Workspace is a new way to focus in Bear. You can set any tag as a dedicated writing environment, and Bear shows only the notes under that tag. The Sidebar also updates to show only the related tags. Read here for the full story.
In this update we also added scoping for MCP server, meaning you can now control exactly which notes are visible to it with tags. For example, in Claude’s Settings under Extensions, you can set up Only tags and Exclude tags to restrict the access to certain tags.
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We hope Workspace gives you a new way to focus within your Bear workflow. Update now and let us know how you like it!
Well worth the wait, love the implementation. It’s so intuitive I got the hang of it in a couple seconds and was disappointed for a quick second (“Wait, is that all?”) – until I realized it is a testament to how skilled you guys are at UX – things just work, there is no unnecessary complexity.
This seriously expands how I can use Bear. Thank you!
That said, I tested a specific corner case I know has been coming up for me in the past, and it doesn’t work the way I thought it would. I would be grateful for feedback whether this is intended behavior:
Let’s say we have a tag #project1 and create a note called “Destination” in it. Then, still in the same workspace, we link to it from another note like this: [[Destination]]. So far so good.
Now, we switch to another workspace called #project2 and create another note there, also called “Destination.” Then we link to it from notes in #project2. I would expect clicking on [[Destination]] while in #project2 would lead to the note in this workspace given two notes with the same name.
This is not what happens. It seems all wikilinks want to send you to the original “Destination” note from #project1. Even clicking on the second note directly and choosing “copy link” creates a link that sends you back to the original note (and you get the popup saying you’ll be directed outside your workspace).
My intuition was that a workspace would ignore the notes outside of it. So clicking on a wiki link with no target note would create a new note with that title in the current workspace, for example. This would be true workspace separation. And definitely I would expect it to prioritize a note within its workspace over a note outside of it.
I love the way this feature has been implemented on top of existing tags! Very well done, and I look forward to seeing how I can use it in my workflow.
I wonder if it would be possible to automate switching between workspaces? A Shortcuts action would be great, and a Focus filter would be even better, so that when I get to my office and my work Focus is enabled, Bear could automatically switch to the corresponding workspace as well.
Great update. The only problem is quickly switching between workspaces. I only use two, but I often have to search through the list every time, which takes a while. A “Favorite Workspaces” section on the sidebar would be helpful.
Is there a limit to the number of Workspaces we can have? As I collapsed my overly fecund tag-space, it looks like anything above 5 is not shown in the pulldown menu on the sidebar. I don’t see anything about in the documentation.
You can select a workspace not only from the drop-down menu, but also directly from the tag browser in the left sidebar by right-clicking on any tag to open its context menu. To always see a tag in the drop-down menu, you can pin the tag in the tag tree. It will then also appear in the drop-down menu under the “Pinned” section.
I think a menu bar item for switching workspaces with a submenu showing the same options as the pop up menu would be nice. It would solve the keyboard feature (with the macOS feature of customizing keyboard shortcuts) request as well and work even if the sidebar and notes list is hidden.
In case you were not aware, there is currently a way to switch workspaces with the keyboard. You can hit CMD-SHIFT-0 to dismiss the current workspace, then hit CMD-O (quick open), type a tag then CMD-ENTER to switch to a workspace with that tag.
A bit of UI somewhere to teach us this feature would be nice though!
really nice feature, would it be possible to link it to the Apple focus modes?
So when my work focus is on it switches to my work workspace in bear, personal focus to personal workspace, and so on …
This is great and proves once again that you’re not just aware of users’ wishes and untapped potential in your app, but also willing to go beyond obvious solutions.
Sure, it solves an issue I that I sometimes had when using Bear (quick switch or search turning up notes that are outside my current scope or project), but I always assumed the solution would be just having separate notebooks or databases - with all the downsides that come with that. Now I can have my scopes but never have to fiddle around with multiple databases.
Just chiming in after a few days of use. I understand now why my personal tags were showing when I was in my work workspace…duh…because a few of my work notes were also tagged with personal tags. And since Shiny Frog can’t anticipate each one of our workflows and tagging systems, the current workspace solution is actually quite smart. Kudos to the team. Bear has a new lease on life for me, even more than it already had.
This is great! Really helps commanding a larger swarm of notes and context separating.
I suppose I understand the reason, but feels a bit odd, when looking at a pinned parent tag that it’s also showed among the normal tags still, since I’ve already set the “workspace” to this.
Also a bit unsure about moving pinned tags to the top… Will see in the coming days.
@zowiewho On a side note, I suggested a similar workspace/notebook feature years ago, but can’t find my post anymore. Are you archiving/deleting old posts?
Trying out this feature, looks promising. Only thing is that when you first create a workspace via a tag, changing the tag root will not update it in the workspace . Something to keep in mind.
@nesdroc We don’t delete threads unless they contain spam, are offensive, or contain false information. However, I can’t find a topic from you about workspaces. Maybe it was on Reddit?
Thanks for checking! I felt like I was going mad, had also browsed reddit… Finally found it! Actually sent it to you as a message as part of beta feedback on Bear 2.0. So at least I’m not losing my mind.. Great to see a version of the feature make it into Bear, albeit a bit later than I had hoped
Maybe not necessarily the trash, but definitely making the archive available as a workspace (directly under “Notes” in the pick up menu) would be an amazing feature that would satisfy many past requests.
Archive is meant for notes to disappear into (until you need them again, you can always search or un-archive them). Once archived, they’re not part of your active organization anymore.
If you want notes to stay available in your tags, just don’t archive them
Great to see a version of the feature make it into Bear, albeit a bit later than I had hoped 
