute, or click Regenerate now.
• It misses something. Make sure the material is on this desk, not another one, and try a more specific brief.

Living Doc or a living Page?

A Page widget can also become a living summary with Make living. Choose a Living Doc when you want a dedicated summary from the start. Choose a living Page when you might later want to stop the updates and edit the text yourself, because a Page can be turned back into an ordinary page. See Keep a living summary of a desk.

To have an agent write a summary into a page on every change or at a set interval, use a Desk agent instead. See Keep a running summary with a desk agent Coming soon.

Good uses

• Project status at a glance. Brief it with "Where this project stands, and what happens next", and put it at the top of the desk.
• Meeting follow-up. Keep meeting notes and voice notes on one desk, with a Living Doc briefed to list decisions and action items.
• Research digest. Collect pages, files and notes on a topic, and brief a Living Doc to pull out the main findings and open questions.
• Handover. Before you hand a desk to someone else, brief a Living Doc to explain the desk to a newcomer.

Common questions

Can I edit the summary? No. The Living Doc rewrites it each time, so it is read-only. To keep a version you can edit, select the text, copy it, and paste it into a Page or Note.

Does it update while I am on another desk? It follows changes made while its desk is open. When you come back, click Regenerate now to bring it up to date straight away.

Can I have more than one on a desk? Yes. Give each one a different brief, for example one for decisions and one for open questions. They do not read each other.

How do I stop it for good? Pause it, or remove it from the desk. If you want an editable copy, copy the text into a Page or Note first.

Related tasks

• Keep a living summary of a desk
• Write and capture widgets
• Page widget
• Voice note widget
• Keep a running summary with a desk agent Coming soon
• AI settings