Anynotate
Support

Support

Most problems are found by one command. Start there.

Windows and Linux Beta are less tested than macOS; reports from them are especially welcome.

Run the health check

anynotate doctor

It checks the install, your PATH, the background service, the bridge, its token, each extension version seen, the Chrome helper, the agent hooks and the retention setting, and says what to fix. It exits with an error only when something required is broken.

Install, update, remove

Install with the one-line command on the home page. After that:

anynotate update --dry-run     # show what an update would do
anynotate update               # install the latest release and restart the bridge
anynotate uninstall --dry-run  # show what would be removed
anynotate uninstall            # add --purge to delete ~/.anynotate (your notes) too

Re-running anynotate install is always safe: it repairs the setup and restarts the bridge.

Versions out of step? Sending still works. The dock and options page say when the bridge is older than the extension expects and offer anynotate update; when the extension is the older one, status marks it ⚠ and anynotate doctor lists each extension it has seen (each Chrome profile and build by version) with how to update: in chrome://extensions, or wait for the store update.

Common problems

The extension says the bridge is not running

Run anynotate doctor. If the bridge or its service is down, run anynotate install to set it up again and restart it. The bridge listens on 127.0.0.1 port 47291; if another program already uses that port, the bridge cannot start.

The extension is not allowed to talk to the bridge

The bridge only accepts the extensions on its allow-list. The Chrome Web Store version is allowed by default with bridge 0.4.1 or later; run anynotate update. For a build you loaded yourself, copy its id from chrome://extensions and run:

anynotate origin add chrome-extension://<id>
anynotate install

The second command restarts the bridge and updates the Chrome helper so it picks up the change. anynotate origin list shows the allow-list.

The extension cannot reach the Anynotate helper

The extension gets the bridge's token from a small helper that anynotate install registers with Chrome, Edge, Brave and Chromium. If you installed the browser afterwards, or deleted ~/.anynotate/token, run anynotate install again.

anynotate: command not found

On macOS and Linux the binary goes to ~/.local/bin. If that folder is not on your PATH, add this line to your shell profile (for example ~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc) and open a new terminal:

export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

On Windows, the installer adds the binary's folder to your user PATH; open a new terminal window to pick it up.

My agent did not receive the notes

For Claude Code and Codex, notes sent to a session arrive with your next prompt in that session. In a herdr pane they are typed in once the agent is idle. Any other agent can read the newest notes with anynotate annotations latest or from ~/.anynotate/inbox/latest/README.md. anynotate annotations lists the recent ones.

A keyboard shortcut does nothing

Chrome skips a shortcut at install time when another extension or program already uses it, so it can end up unset.

  1. Open chrome://extensions/shortcuts (in Edge: edge://extensions/shortcuts) and find Anynotate.
  2. If Toggle annotate mode, Pick an element or Send is empty, click its pencil and press the keys you want. The defaults are Alt+Shift+A, Alt+Shift+E and Alt+Shift+S (⌥⇧A, ⌥⇧E, ⌥⇧S on a Mac).
  3. If Chrome says the keys are taken, it names the extension using them: change that one, or pick other keys such as Ctrl+Shift+Y.
  4. If a shortcut is set but still does nothing, a program outside Chrome is catching it (screen recorders, overlays and some keyboard tools do). Choose different keys.

Clicking the Anynotate icon in the toolbar always turns annotate mode on, with or without a shortcut.

herdr plugin

In herdr 0.9.0 or later (macOS; Linux Beta; not on Windows yet), the plugin adds an inbox popup, a "send the latest notes to this pane" action, a status notification, and Ctrl-click on a note's README.md path. It installs Anynotate too if needed:

herdr plugin install genexk/anynotate/integrations/herdr

The plugin binds no keys. Add the bindings from the plugin README to ~/.config/herdr/config.toml; it suggests prefix+i for the inbox and prefix+y to send. The same tools work outside herdr: anynotate inbox, anynotate deliver latest --pane <pane-id> and anynotate status.

If sending fails, the notification says why: the focused pane must be an agent pane, and an agent showing an approval dialog has to be answered first. To get a newer plugin, run the install command again; herdr plugin uninstall anynotate removes the plugin but keeps Anynotate.

Still stuck?

Report a bug with the output of anynotate doctor and your operating system, or request a feature. Check the output for anything you would rather not share before posting.

Found a security problem? Please don't open a public issue; report it privately as described in SECURITY.md.

Anynotate is free. If it saves you time, you can buy me a coffee.