Drag and Drop¶

Drag and drop enables reorganizing nodes across all views. Each view has specific behaviors and modifier keys that control how drops are interpreted.

Drop Zones¶

When dragging a node over a target, three drop zones determine the outcome:

Visual indicators show the active drop zone during drag operations.

A node always moves with its whole subtree — including dropping it before or after a target that has a different parent, which reparents it. Descendants keep their position under the moved node.

Dropping on the breadcrumb root¶

The breadcrumb trail's home icon is a drop target. Dragging a node onto it moves that node to the top level, clearing its parent - the same operation as the detail panel's "Move to Root" button and the Root entry in "Move to...". The icon highlights while a dragged node is over it.

This works while dragging in graph, cards and table view. Each view drags by a different mechanism, so each detects the target its own way, but the outcome is identical. A multi-node selection moves as a whole in cards and table view; graph view moves the single node being dragged.

Modifier Keys¶

Shift+Drag (Reorder Only)¶

Hold Shift while dragging to disable the "inside" drop zone:

• Left 50% = drop before
• Right 50% = drop after
• Cannot nest (no "inside" option)

Use this when reordering siblings to prevent accidental nesting.

Option+Drag (Link Mode - Graph View Only)¶

In Graph view, hold Option (Mac) or Alt (Windows/Linux) while dragging to create a link instead of moving:

• Drag from source node to target node
• Release to create a non-hierarchical link
• Original hierarchy is preserved

See Linking Nodes for more on links.

View-Specific Behavior¶

Cards View¶

Cards show colored drop indicators: - Left edge highlight = drop before - Right edge highlight = drop after - Full card highlight = drop inside

Graph View¶

Graph view dragging repositions nodes within the visualization rather than changing hierarchy, with one exception: dropping a node on the breadcrumb home icon moves it to the top level. Use the context menu or other views for other hierarchy changes.

Node positions are persisted per-workspace and per-parent context.

Table View¶

Rows show insertion lines during drag, and expand/collapse indicators for rows with children. Dragging over a collapsed row expands it after a short delay.

Timeline View¶

Timeline view uses drag for date manipulation rather than hierarchy:

Date changes are applied when the drag ends. A preview shows the new dates during drag.

Date Field Behavior:

• Nodes with start_date: updates both start and end dates
• Nodes with only due_date: updates the due date
• Minimum bar width: 20 pixels

Cross-View Dragging¶

Dragging between different views is not supported. Each view handles its own drag operations independently. The breadcrumb root target is the one shared destination: it sits outside the views and accepts a drag from any of them.

Undo Support¶

All drag operations that modify hierarchy or dates can be undone:

• Cmd/Ctrl + Z to undo
• Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + Z to redo

The undo stack persists for the browser session, with two limits:

• Switching workspace clears it. Commands record node ids, which carry no workspace, so an undo after a switch would edit an item in the workspace you just left without showing it to you.
• Note edits are not restored after a window reload. The stack is persisted to session storage, which note content must not reach; see sensitive notes. Only the actions taken since the most recent note edit come back.

One user action is one undo step, including actions on a multi-node selection.

Keyboard Alternatives¶

For users who prefer keyboard navigation:

See Also¶

• Views Guide - View-specific features
• Linking Nodes - Option+drag linking
• Keyboard Shortcuts