Rooms vs. notes

ScaiWave gives both surfaces first-class treatment, but they're for different things. Picking the right one is the difference between a useful work surface and a frustrating one.

The short version#

Use a room when#

• You're talking to someone (or to an AI as if it were someone).
• The artefact is the conversation itself: decisions, banter, async back-and-forth, debugging.
• You want notifications, presence, calls, and live typing.
• The content is dated — it's about something happening now.

Use a note when#

• You're producing a durable artefact: a runbook, a doc, a list, a plan, meeting minutes.
• You expect to edit it over time, share it as a link, and have other people contribute later.
• The content needs structure — headings, todos, math, embedded references to other documents.
• You want to use [[wiki links]] and watch the graph grow.

"I want both"#

You usually do.

• Save a message as a note — any message can be promoted with one click. The note keeps a back-reference to the source room.
• Reference a note in a room — paste [[Note Title]] in the composer; it renders as a clickable link.
• AI generates a note from a conversation — /note slash command, or ask the AI: "Write that up as a note in the engineering workspace."
• Conversation about a note — the note's comment thread is a lightweight room scoped to that document.
• Todos that span both — checkbox lines in any note (- [ ] foo) show up in the cross-workspace Today view, and the AI can update them via tool calls.

Common mistakes#

• Treating a room as a doc: writing a long, structured "spec" inline in a room. After a few replies it's unreadable. Promote it to a note immediately.
• Treating a note as a chat: appending one-line updates to a shared note instead of using a room. The note's revision history becomes a log; co-authors miss live notifications.

Where to go next#

• Tutorials: Create and organise notes.
• Concepts: AI engagement.
• Concepts: Search.