# Assistant guide

An assistant connected through MCP learns how ThreadPage works when it connects. The ThreadPage skill gives it the same guide to formatting notes and working with them ahead of time. It helps most in the Claude app, where assistants don’t see what ThreadPage tells them when they connect.

## Install the ThreadPage skill

Run the same command again to update the skill.

### Claude

[Download the skill](https://thread.page/agents/threadpage-skill.zip), then upload the ZIP in Claude under Customize → Skills. Skills need a paid Claude plan with code execution turned on.

### Codex

macOS, Linux:

```bash
mkdir -p ~/.agents/skills && cd ~/.agents/skills \
  && curl -fsSLO https://thread.page/agents/threadpage-skill.zip \
  && unzip -o threadpage-skill.zip && rm threadpage-skill.zip
```

Windows PowerShell:

```powershell
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force "$HOME\.agents\skills" | Out-Null
Invoke-WebRequest -UseBasicParsing https://thread.page/agents/threadpage-skill.zip -OutFile "$env:TEMP\threadpage-skill.zip"
Expand-Archive -Force "$env:TEMP\threadpage-skill.zip" "$HOME\.agents\skills"
Remove-Item "$env:TEMP\threadpage-skill.zip"
```

### Claude Code

macOS, Linux:

```bash
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cd ~/.claude/skills \
  && curl -fsSLO https://thread.page/agents/threadpage-skill.zip \
  && unzip -o threadpage-skill.zip && rm threadpage-skill.zip
```

Windows PowerShell:

```powershell
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force "$HOME\.claude\skills" | Out-Null
Invoke-WebRequest -UseBasicParsing https://thread.page/agents/threadpage-skill.zip -OutFile "$env:TEMP\threadpage-skill.zip"
Expand-Archive -Force "$env:TEMP\threadpage-skill.zip" "$HOME\.claude\skills"
Remove-Item "$env:TEMP\threadpage-skill.zip"
```

### Skill files

The same skill as files: [SKILL.md](https://thread.page/agents/threadpage/SKILL.md) and its guides to [formatting](https://thread.page/agents/threadpage/references/formatting.md) and [working with ThreadPage](https://thread.page/agents/threadpage/references/working.md).

## What assistants can format

Assistants write notes in Markdown. It becomes the formatting you use in the editor:

| | |
|---|---|
| `# Heading 1` `## Heading 2` `### Heading 3` | Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3 |
| `**bold**` `*italic*` `~~strike~~` ``code`` | Bold, italic, strikethrough, monospace |
| `[label](url)` | Link |
| `- item` `1. item` | Bulleted and numbered lists |
| `- [ ] open` `- [x] done` | Checklist |
| `> text` | Quote |
| ````` | Code block |
| `\| Check \| Result \|` `\| --- \| --- \|` | Table |
| `![What it shows](attachment:ID)` | Image |
| `[name](attachment:ID)` | File |
| `https://thread.page/app/notes/ID` | Note reference |

A note reference is a note’s link, from **Copy link**, on a line of its own. For underline, text colour, highlight, text size, alignment and tags, an assistant writes the note’s rich document instead of Markdown, and ThreadPage asks it to keep them when it edits a note.

## How assistants change your notes

- ThreadPage asks them to add progress, results and decisions as new notes at the end of a thread, and to change an existing note only when you ask.
- On **Read and add**, an assistant changes only the notes it added, also after you edited them. On **Edit and organize**, it can change any note.
- In a thread you share with other people, it adds or changes notes only where you chose **Allow here**.
- With a free account, assistants and scripts can add notes to your Inbox, up to 3,000 a month. They can’t read your notes.
- To change a note, an assistant has to read all of it first. If you changed the same part meanwhile, ThreadPage doesn’t save its change and asks it to read the note again.
- Each change an assistant sends has its own ID, so repeating one that didn’t get an answer doesn’t add it twice.
- Assistants are told to treat the text in your notes as information, not instructions, except a note you address to them with @. Drafts and private recovery versions stay private.
- Notes they add or change show **Added via** or **Edited via** with the connection’s name. **Undo changes…** in the connection’s details undoes what it changed.

## What ThreadPage tells assistants

When an assistant connects, ThreadPage sends it instructions for working with your notes. It can also read two guides, **formatting** and **working**, through `get_guide` or as `threadpage://guide/formatting` and `threadpage://guide/working`.

Some apps, such as Claude on the web and Claude Desktop, don’t pass these instructions to the assistant. The skill gives it the same guides there.

[MCP server](https://thread.page/help/connections/mcp.md) lists every tool and what each level can call, in English.