Matters

A matter is the top-level container for a single case or research project. Everything in Recall — documents, pins, the notes editor, Clerk context — is scoped to a matter. Switch matters and all that state changes with you.

What a matter holds

Every matter has:

• Documents. PDFs you've uploaded (opinions, briefs, statutes, secondary sources).
• Pins. Saved excerpts from those documents.
• Notes. A single per-matter WYSIWYG document edited from the Write-mode right pane. Stored as markdown on the matter's notes field.
• Settings. A name and a citation style (federal or california).

Matters don't overlap. A document lives in exactly one matter; to use the same PDF in two cases, upload it to each. Pins and notes are likewise matter-scoped.

Creating a matter

Two entry points:

• Matter picker in the top bar. Click the matter name (or "Select or create a matter to begin" before you've picked one) and use New matter from the picker.
• Setup Wizard. The first-run wizard includes a Create-First-Matter step. You can reopen the wizard from the gear menu → Setup Wizard anytime.

When creating, you set:

Field	Required	Notes
Name	yes	Free text. Shown in the matter picker and top bar.
Citation Style	yes	federal (default) or california. Determines how generated citations are formatted.

You can change both later — see Editing.

Selecting a matter

Click the matter picker in the top bar and choose a matter. Recall loads that matter's documents, pins, and notes. The active matter's name appears in the top bar.

Until a matter is selected, the main workspace is empty and the top bar shows "Select or create a matter to begin."

Editing a matter

Open the matter picker and use a matter's edit action. The dialog lets you change:

• Matter name — free text
• Citation style — federal or california

Changes save immediately. Renaming doesn't break anything — documents, pins, and notes all stay put.

The matter's notes content (the WYSIWYG document covered under Notes) is edited in the Write-mode right pane, not in the matter edit dialog.

Deleting a matter

Right-click a matter and choose Delete. This removes the matter's entry, its document records, its pins, and its notes. PDF files on disk for that matter are also removed.

Deleting is permanent. There's no undo and no trash — if you want to keep a matter's data around, leave it in the list.

Citation style

Each matter carries its own citation style. Recall uses it whenever it generates a citation (pins, context-aware citations, tables of authorities).

Style	Example
federal	Smith v. Jones, 123 F.3d 456, 789 (9th Cir. 2024)
california	California-specific Style Manual conventions

You can override the style for a single formatted citation via the API, but the matter default is what every UI action uses.

Storage

In local mode, your matters and their documents live under your app's data root on your computer. In server mode, they live in your organization's isolated storage on the server. You only see your own matters — never another user's or another organization's.

Exact paths are in Settings → Data locations.

Organizing work across matters

Recall doesn't support sub-matters, matter archiving, or cross-matter search. A few patterns that work well:

• One matter per case. The default. Upload everything related to that case.
• One matter per research topic. If you're researching an area of law rather than litigating a case, a topic-based matter is fine.
• Use categories within a matter. Tag documents and pins with categories (e.g., liability, damages, procedure) to group them without splitting into separate matters.