Outline.co / Features
Everything Outline.co does
A free notes app and task board in one. Write notes with labels, to-dos and reminders; run the work on kanban boards with a timeline drawn from the dates. Sign in with an email link, on a phone or a desk.
Notes
A note has a title and a body, with lists and to-dos you tick in place. Labels sit under it as #tags; status, priority, steps and a due date can be set on it; and a reminder emails you the note at the minute you chose. The month view shows which days you wrote on, and search narrows by label, status, priority or date with a tap.
- A title and a body, with lists and to-dos you tick in place
- #labels, status, priority, steps and a due date on any note
- Email reminders, at the minute you choose
- Comments on a note, ticked off when they are dealt with
- A month view of the days you wrote on, and search by label, status, priority or date
- Hidden fields for codes and numbers a note keeps but should not show
Boards
Columns and cards you drag, plus a timeline (Gantt) view drawn from the cards’ dates. Notes and boards live side by side, in the same app, with the same card for both.
- Columns for each stage and cards for each job, dragged across as the work moves
- Labels, steps, a due date, color and priority on every card
- Pin a card to the top of its column; archive it off the board, kept
- Comments and reactions on every card
Timeline
Yes. Every board is also a timeline, drawn from the dates already on its cards. Give a card two dates and it becomes a bar; drag it to move the work. The card and the chart can never disagree, because they are the same two dates.
Sharing
Yes. Invite anyone to a board by email — as an editor who can change it, or a reviewer who can read and comment. They do not need an account first: the invitation signs them in. A note is private unless you choose to show it to everyone signed in, or to anyone with the link.
Sign-in
No. You type your email, we send you a link, and you are in. If you would rather have a password, you can set one in your settings and use either.
The assistant
Only when you ask, and only on your own account. The assistant runs on open-weights models through your Cloudflare account — nothing goes to a model vendor, nothing is used as training data, and if no model is set up the features simply are not there. Ask about a card and it can summarise it, break it into steps, suggest labels or draft a reply.
For Claude, ChatGPT and other AI assistants
Yes. Outline.co speaks the Model Context Protocol at https://api.outline.co/api/mcp, over Streamable HTTP, so any MCP client can read your boards, search them and add a card. It is authenticated as you and reaches exactly what you reach. Nothing there can delete a board.
Where it runs
No. Outline.co is a web app: open outline.co in the browser on your phone, tablet or computer and sign in. There is nothing to download and no app store — the same account and the same notes and boards on every device.
On a phone
Yes, properly. It is designed at phone size first: notes, boards and the timeline were built for a narrow screen rather than shrunk onto one, and cards drag with your thumb.
Price
Yes. There is no paid tier, no seat count and no trial — everything is in the free version.