Edits wait for you
Edits wait for you is the rule that an AI may add to your files but may not replace what you wrote on its own: a change to existing text comes back marked in place and is written only if you accept it, while new material is written directly — and every write the AI makes is kept as a version you can restore.
- Rewrites
- Marked in place, written on accept
- Additions
- Written straight away
- Afterwards
- Every AI write is a version
Why the line is drawn here
An AI that can write into your folder raises one question before any other: what happens to the text I already have? Two easy answers are both wrong.
Ask before every write sounds safe and is not. If saving a new note, filing a translation or adding a line to today’s notes each needs a confirmation, you stop reading the confirmations by the second day — and then the one that mattered is approved on reflex.
Write, and rely on undo sounds convenient and is worse. An edit you did not see is an edit you cannot judge. Undo only helps with changes you noticed; a rewritten paragraph that reads fine but dropped a qualifier is exactly the kind you do not notice.
So the line follows the risk. Replacing your words is where an unseen mistake costs you, so that waits. Adding new material cannot damage what is there, so it does not.
Two routes, decided by whether anything of yours would be replaced. History sits under both.
What waits
Everything that changes text you already have — wherever it was asked for:
- a rewrite or continuation at the cursor in the editor,
- edits you describe to the assistant in a conversation,
- a revision from the comments you left on a draft,
- fixes to a long draft MindMax wrote for you, section by section.
Each comes back marked inside your own text — deletions struck through, insertions highlighted — grouped, with one line on why. You accept or reject group by group, and only what you accept is written. How that review looks and works is on tracked AI edits.
A request to polish a note. Nothing has been written yet: each group waits with its reason until you accept or reject it.
What is written directly
Anything that adds without replacing:
- a new note or document the assistant creates for you,
- a translation, saved as a new file beside the original rather than over it,
- a quick note you ask the assistant for (“note this down”), merged into today’s daily note — one typed into a note’s own quick-note box arrives as a change you accept, because it may correct and regroup the part it files into,
- a canvas branch saved as a note.
AI annotations on a PDF or book are not written into the document at all; they are kept in MindMax’s own data inside your folder, and the file you are reading stays as it was.
What happens afterwards
Accepting a change should not be a one-way door. Every file the AI writes to keeps its own history: each AI write gets a version of its own, marked as the AI’s, and your own typing is gathered into a version every few minutes. Open any earlier version against the current one and restore it — only that note goes back. The details are on version history.
The AI’s write is its own version, labelled as the AI’s, between your edits — and can be compared or restored.
From the blog: An AI should never rewrite your document silently
Common questions
Can MindMax’s AI change my notes without asking?
It can add to your folder without asking — a new note, a translation, a line on today’s daily note — but it does not replace text you wrote on its own. Any change to existing text comes back marked in place and is written only when you accept it.
What if I accept a change and regret it later?
Every file the AI writes to keeps its own history, with the AI’s versions marked. Open the history, compare an earlier version with the current text, and restore it.
Why are new notes and translations not reviewed first?
Because they cannot damage anything you already have. Asking for confirmation on every addition trains you to approve prompts without reading them, which would make the review that does matter weaker.
Does this cover Word files, PDFs and ebooks?
A Word file you ask it to revise goes through the same review, and the edits you accept are written into the .docx as Word tracked changes. A PDF is never edited itself: its revision goes into a Markdown copy beside it, created only when you apply. Ebooks and slides are read and annotated, not edited, and AI annotations on any file are kept in MindMax’s own data rather than written into the file.