Zengobi announces Curio 34 with Kanban boards, table formulas, and new automation tools

Kanban Boards

Boards That Build Themselves

Curio has always let people arrange work anywhere on a freeform idea space. Curio 34 adds a collection that does the arranging: a Kanban board that generates one sorted stack for every value in the chosen grouping, such as priority, rating, tag set, or a date like start, due, or last modified. There are no columns to define by hand, and items without a value gather into a fallback stack.

Because the columns come from the data rather than from a fixed layout, dragging a card between stacks updates the underlying value to match the stack it lands in. Move a card into the High stack and its priority becomes high. Curio Professional goes further with Smart Kanban boards, which use a search query to gather matching figures from anywhere in the project into synced instances that stay linked to their originals.

Kanban boards in Curio 34:

• Generate their stacks automatically from priority, rating, tag sets, or start, due, and last-modified dates.
• Change the underlying metadata when a card is dragged into a different stack.
• Group by project-specific tag sets, new in this release, which carry their own colors and ordering.
• Back a board with a search query, pulling matching figures from across a project into live synced instances.

Table Formulas

Spreadsheet Math Where the Notes Already Are

Tables in Curio Professional now evaluate Excel-style formulas that use column names instead of A1-style coordinates. A formula such as =[@Hours]*[@Rate] refers to the columns by the names in the table’s header row, and a formula written once applies down the whole column without being dragged.

The same column-based formulas work inside rendered Markdown tables, computing running totals and formatted numbers as the data changes. This is an unusual capability among Markdown editors and renderers. Native tables also gained column sorting that leaves header and footer rows fixed in place.

Table formulas in Curio Professional:

• Use current-row ([@Column]) and whole-column ([Column]) structured references instead of cell coordinates.
• Cover the common math, statistical, and text functions, including TEXT number formatting.
• Use the same structured-reference syntax in native Curio tables and rendered Markdown tables.
• Sort a native table by any column while its header and footer rows stay put.

The Curio CLI and MCP Server

Local Projects, Scriptable Automation

The Curio CLI ships as a separate, free, Apple-notarized download rather than as part of the app, so protocol and security updates can ship independently of Curio releases. It works with both the website and Mac App Store editions of Curio.

It runs two ways. Pointed at the running app, the curio command gets the complete command set, including read and write access and the current selection. Pointed at a .curio file with --project, it reads straight from disk without launching Curio, so unattended reporting and analysis cannot modify a project.

Bundled skills give command-line agents such as Codex and Claude Code programmatic access to the CLI, while the built-in MCP server provides the same commands to compatible hosts such as Claude Desktop. These tools can query and edit a project without driving Curio’s user interface. The project remains a local Curio document and no Curio cloud account is required; users decide which external tools may read its contents.

The Curio CLI can:

• Query a project or the whole Project Center with Curio’s own search language and return JSON.
• Read and rewrite figure text, tags, dates, priorities, ratings, checkboxes, and custom data.
• Import content into idea spaces and export figures, collections, and whole projects.
• Build and navigate the Organizer, and jump the app to any result.
• Serve the same commands to AI agents over MCP, with bundled skills for common workflows.

Connecting and Finding Work

References, Synced Instances, and Relevance-Ranked Search

Curio 34 makes the links between the pieces of a project easier to build and follow. A new References inspector panel in Curio Professional attaches references, organized by type, to any figure. They can point to other figures through Curio jump targets or out to the web using a URL on the clipboard, building a cross-reference layer without disturbing the project’s layout.

Copied lists, mind maps, and stacks can now stay linked as synced instances. One list can appear in several places and even take a different shape, such as a mind map, while item text, checkboxes, and progress stay synchronized. Focus mode follows connected idea graphs, and a new navigator Home button returns to a designated starting idea space.

Search was rebuilt around relevance. Results are ranked rather than merely listed, conservative fuzzy search catches close or abbreviated title matches, field names autocomplete as a query is typed, and Curio’s built-in text extraction can search inside PDFs, images, and many open document formats, including supported files embedded in the project.

Also in this release:

• A References inspector panel for references, organized by type, between figures and out to websites.
• Synced collection instances that keep copies linked to the original while carrying their own styling or an entirely different shape.
• Focus mode navigation across connected idea graphs, plus a navigator Home button.
• Relevance-ranked search with conservative fuzzy search, field autocomplete, and custom-data sorting.
• Full-text search inside PDFs, images, and many open document formats, including supported files embedded in a project.

Writing, Presenting, and the Desktop

Text Styles, Live Word Counts, and macOS Widgets

Project-wide paragraph and character text styles arrive in Curio 34, updating matching rich text across an entire project from one place, alongside new kerning, line height, and paragraph spacing controls. Curio Professional can also map Markdown styles to them.

A Word Count status bar module shows a live word and character count for the selected content. Its popover adds sentiment along with Flesch-Kincaid, Flesch Reading Ease, Gunning Fog, and Coleman-Liau readability scores, each with a plain-English reading.

Off the canvas, two new macOS widgets put project work on the Desktop or in Notification Center. A Query widget shows results from a specific saved query, while a Status widget mirrors the current grouping and sorting in Curio Professional’s cross-project Status shelf. Clicking any item opens Curio and jumps straight to it. Native Shortcuts actions, built on App Intents, make the same work scriptable from anywhere in macOS.

Rounding out the release:

• Adornments can sit at any of twelve positions around a figure, and checkboxes can be separated into their own left margin for cleaner task scanning.
• Embed local HTML files as live, interactive figures. New color tools include sliders, an eyedropper, and generated palettes for lists and mind maps.
• Jump to any idea space from the context menu while presenting.
• Mac App Store customers can start a free 14-day trial without beginning a subscription first, and review folder access with the new File > Manage Authorized Folders command.
• Improvements to Markdown, export, the Organizer, galleries, backups, macOS Tahoe support, performance, and reliability.