Idea discovery

Every time you save a note with transcribed text, Surfc runs it through an AI model that looks for conceptual connections. Within a few seconds, it suggests which Ideas the note is most likely related to.

This is idea discovery — the AI doing the first pass of indexing so you don't have to.

How it works

After transcription, the AI reads your note text and compares it against the full set of Ideas available in your account: the idea canon plus any custom ideas you've created.

It returns a set of suggestions, ranked by confidence. A note about a legal trial might come back with Justice, Law, and Punishment. A note about muscle memory in pianists might surface Habit, Art, and Knowledge.

The AI is reading for conceptual content, not just keywords. A note that never uses the word "justice" can still be tagged Justice if the underlying argument is about it.

Reviewing suggestions

Suggestions appear as chips beneath the note text. They are applied to your note by default — tap any chip to remove one you don't want. Whatever chips remain when you tap Save become the note's idea tags.

If the AI surfaces Religion for a note that's tangentially about ritual but really about Habit, tap Religion to remove it. The suggestions are a starting point, not a verdict.

When to override

The AI is good but not infallible. It works best on:

• Transcribed prose (book passages, essays)
• Clear conceptual arguments
• Longer notes (more signal to work with)

It works less well on:

• Very short captures ("interesting — revisit", "see p. 47 for counterargument")
• Highly technical content outside the humanities
• Notes that depend on context the AI doesn't have (your personal shorthand, a running thread across several books)

For these, skip the suggestions and tag manually. You know your reading better than the model does.

Usage limits

Idea discovery uses an AI call for each note. Your plan includes a monthly allowance for AI features — transcription and idea discovery each have their own counter, so hitting the limit on one doesn't affect the other.

If you hit a limit, you can still capture and save notes — you just tag Ideas manually until the quota resets. Your notes are never blocked from being saved.

Running out of quota?

Consider setting aside a session to review a batch of recently captured notes at once — this is often more useful than tagging in the moment anyway, since you've had time to think about connections.

See Tiers & Quotas for details on your plan's limits and how to upgrade.

---

You've completed the Getting Started series. Your next reads:

• Sync, offline & multi-device — how notes travel across your devices
• Tiers & Quotas — what's included in each plan
• Export & data ownership — getting your notes out of Surfc