Use Your Private Scratchpad
Scratchpad is a private writing space for material that is not ready for a card, comment, or shared note. Use it for meeting prep, personal todos, rough drafts, reminders, pasted screenshots, and temporary research.
Only you can open your Scratchpad. Each organisation has a separate set of pages, so changing the active organisation also changes the Scratchpad you see.
Open and close Scratchpad
Select the Scratchpad button in the app header. You can also use:
- Ctrl+Shift+. on Windows or Linux.
- Command+Shift+. on macOS.
On desktop, Scratchpad becomes a resizable column on the right. The page underneath stays interactive, so you can read a board, card, report, or Home while writing.
Drag the Scratchpad's left edge to change its width. Close it when you want the full app width again.
Work with pages
A Scratchpad can hold up to 50 pages.
- Select New page to add one.
- Rename a page from its menu or by double-clicking its tab.
- Drag tabs into a new order. The page menu also provides keyboard and touch-friendly move actions.
- Select the search control beside the tabs to find a page by name.
- Delete a page from its menu when the temporary material is no longer useful.
Scratchpad saves changes as you type. The header briefly shows the save state, and Kanera keeps a browser draft so interrupted work can be recovered.
Add formatted content and files
The editor supports headings, emphasis, lists, checklists, links, code, quotes, emoji, and images. You can also:
- Paste a screenshot.
- Drag a file into the editor.
- Use the image control to upload a file.
Scratchpad attachments count toward the organisation's storage allowance, just like card and Note attachments.
Open Scratchpad in its own tab
Select Open scratchpad in a new tab when you want a focused writing window. The same pages and autosaved content remain available, and Dock the scratchpad back in the app returns it to the main app.
Use Scratchpad on a narrow screen
At narrow widths, Scratchpad becomes a bottom sheet instead of reducing the app to a small column. Drag its top handle to change the sheet height. The app remains visible above it.
Scratchpad compared with Notes
| Need | Scratchpad | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Visibility | Private to you, including from organisation administrators | Personal in My notes, or shared in Team |
| Location | Available throughout the active organisation | Belongs to a workspace or board |
| Organisation | Named tabs, with up to 50 pages | Nested page tree |
| Best for | Work in progress, meeting prep, reminders, and temporary material | Durable project context, processes, decisions, and team documentation |
| Discovery | Page-name finder inside Scratchpad | Kanera search, note links, and card backlinks |
| Integrations | Not exposed through the public API or MCP | Available through the public API and MCP, subject to access |
Move useful outcomes into a card, comment, or Note when the material becomes part of the team's work or long-term reference.
Privacy boundaries
Scratchpad pages are not included in organisation activity, global search, the public API, or MCP. Other sessions signed in as you can receive your saved updates, but another member or organisation administrator cannot open your pages.
Troubleshooting
| Problem | What to check |
|---|---|
| Scratchpad is empty | Confirm that you are in the organisation where you created the pages. |
| A change says Not saved | Check the connection, keep the page open, and try another edit after reconnecting. |
| A pasted image fails | Check the file type, file-size limit, and organisation storage allowance. |
| You cannot add another page | Delete an unused page. A Scratchpad holds up to 50 pages. |