Green Tea Documentation

Green Tea is a desktop notes app with a built-in AI agent. It’s designed for knowledge workers who want AI to help with writing, research, and automating repetitive tasks — without needing a terminal or any technical setup.

All your data stays on your computer. There’s no cloud, no account required, and nothing leaves your machine unless you tell it to.

Contents

Installation

macOS

  1. Download the .dmg file from the Releases page
  2. Open the .dmg and drag Green Tea to your Applications folder
  3. Launch Green Tea from Applications

Note: On first launch, macOS may show a security prompt. Click Open to allow it. Green Tea is signed and notarized by Apple.

Windows

  1. Download the .exe installer from the Releases page
  2. Run the installer and follow the prompts
  3. Launch Green Tea from your Start menu or desktop shortcut

Updates

Green Tea checks for updates automatically and will prompt you when a new version is available. Updates are downloaded in the background and applied on next launch.

Getting Started

When you first open Green Tea, you’ll see three panels:

Start by creating a new note in the left sidebar. You can begin writing right away, and when you need help, type a message in the chat panel on the right.

The AI has access to all notes in your current workspace. It can read them for context, propose edits, search the web, and work with files — all from the chat panel.

Workspaces

Workspaces let you organize your work into separate projects. Each workspace has its own notes, folders, conversations, and AI context.

To create a new workspace, click the workspace name at the top of the left sidebar and select New Workspace.

Each workspace has a description that helps the AI understand what the project is about. The AI can read and update this description as it works with you. A good workspace description makes the AI’s responses more relevant — for example, “Marketing plan for Q2 product launch targeting enterprise customers.”

Writing Notes

The editor supports rich text formatting with a simple slash command menu. Type / to see all available block types:

You can also select text and use the floating toolbar for quick formatting.

Search and Replace

Use Cmd+F (macOS) or Ctrl+F (Windows) to search within the current document. The search bar supports case-sensitive matching, navigation between results, and replace/replace-all.

Folders

Organize notes into folders by right-clicking in the sidebar. Folders are collapsible and you can drag notes between them. You can also nest folders inside other folders for deeper organization.

AI Chat

The right sidebar is where you talk to Green Tea’s AI agent. It can read your notes, propose edits, search the web, and automate tasks.

Having a Conversation

Type a message in the chat input at the bottom of the right panel. The AI can:

Approving Edits

When the AI wants to change a note, it shows you a diff preview with the proposed changes highlighted. You can:

You can also turn on auto-approve in the chat toolbar if you want the AI to apply changes without asking. This is useful for long-running tasks where you trust the AI to make multiple edits.

Referencing Notes

Type @ in the chat input to reference a specific note. This tells the AI exactly which note you’re talking about, which is helpful when you have many notes in a workspace.

Attaching Files and Images

You can attach files and images to your messages. Drag them into the chat input or use the attachment button in the toolbar. Supported file types include images, PDFs, and text files.

Multiple Conversations

Each workspace can have multiple conversation threads. Click the conversation name at the top of the chat panel to switch between them or create a new one. This lets you keep separate threads for different topics — for example, one for research and another for drafting.

AI Models

Green Tea works out of the box with a built-in AI model — no API key needed. If you want to use a different model, you can add your own API key in Settings > Models.

Supported Providers

Provider Models Setup
Green Tea Default model None — works out of the box
Anthropic Claude Sonnet, Opus, Haiku API key required
Together AI Kimi K2.5, Qwen3, and other open-source models API key required
OpenRouter Gemini, Grok, MiniMax, and more API key required

To switch models, click the model name in the chat toolbar dropdown. You can enable or disable specific models in Settings.

Reasoning Mode

Some models support a reasoning/thinking mode that shows you the AI’s thought process. Toggle this in the chat toolbar when available. Reasoning mode can produce better results for complex tasks but takes longer to respond.

Scheduled Tasks

Scheduled tasks let you automate recurring work. The AI runs on a schedule you define, writes results into your notes, and has everything ready for you when you sit down to work.

Creating a Scheduled Task

  1. Click the clock icon at the bottom of the left sidebar
  2. Click New Task
  3. Give it a name and a prompt (what you want the AI to do)
  4. Set a schedule using a cron expression (e.g., 0 8 * * 1-5 for every weekday at 8 AM)
  5. Enable the task

Examples

Managing Tasks

The scheduler popover shows all your tasks with their status:

You can also run any task manually by clicking the play button.

Note: Tasks only run while Green Tea is open. If the app was closed when a task was supposed to run, it will catch up and run it the next time you open Green Tea.

Skills

Skills extend what Green Tea can do. They’re like plugins that teach the AI new abilities — from working with file formats to connecting to external services.

Built-in Skills

Green Tea comes with skills for working with common file formats:

These work automatically — just ask the AI to create a document or process a file and it will use the right skill.

Skill Marketplace

Browse and install community skills from Settings > Skills. Installed skills are automatically available to the AI in all workspaces.

Creating Your Own Skills

You can ask Green Tea to build custom skills for you. Describe what you want and the AI will create a skill with instructions and scripts. Skills are stored in ~/Documents/Green Tea/skills/.

MCP Servers

MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers let you connect Green Tea to external data sources and services. This is the same protocol used by other AI tools like Claude Code and Cursor, so any MCP server will work with Green Tea.

Setting Up an MCP Server

  1. Go to Settings > MCP Servers
  2. Add a server with its command and arguments, or an HTTP URL
  3. Enable the server
  4. The AI will automatically have access to the server’s tools

Configuration

MCP servers are configured in a JSON file at ~/Documents/Green Tea/mcp.json. You can edit this file directly or use the settings UI. Example configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "my-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@example/mcp-server"]
    }
  }
}

Connected Accounts

Green Tea can connect to your Google and Microsoft accounts for direct access to your email, calendar, and documents.

Google Workspace

Connect in Settings > Accounts > Google to enable:

Each service can be connected or disconnected independently.

Microsoft Outlook

Connect in Settings > Accounts > Microsoft to enable:

Customization

Theme

Switch between light and dark mode in Settings > General.

Appearance

Customize fonts, sizes, and colors in Settings > Appearance:

You can also fine-tune the theme by editing the file at ~/Documents/Green Tea/theme.json.

Data and Privacy

Where Your Data Lives

Data macOS Windows
App data & database ~/Library/Application Support/Green Tea/ %APPDATA%/Green Tea/
Skills ~/Documents/Green Tea/skills/ Documents/Green Tea/skills/
MCP config ~/Documents/Green Tea/mcp.json Documents/Green Tea/mcp.json
Theme config ~/Documents/Green Tea/theme.json Documents/Green Tea/theme.json

Keyboard Shortcuts

General

Action macOS Windows
Search in document Cmd+F Ctrl+F
Undo Cmd+Z Ctrl+Z
Redo Cmd+Shift+Z Ctrl+Shift+Z

Text Formatting

Action macOS Windows
Bold Cmd+B Ctrl+B
Italic Cmd+I Ctrl+I
Underline Cmd+U Ctrl+U
Strikethrough Cmd+Shift+X Ctrl+Shift+X
Inline code Cmd+E Ctrl+E
Link Cmd+K Ctrl+K

Troubleshooting

The AI isn’t responding

Skills aren’t working

MCP server won’t connect

Scheduled tasks didn’t run

Getting Help

If you run into a problem, you can report a bug directly from the app using the bug report button. This sends a report to the development team so we can look into it.

For feature requests and open-source contributions, visit the GitHub repository.