Docs

The Three Modes

Philosophy of Modes

Loomline doesn’t have “pages” or “tabs” in the traditional sense. It has three modes — three ways of looking at the same material. Switching modes doesn’t navigate you somewhere new. It changes the lens through which you see your weave.

This is a deliberate rejection of the “everything in one view” approach. Different phases of work require different perspectives. Writing needs a text editor. Organizing needs a board. Understanding structure needs an outline. Loomline gives you all three, unified by a single document.

Weave Mode

The writer’s view.

This is where the markdown lives. A full editor with syntax awareness, word count, reading time estimates, and a formatting toolbar. The weave is front and center — you’re working directly in the source of truth.

Weave mode is where projects begin and where they’re maintained. It’s the most honest view: what you see is exactly what exists. No abstractions, no interpretations. Just your words.

The sidebar in Weave mode shows smart filters (Recent, Favorites, by status), tags, and your full list of weaves. It’s the most complete navigation surface in the app.

The Focus Nudge

When your ## Focus section accumulates more than three tasks, a gentle warning appears in the status bar. This isn’t a hard limit — you can write as many tasks as you want. But the board view will only show three in the Focus column, and the nudge reminds you that focus means choosing.

Three is not arbitrary. It’s the answer to “what can one person genuinely hold in active attention?” More than three and you’re maintaining a list, not doing focused work.

Threads Mode

The worker’s view.

Threads mode reads your weave and presents its tasks as a three-column board:

  • Backlog — Tasks that exist but aren’t active
  • Focus — The tasks you’re working on right now (max 3)
  • Done — Completed work

Every card on this board corresponds to a line in your markdown. Moving a card between columns updates the document. Checking off a subtask updates the document. Adding a thread note updates the document.

The board is not a separate data store. It’s a physical manifestation of your writing.

Why Three Columns, Not Kanban

Traditional Kanban boards let you create arbitrary columns: To Do, In Review, QA, Staging, Done. That’s appropriate for teams with handoff points. Loomline is for one person. Your workflow is simpler: things you haven’t started, things you’re doing, things you’ve finished.

The constraint is the feature. You don’t need to design a workflow — you just need to decide what matters right now.

Thread Details

Double-clicking a thread card (or pressing Cmd+I) opens a detail panel showing:

  • The task’s subtasks (steps) with individual checkboxes
  • The thread note, if one exists
  • Controls to move the task between columns
  • A link back to the exact line in the weave

This panel is the bridge between the board’s spatial overview and the document’s textual depth.

Structure Mode

The architect’s view.

Structure mode renders your weave as a formatted, read-only document with a table of contents sidebar. It’s how your project looks when you step back and read it as a whole.

The TOC sidebar shows every heading in your document, with nesting that reflects your markdown hierarchy. Click a heading to scroll there. Double-click to rename it (which updates the markdown). Drag headings up or down to reorder entire sections.

Structure mode answers the question: “Does this project make sense as a narrative?” If your headings tell a coherent story when read top to bottom, your project is well-organized. If they don’t, you know where to restructure.

Layout Options

Weaves can be displayed in two layouts:

  • Standard — Left-aligned, traditional document flow
  • Centered — Content centered on the page, more focused reading experience

This is a per-project setting, because different projects have different reading needs. A technical spec might want standard layout. A personal essay might want centered.

The Mode Switcher

The mode switcher lives in the toolbar, always visible, always one click away. It’s a segmented control — not a dropdown, not a sidebar toggle. You should always know which mode you’re in and be able to change it instantly.

The default mode (which mode opens when you launch the app) is configurable in Settings. Most people will default to Weave mode, because that’s where the work starts. But if you’re in a phase of pure execution, defaulting to Threads mode makes sense too.