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Writeups are research documents stored as .qua files. Unlike notebooks which focus on code execution, writeups are for prose — synthesizing findings, documenting conclusions, and building narratives around your research.

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Creating a writeup

  1. Click New File in the Files sidebar
  2. Select Research Writeup (.qua)
  3. Choose a location and filename
Writeups open in a rich text editor with formatting tools, headings, and structured blocks.

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Document kinds

Every .qua file has a kind, which decides how it is laid out and who may edit it. All three are built from the same blocks — a heading is a heading everywhere — but they are presented differently, and only a writeup is yours to type into. See Editing a dashboard or presentation below. A file you create yourself is always a writeup. Dashboards and presentations are created by an agent, using its create_writeup tool. The kind is fixed when the document is created and cannot be changed afterwards. Changing it under existing content would rescramble the layout, so ask the agent for the kind you want up front. A .qua file written before kinds existed opens as a writeup.

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Editing a dashboard or presentation

A dashboard and a presentation are both the agent’s to write. You can reorder their blocks by dragging them, select and copy from them, and export them — but you cannot type into one, add blocks to it, undo an agent’s write, drag content into it, or rename it. Ask the agent to change the contents instead. A writeup is fully editable, as it always was.

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The editor

The writeup editor uses a block-based format:
  • Headings: Multiple levels for document structure
  • Paragraphs: Standard text blocks
  • Code blocks: Syntax-highlighted code snippets
  • Lists: Bulleted and numbered lists
Use the toolbar or keyboard shortcuts to format text:

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Autosave

Writeups save automatically as you type:
  • Changes are saved after a brief pause (~800ms)
  • No manual save required
  • The file on disk always reflects your latest edits

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When to use writeups vs notebooks

Both formats live in the same project and can reference each other. Use notebooks for the work itself and writeups for the story you tell about it.

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Exporting a writeup

Use the Export menu in the writeup header to download the document as:

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File format

.qua files are JSON documents containing:
  • Title: The document title shown at the top of the editor and used when you export the writeup. Edit it inline in the editor header. When it is left as the default “Untitled” (for example on an agent-generated writeup), the first top-level heading in the body is used as the title instead of the filename — that heading is then removed from the body (its contents move up in its place) so the title is not repeated.
  • Kind: writeup, dashboard or presentation. Absent on a file written before kinds existed, which reads as a writeup.
  • Blocks: An array of content blocks (headings, paragraphs, code)
The format is specific to Qualia but human-readable if you need to inspect files directly.

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Future features

In the near future, writeups will be integrated with various Qualia features, including agents, tasks, and knowledge.