The sidebar is for work beside the current page. The full Library opens in its own browser tab and is where you review, filter, edit, maintain, import, and export the whole vault.
Open the full Library
Use any of these code-backed routes:
- In the Redline sidebar, select Library, then Open Library.
- Right-click a normal page, choose Redline, then Open library.
- Use Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + L if that suggested shortcut is available in your browser.
- From a saved record in the sidebar, choose its Open, Open in Library, or View page record action to go directly to that record.
Know the navigation
The full Library’s left navigation is exactly: Dashboard, Pages, Annotations, Dossiers, Tags, Domains, Evidence, Search, Imports, Exports, Data Health, and Settings.
| Area | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Dashboard | Your queue, recent activity, pinned dossiers, quick URL capture, and next actions. |
| Pages | Filter, sort, bulk-organize, and open saved source records and their readable capture history. |
| Annotations | Review findings by kind, anchor state, dossier, tag, domain, or lifecycle state. |
| Dossiers / Tags / Domains | Open a connected view of work organized by project, classification, or source site. |
| Evidence | Create dossier claims, attach exact annotations, review supporting and challenging passages, and record conclusions. |
| Search | Search pages, annotations, dossiers, tags, domains, and claims across the vault. |
| Imports / Exports | Restore Redline JSON records, migrate Chrome-family bookmarks HTML or Firefox Bookmark Backup JSON, or build a scoped download. |
| Data Health | Review maintenance counts, duplicate URL groups, orphan annotations, and unused tag records. |
Use the Dashboard as a briefing
The Focus queue contains sources that are unread or marked High or Critical importance. Recent activity shows recent annotations and saves. Dossiers in motion shows pinned, unarchived dossiers; pinning is controlled inside a dossier’s Overview.
Under Quick capture, paste a value into Source URL and choose Save (or press Enter). This fast path saves the URL as both the URL and initial title; it does not visit the page or extract its metadata. Open the new record under Pages to add a useful title, note, tags, dossiers, or citation data.
Start something new can create a dossier by name. That Dashboard route does not pin the dossier or attach a page automatically.
Work with Pages
The Pages view starts with a collection overview showing active sources, the unread queue, high-priority work, annotation coverage, and the latest movement. Filtered table and card results are paginated in groups of 15 so large libraries remain practical to scan.
Library → Pages has filters named Search, Dossier, Tag, Domain, Read, Importance, Annotations, Notes, State, and Sort. Switch between the Table and Cards controls without changing the records.
Select one or more page rows to reveal bulk actions for adding or removing tags, adding or removing a dossier, marking pages Read or High importance, archiving, soft deleting, or exporting the selection.
Open a page record to use Open Original, Copy URL, and Save. The Metadata Editor holds source fields and organization; Citation holds editable citation fields; Source Witness holds preserved readable captures; Annotations On This Page and Related Data reconnect the source to nearby work.
Review source history and affected evidence
Source Witness keeps each user-initiated readable capture as a separate local version. Open a Page record to inspect capture time as device-reported metadata, capture and normalization versions, stored size, and SHA-256 digest. Choose Open local witness for its source and canonical URLs, manifest, and normalized text; a focused comparison links changed blocks to affected annotations and claims.
| State | Meaning | Useful response |
|---|---|---|
| Verified local capture | The stored normalized text still matches its recorded digest. | Open the saved witness or review the stored capture history. |
| Current page differs | A later sidebar preview found material readable-text changes. | Review the focused changed blocks before drawing a conclusion. |
| Comparison unavailable | Redline cannot obtain or normalize a comparable current representation. | Keep using the saved witness; retry Preview capture from the sidebar on a supported page without discarding history. |
| Selector affected | A changed block overlaps a saved annotation selector. | Open the annotation and any connected claim, then record the required review. |
The focused comparison suppresses unchanged and repeated page chrome and promotes changed blocks connected to annotations. A connected claim shows Evidence changed — review required; this is a review obligation, not an automatic claim verdict.
Use the sidebar’s Preview capture and Preserve capture controls whenever you intentionally add a version, then choose Open capture history; the Page record does not capture the live source on its own. Capture storage is shown per Page and capture. Deleting a chosen capture removes that capture and its normalized text after confirmation, but retains the Page, annotations, claims, and every other capture. Older captures are otherwise retained instead of being overwritten.
Review Annotations
Library → Annotations has filters named Search, Kind, Dossier, Tag, Domain, Anchor, State, and Sort. The Anchor filter groups records as Restored, Unresolved, Needs review, or Unknown.
Open a record to edit Kind, Selected text, Prefix, Suffix, Note, Tags, Dossiers, and Anchor status. Actions include Open Source, Open Highlight Link, Copy Text, Copy Highlight Link, Copy Markdown, Attach as evidence, and Save.
Selecting multiple annotations reveals bulk controls for their kind, tags, dossier assignment, review state, deletion, and focused exports.
Search the right place
Library → Search is the Global Search. It returns separate groups for pages, annotations, dossiers, tags, domains, and claims. Claim matches include the claim text and conclusion. Search uses case-insensitive text matching over saved fields; it does not search an unsaved live page or the wider web.
The sidebar’s Search tab is intentionally narrower in the current release: it displays page and annotation results only. Use the full Library when you need dossier, tag, domain, or claim result groups.
Use Tags, Dossiers, and Domains as lenses
The Dossiers list now includes portfolio-level activity and health counts and paginates results in groups of 15. A dossier detail separates its overview editor, source collection, annotation collection, signals, and exports so filters do not hide the dossier's overall counts.
Open a tag to see matching pages and annotations, dossiers tagged with that tag, and represented domains. Open a dossier to see only pages and annotations directly assigned to it, plus its notes, used tags, source domains, exports, and health counts. Open a domain to review its saved pages, annotations, and duplicate URL groups.
A Domain-level note is saved only in the Library page’s local storage. It is not a normal vault record and is not included in the Redline JSON backup. Table/card preferences and Local Export History are also local Library conveniences rather than backed-up research records.
Treat Data Health as a review queue
Library → Data Health reports counts for duplicate normalized URLs, orphan annotations, missing titles, untagged or unsorted pages, unresolved anchors, invalid URLs, empty dossiers, and unused saved tag records. It also exposes Export Backup First, Delete Unused Tags, and Restore Archived/Deleted.
A safe maintenance routine
- Go to Exports, choose Scope → All data and Format → JSON backup, then choose Export.
- Review Data Health and open the affected records rather than changing them from a count alone.
- Use Pages or Annotations filters and bulk actions for deliberate, inspectable cleanup.
- Check a dossier, tag, or domain view afterward to make sure the relationships still express what you intended.