Shortcuts

Shortcuts save filter expressions for quick reuse. They are useful when you repeatedly open the same slice of your memos, such as work items, incomplete tasks, or recent public posts.

Create a shortcut

Shortcuts are created and managed on the dedicated Shortcuts page, which you open from the shortcuts section of the home sidebar.

1. open the Shortcuts page and choose Create shortcut
2. give the shortcut a clear title
3. enter a filter expression
4. choose Validate to dry-run the expression — this checks the filter without saving, so you catch typos before committing
5. Save the shortcut

Title and filter are both required, and an invalid expression is rejected on save.

Saved shortcuts appear in the shortcuts section of the home sidebar. Select one to apply its filter to your memo list; the active filter also syncs to the URL, so you can bookmark or share the resulting view. You can also start a new shortcut straight from an active filter — the form opens prefilled with the current expression.

Edit and delete shortcuts

The Shortcuts page lists every saved shortcut with its title and filter. Each row has a menu to:

• Edit — load the shortcut back into the form to change its title or filter
• Delete — remove a shortcut you no longer use, after a confirmation step

Filter expression syntax

Shortcuts use CEL (Common Expression Language) filter expressions. A shortcut filter must evaluate to true for memos you want included.

Supported fields

Operators and functions

• comparisons: ==, !=, <, <=, >, >=
• logic: &&, ||, !, and parentheses ()
• membership: tag in ["work", "team"], "project/backend" in tags, visibility in ["PUBLIC", "PROTECTED"]
• string functions: contains(), startsWith(), endsWith(), and matches()
• collection functions: exists(), all(), exists_one(), and size()
• set functions: sets.contains(), sets.intersects(), and sets.equivalent()
• time values: now, duration("24h"), and timestamp(...)

Boolean fields can be used directly without == true:

pinned && has_incomplete_tasks

Tag matching

Use tag in [...] when you want to match one or more tag trees:

tag in ["work"]
tag in ["project", "team"]

tag in ["project"] also matches nested tags such as project/backend.

Use tags.exists() for more specific tag patterns:

tags.exists(t, t.startsWith("archive"))
tags.exists(t, t.endsWith("/bug"))
tags.exists(t, t.contains("todo"))

Other collection predicates and set operations are also available:

tags.all(t, t.startsWith("work/"))
tags.exists_one(t, t.startsWith("project/"))
sets.intersects(tags, ["work", "urgent"])
sets.equivalent(tags, ["inbox"])
size(tags) == 0

tags.all() matches only non-empty tag sets. Use size(tags) == 0 when you specifically want untagged memos.

String matching

Content matching is case-insensitive for contains(), startsWith(), and endsWith():

content.contains("meeting")
content.startsWith("TODO")
content.endsWith("done")

Use matches() for regular expressions:

content.matches("v[0-9]+")

Regular expressions are validated before a shortcut is saved. Keep patterns portable: SQLite, PostgreSQL, and MySQL use different regular-expression engines.

Time-based filters

created_ts and updated_ts are CEL timestamps. now is a timestamp variable, not a function. Use durations for relative windows and timestamp() for fixed instants or Unix epoch seconds:

created_ts >= now - duration("1h")
created_ts >= now - duration("168h")
updated_ts >= timestamp("2026-01-01T00:00:00Z")
created_ts >= timestamp(1767225600)

Timestamp accessors support calendar filters:

created_ts.getFullYear() == 2026
created_ts.getMonth() == 0
created_ts.getDayOfWeek() == 0
created_ts.getMonth() == now.getMonth() && created_ts.getDate() == now.getDate()

Months are zero-based (0 is January), and days of the week are zero-based (0 is Sunday). Accessors are evaluated in UTC for SQLite and PostgreSQL; MySQL reads timestamp columns in the database session time zone.

Example shortcuts

Good shortcut patterns

• incomplete tasks for one project
• pinned or high-signal memos
• public notes you review before sharing
• recent memos from a time window
• resource collections with links or attachments

Management tips

• keep names short and obvious
• delete stale shortcuts you no longer use
• update filters when your tag vocabulary changes
• prefer a few durable shortcuts over dozens of narrow one-off views

Limits to remember

Shortcuts are personal workflow tools. They are most useful on the home view and should reflect how you naturally revisit content rather than every theoretical filter you could build.

Memos supports a deliberate subset of CEL that can be translated consistently to SQLite, MySQL, and PostgreSQL. Use the Validate action before saving; it reports unsupported fields, type mismatches, invalid regular expressions, and operations that cannot be translated.