[macOS] Canto v0.7.0 — URL-aware agent, adaptive memory, and a cleaner timeline

Hey r/macapps — last time I posted about Canto we were on 0.5.11 and the headline was @ mentions, slash commands, and skills. We've shipped a lot since then (0.5.12 → 0.7.0), so here's a fresh writeup with the new flagship in front. Canto is still the same idea: a free note-taking app for Mac with a private, on-device AI built in. Notes, wikilinks, daily notes, and code notebooks are free forever. A one-time license unlocks unlimited AI. Nothing leaves your Mac. The video above shows the headline change in 0.7.0: paste any URL into Agent Chat and Canto fetches the page in the background while you finish typing — by the time you hit send, the agent has actually read the page and can quote, summarize, or compare its real contents. No copy/paste, no "describe the article to me first." What's new in 0.7.0 (the highlights) Agent reads URLs you paste — drop a link into chat and Canto prefetches the page in the background. The AI works from the contents, not the URL. fetchUrl as a real tool — the agent can also pull in new pages mid-conversation when it decides it needs them. Unified agent timeline — tool activity is now one continuous vertical rail with status dots, instead of a stack of cards. Long runs collapse into a single line like "Reviewed note · 6 actions · 2.1s" and the live step pins itself open. Glow where the agent edits — lines the AI inserts, deletes, or rewrites briefly highlight in your accent color and then fade, so you can actually see what just changed in a long note. Adaptive Memory Mode by default — Canto now picks sensible memory caps based on your Mac's RAM. More headroom on 32 GB / 64 GB machines, gentler footprint on 16 GB ones, no setting to flip. Native Whisper for audio & video — attachments and videos now transcribe end-to-end on Canto's built-in whisper.cpp Metal pipeline. No helper process, no extra download, faster and more reliable. Big vaults feel small — the sidebar, recents, and search no longer load full note bodies just to draw a row; tabs lazy-restore on launch; Memory Links uses a sqlite-vec ANN index for note similarity. Startup is noticeably quicker. Sturdier agent edits — long AI edits are less likely to drop content thanks to a stricter content-safety check. Quieter chrome — clearer Sync & Vision status chips, larger sidebar AI actions, sturdier window drag region, and the editor/sidebar/status bar share one calm background tone. What you might've missed since 0.5.11 If you skipped the in-between releases, here's the short version: 0.5.12 — Safe Mode for low-RAM launches, Low Memory Mode actually frees memory now (~1 GB+). 0.5.13 — MCP server can read and edit your vault; nested folders with drag-to-reparent and bulk move; Mermaid/math/wikilinks survive Markdown round-trips. 0.6.0 — Encrypted iCloud Drive Sync. Your vault stays current across trusted Macs, synced data stays protected by your vault passphrase. Sync dashboard with device management, Selective Sync, snapshots, and clearer status. 0.6.0–0.6.4 — Sync hardening: leader election, journal v3, manifest-backed full repair, gated destructive checkpoints, additive merges. 0.6.5 — Smarter local agent turns; agent picks the right tools for the job and reuses the AI session between turns when it can. 0.6.6 — Smart tag suggestions that work on day one (no existing tags required); calmer sidebar; lighter startup. 0.6.7 — Notion-style reading rhythm in the editor (native font stack, deeper text color, calmer paragraph spacing); Sidebar Density setting (Comfortable / Compact / Dense); pasted YouTube links auto-fill with the real video title. Canto exposes itself as an MCP server too, so Claude Code (or any MCP client) can read and edit your vault directly. Models that ship in the box 10 built-in local models, all running via Metal GPU, all with tool-calling support: Qwen 3.5 2B (1.3 GB) — best for 8 GB Macs Qwen 3.5 4B (2.9 GB) — fast everyday tasks Nemotron 3 Nano 4B (3.0 GB) — thinking + tools Qwen 3.5 9B (5.9 GB) — balanced GPT-OSS 20B (12.0 GB) — tool-use specialist Qwen 3.6 27B (17.1 GB) — advanced reasoning GLM-4.7 Flash (18.3 GB) — high-performance MoE Qwen 3.6 35B A3B (21.4 GB) — deep analysis Qwen 3.5 122B A10B (75.0 GB) — flagship MoE Nemotron 3 Super 70B (87.0 GB) — research-grade You can also connect Ollama or LM Studio as external endpoints, including routing through Ollama to cloud providers if you ever want to. UPDATE [v0.7.1] Agent Chat's web-reading powers got a safety pass — fetched pages are now treated as evidence to quote, never as instructions Canto will follow. The "paste a link, get a real answer" flow feels exactly the same, but untrusted remote content can no longer quietly steer the agent into actions you didn't ask for. UPDATE [v0.7.2] Multi-device sync is calmer and more predictable: devices agree on what your vault looks like more reliably, conflicts are easier to spot at a glance, and old rejected conflicts are archived automatically after a successful repair. If you bounce between Macs — or between the dev, beta, and stable builds — drift is much less likely. UPDATE [v0.7.3] Your synced vault now keeps itself tidy. Old attachments are safely cleaned up once every device agrees they're no longer in use, sync waits patiently while iCloud finishes lazy downloads instead of erroring out, and the writing agent drafts long notes in clean section-sized passes without duplicating your title as the first heading. UPDATE [v0.7.4] You can now drag Markdown files straight into the sidebar — onto Overview, your Vault, or any folder — and Canto turns them into real notes in one pass. Appearance settings gain a curated set of new light and dark themes, link pills become editable inline with friendlier fallbacks when sites block previews, and locked vaults auto-unlock more reliably across Macs. Pricing & privacy Free forever for notes, wikilinks, code notebooks (Python/JS/TS), knowledge graph, daily notes, split panes, full-text search. $14.99 one-time for unlimited AI — no subscription, ever. Encrypted local SQLite database, AES-256 at rest. Zero cloud uploads. System requirements macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later Apple Silicon (M1+) — Metal GPU required 8 GB RAM minimum (16 GB+ recommended for the bigger models) Links Canto: https://lonelyduck.io/canto LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lonelyduck/ Site: https://lonelyduck.io Terms of Service: https://lonelyduck.io/legal/terms Privacy Policy: https://lonelyduck.io/legal/privacy Canto Releases: https://github.com/deokwons9004dev/Canto-Releases/releases Join the Discord Server: https://discord.gg/afDUSKTYNf Happy to answer questions in the comments!