How to save content using Carolus
The smallest possible loop between I noticed something and I actually read it starts with one tap. Saving is the only thing you have to do during the week. Everything else - the Paper, the audio, the counterpoints - happens because of what you saved.
Three ways to do it, on whatever device is in front of you.
From any app on your phone
The fastest path. Wherever you are - news app, podcast player, X, Instagram, a friend's text message with a link - tap the share button and pick Carolus. The save happens in the background. A small "Saved" toast confirms it and the share sheet closes; your Vault has the item before you even switch back.
This is the one to set up first. Open Carolus, follow the share-sheet prompt in onboarding, and you can save from any iOS or Android app from then on.
From your browser
For longer reads at a laptop. Install the Carolus browser extension (Chrome, Safari, or any Chromium-based browser like Arc or Brave) and a small Carolus icon lives in your toolbar. Click it on any article and the page lands in your Vault.
Same one-tap promise as the mobile share sheet, just from your desktop. Useful for pieces you started reading at your desk and want to come back to on Saturday.
Paste a link
When you have a URL in your clipboard but neither the share sheet nor the extension is handy - someone DM'd you a link, or you copied a search result - open Carolus, tap the + button in your Vault, and paste. Carolus fetches the page in the background and treats it the same as a share-sheet save.
What happens after you save
The moment a save lands, Carolus does the quiet work:
- Pulls in the title, source, author, and full text
- Generates a one-sentence AI summary
- Infers a few tags so semantic search can find the piece later
- Drops the item in your Vault, ready for Saturday's Paper
You don't need to organise, label, or rate anything. The Paper does that work for you on the day you chose.
What kinds of things to save
Anything that catches your eye. The whole point of Carolus is to make saving frictionless enough that you can do it on instinct. If something interesting passes your screen, save it. The Paper sorts the wheat from the chaff.
Common saves: news articles, podcast episodes (Apple Podcasts or Spotify share), X threads, YouTube essays, newsletter posts, Substack pieces, blog longreads, even short-form Instagram or LinkedIn posts. If it has a URL or a share button, Carolus will hold it.
The right mindset
Carolus is opinionated about one thing. Save first, curate never. The Vault is allowed to have noise in it. Half the things you save you will not finish reading. That is fine. The Paper does the second pass; you only do the first.
A common failure mode in productivity tools is feeling guilty about a long unread queue. Carolus is the opposite. The queue is the input, not the work. Save more than you think you should. Trust the Saturday rhythm.
If something catches your eye, that is usually enough.