Tags are how you sort your library without filing things into folders. A node can carry as many tags as it needs, and every tag becomes a page of its own.
Tag a node
You tag a node in the 01 Tags section of the Node Inspector (⌘I), drawn as a small graph with the node in the middle. On the left, under CONNECTED, the tags it carries fan out from the node - click one to take it off. On the right, under ALL TAGS, the rest of your library sits on two rings, led by the tags that most often share nodes with the ones already connected. Click one and it crosses through the node to the left. Rest the pointer on a tag and the header says how many nodes carry it and which of your tags it usually comes with; N more turns both rings to the next page. A node with no tags yet shows one faint edge, ending where the first will land.
To find a tag or make one, type in the field under the node. The rings narrow to what matches, and the best match is drawn whole in grey around what you typed: Tab connects it and keeps the field open for the next name, and Return connects it too. The arrow keys pick another match. When nothing matches, Return makes the tag and connects it. To make exactly what you typed while a match is showing, end the name with a space or press ⌘Return. Esc clears the field.
While the pointer is in the section, nothing already drawn moves, and a tag you took off by mistake goes back with a click. Move away and everything settles into place. From the keyboard, the arrow keys move between tags, Return or Space clicks the one in focus, and Delete takes it off.
Tag pages
Open a tag from the Tags section on Home, from search, from the graph or from the sidebar's Tags widget, and you get a dedicated page that gathers every node carrying it, plus others Nodes thinks might belong. A tag page is a first-class place in the app - it opens as a tab in the tab strip at the top of the window, right alongside your open nodes - a tag page is a tab like any other.
Think of a tag page as a live, self-updating collection: add the tag to a node and it shows up there instantly. From a tag page you can also rename, merge or delete the tag - your nodes update to match. To rename it, edit the name at the top of the page. Give it the name of a tag you already have and Nodes offers to merge the two: this tag's nodes and rules move to the other one, then this tag is removed - a merge can't be undone. Delete this tag at the foot of the page (or File ▸ Delete Tag, ⌘D) asks first; the nodes stay, they just lose the tag.
The page also sizes the tag up: its rank among your tags, how many nodes carry it, how far back the oldest of them goes, and a twelve-month chart of when its nodes were made. Co-occurrence shows the tags that most often share nodes with it - click one to go to its page. Linked nodes lists the tag's nodes, sorted recent, oldest or longest; New node starts a node that already carries the tag, and Search in tag opens search within the tag.
Let Nodes help
Click the small red square in the 01 Tags header of the Node Inspector and the on-device AI reads the node and proposes tags for it. Switch on the background agent in Settings ▸ Agent and it makes the rounds for you, so a growing library stays organized without much effort. Proposals stand just above the connected tags, on dashed red edges - red is only ever the agent's mark - and one the library doesn't have yet is marked new. Rest the pointer on one and the header gives the agent's reason. You're always in control: click a proposal to connect it where it stands (a new name becomes a tag on the way), or click dismiss beside it. Dismissing takes that name off the table for this node, and the model stops offering it there.
Steer the suggestions with rules
Each tag can carry simple rules that shape how it's applied:
- Include - tell the AI to apply the tag when the rule matches.
- Exclude - tell the AI to hold the tag back when the rule matches.
- Hint - nudge the AI toward the tag on borderline nodes, without forcing it.
Rules are how you teach Nodes your own sense of organization. Add them in the Auto-tagging rules section of a tag page - a tag with no rules yet shows a card explaining what they are and how to write the first. Pick the type while you're writing the rule; once it's saved the type is settled, and the row can only be removed. Set them once, and every future suggestion gets a little smarter.