Getting Started

This guide covers the first beta launch, creating a project, and verifying the main desktop, Chrome, AI, and MCP features.

Beta Requirements

ThinkForge's current beta is a Windows desktop application. Install and start the desktop app before configuring the Chrome extension or an MCP client. See Installation and Updates for requirements, the installer, and where ThinkForge stores data.

Core project browsing, editing, local indexing, and desktop Power Strip actions work without the Chrome extension. AI-backed agents require a configured provider and API credential.

The closed beta does not require an account, trial, or license. It checks a public beta-status file at startup but starts normally if that file has not been reached unless a disabled state was previously received. See Editions and Licensing.

First Launch

A genuine first installation opens a projects-folder dialog. The release default is:

Documents\Think Forge\Projects

You can select another writable folder. ThinkForge records it as the projects root and uses it for locally managed projects.

Existing installations that already have settings or projects skip this dialog. The projects-root location can be changed later in Settings under General.

After the main window opens, ThinkForge also presents Chrome extension setup until Don't show again is selected.

Install the Chrome Extension

The beta extension is installed as an unpacked Chrome extension:

  1. Open chrome://extensions.
  2. Enable Developer mode.
  3. Choose Load unpacked.
  4. Select the ThinkForgeExtension folder shown by the setup dialog.
  5. Leave ThinkForge running while testing desktop-connected features.

The extension is optional. It adds supported AI-chat capture, general page and selection capture, browser-side project workflows, and Power Strip Browser Commands.

See Chrome Extension / Installation for connection checks and troubleshooting.

Create Your First Project

Open Projects from the main command bar, then choose Create New Project.

The creation window provides two paths:

  • Choose one of the 21 bundled workspace templates and select its components.
  • Create a generic project with no template documents.

A template can create project documents and an associated workspace. Some development templates collect additional technical choices before provisioning.

Project creation initializes the project folder, its hidden .fire/ state, the _captured/ intake folder, and the project's search index.

Open and Switch Projects

The Projects page lists initialized local and linked external projects. Select a project to make it active.

ThinkForge remembers the last open project when possible. If that project is unavailable at startup, it can fall back to another discovered project.

Changing the active project changes the document root, search index, workspaces, active automations, and project-scoped operations used by the other surfaces.

Main Desktop Surfaces

Main Window

The main window provides the command bar, tabs, Projects page, Settings, dashboards, editors, and the full project workspace.

The menu bar contains File, View, Create, Projects, API, Pinned, Recents, Shortcuts, and Help. Pinned and Shortcuts provide fast access to documents. Folder pins and other shortcut types remain available in Project Navigator, where their targets have complete navigation behavior. Recents continues to show the shared recent-document history.

Help opens this Getting Started guide, the user-guide index, and keyboard shortcuts from the provisioned User Docs project without changing your active project. It also provides Contact Support and About Think Forge. About displays the installed version, release channel, website, support address, and copyright notice.

ThinkForge reconciles and indexes User Docs after the projects root is ready. Contextual Help is available on supported controls: hover or focus the control, then press F1. A nonmodal Help window opens with a natural-language query already filled in, ranked results, and the selected full guide. F1 does nothing when no Help-enabled control is active.

Project Navigator

Project Navigator is the primary project-browsing surface and the pinned leftmost tab for the active project. Its Files, Insights, Clusters, Overview, and Workspaces views show different parts of the same project. Automations and Tasks open in their own project-scoped tabs.

The folder tree also exposes collections such as recent and pinned documents, tags, shortcuts, agents, Smart Clipboard, and project folders.

Power Strip

Power Strip is the floating desktop command bar. The default strip includes Quick Note, Save Clipboard, Toggle Floating Navigator, Search Memory, Open Project, Tasks, Drop File, and Recents.

Use the + button to add, remove, or reorder commands.

Floating Navigator

Floating Navigator provides project access above other applications. Win+Shift+F toggles it.

Smart Clipboard

Smart Clipboard keeps captured clipboard entries available for reuse. Win+Shift+V opens its global overlay.

Open and Create Documents

Opening behavior depends on file type:

  • Markdown, HTML, and RTF open in the rich text editor.
  • Code and plain-text files open in the code editor.
  • CSV and TSV open in a table view.
  • Images and PDFs use the media surface.
  • Supported videos open in a separate video window.

Right-click a folder to create a Markdown file directly or use Other Document Types for HTML, JSON, CSV, or plain text. Capture actions without another destination normally save under _captured/. Today's Note creates or opens the current project's dated Markdown note in a folder you choose.

ThinkForge indexes supported text files into the active project's search index. Search surfaces provide keyword, smart or semantic, and tag-based retrieval depending on the surface.

Embeddings are generated on your machine. PDFs, images, and videos remain browsable but are not automatically content-indexed by the general project file index.

Configure AI

Open Settings, then API Key, and configure the AI profile before running AI-backed agents. The beta has a single Global Default profile; multi-profile controls are hidden in this build. See Settings and Preferences.

A profile selects:

  • Provider
  • Model
  • API credential
  • Optional routing and generation settings

Supported providers include OpenAI-compatible services, Anthropic, Gemini, and Azure OpenAI. The exact model catalog can change independently of the app.

Project documents remain local until a feature explicitly sends selected context to the configured provider.

Connect an MCP Client

ThinkForge starts its project MCP server on http://localhost:3001. Settings includes MCP configuration for supported clients.

Keep ThinkForge running while the client is connected. The MCP server works against projects known to the desktop app and uses ThinkForge's safe document and indexing paths.

Protect Your Work

Project content is stored as normal files. Back up the project folders themselves, not only the hidden .fire/ state.

Important beta behavior:

  • Removing a project while leaving Delete all files unchecked still removes .fire/ and _captured/.
  • Ordinary document and folder deletes move items into an internal capped trash folder, but the beta does not expose a general restore interface.
  • Changing the projects root copies managed projects to the selected location. Verify the destination before removing the original data.

See Projects and Documents for the complete storage and deletion behavior.

  1. Create or open a test project.
  2. Create and save a Markdown document.
  3. Confirm it appears in Project Navigator search.
  4. Save a Quick Note through Power Strip.
  5. If using Chrome, capture a page and confirm the result appears under _captured/.
  6. If using agents, configure an AI profile and run a small test agent.
  7. If using MCP, connect a client and read the test document before attempting an update.