Current guide
Scratchpads
Scratchpads
Scratchpads are the working containers of Cognardo Workbench: project folders that collect responses, notes, and source material while you work, from chatgpt.com, claude.ai, and the wider web. One scratchpad is active at a time and receives every save, the editor turns what it collects into drafts, and the AI features turn collections into rewrites, decks, and quizzes. This section covers the whole lifecycle, from the first save to the finished output.
How scratchpads work#
- One scratchpad is active at a time: Every save routes to it, from the floater, the sidebar, and captures on the web, and it is the same one on chatgpt.com and claude.ai.
- The rest are saved: A saved scratchpad keeps everything it collected, and marking one active sends the current one to the saved list with its content intact.
- View everywhere, edit in one place: Outside the editor, a scratchpad opens in view mode. Content changes only in the editor on the main extension page.
- Capture reaches the wider web: Selection saves work on any page, and whole pages come in with web page capture PRO.
- Insertion never sends: Every route lands the whole content as an editable copy, in the chat input or on the clipboard, and sending stays yours.
- AI features run on the collection: Expand / Shorten, Flash Card Generator, and Turn into Quiz each draw on your credits, and with Enable Cloud Sync & Intelligence on, the collection follows your account across devices.
The pages in this section#
| Page | What it covers | Go here when you want to… |
|---|---|---|
| Scratchpad interfaces | Every access point: the floater, the sidebar's Scratchpad tab, the pop-up's SCRATCHPAD row, the // shortcut, and the main page. | Find where scratchpads live across the surfaces. |
| The active scratchpad | What active means: one scratchpad on duty, every save routing to it, and its lifecycle from new to saved. | Understand where your saves go. |
| Saved scratchpads | What saved means: kept intact, searchable, and one action from taking the active role again. | Understand the collection, and switching. |
| Save the last response | The one-click capture of the latest reply, from the floater and the sidebar, with any earlier turn reachable from Collect. | Capture a whole response as it lands. |
| Save a selected response | The precision capture: exactly the highlighted text, from any response. | Keep the fragment, not the wall of text. |
| View scratchpads in the sidebar | The collection beside the chat: the active scratchpad on top, the saved list with search, and marking one active. | Read and switch without leaving the conversation. |
| View scratchpads on the main page | The full library: every scratchpad at page width, search, creation, and the doorway to the editor. | Work with the collection at scale. |
| Edit a scratchpad on the main page | The editor, the one place content changes: view mode to edit mode, working the text, saving back. | Turn a pile of saves into a draft. |
| Insert a scratchpad with the shortcut | //scratchpad in the chat input: all keyboard, whole content, nothing sent. | Bring the collection back fast. |
| Insert a scratchpad from the sidebar | The sighted route: insert controls on the active scratchpad and on every saved row. | See what you insert before it lands. |
| Insert a scratchpad from the main page | The clipboard route: copy the content and paste it anywhere, beyond the chat included. | Take the collection to your documents. |
| Expand or shorten a scratchpad | One action, two directions: develop thin material or condense heavy material, in the editor. | Reshape the collection with AI. |
| Generate flash cards from a scratchpad | A two-sided deck built from the collection, opened in its own viewer, scratchpad untouched. | Make the research drillable. |
| Turn a scratchpad into a quiz | Questions from the collection, checked as you answer, scored at the end. | Test what actually stuck. |
| Scratchpads on non-LLM pages | The floater beyond the chat: selection capture and web page capture PRO on any page. | Collect from the wider web. |
Where to next#
Saves begin in the conversation, covered in Conversations. The credit pool behind the AI features lives in Enhance. Scratchpads answer to universal search alongside prompts, sequences, and conversations, covered in search and filter. Exporting the collection and syncing it across devices live under Cloud Sync & Data.