---
title: Write a new item by hand | Relic Help
description: The gold plus opens New relic: a title, the text, tags and attached files. Save it to your Vault, or make it a snippet with a trigger you can type later.
canonical: https://relic.space/help/compose
source: https://relic.space/llms.txt
---
Capture

# Write a new item by hand

The gold plus opens New relic: a title, the text, tags and attached files. Save it to your Vault, or make it a snippet with a trigger you can type later.

Updated 10 September 2026 · Every platform

## [Opening the composer](#open-it)

Most items arrive by being copied. Some never were copied: a standard reply you send twice a week, a bank detail somebody read out to you, a note to your future self. The gold plus writes one by hand.

On a computer it is in the header of the Relic window, just to the right of the sync chip. On a phone it is the gold plus button at the bottom right of the list. Either one opens a dialog called **New relic**.

The gold plus button a phone shows at the bottom right of the list.

## [The fields](#fields)

1. Click the gold plus
The plus button sits in the header of the Relic window, just to the right of the sync chip. On a phone it is the gold plus at the bottom right.
2. Write the text
Type or paste whatever the item is. It can be one line or several paragraphs. This is the part that lands on your clipboard when you pick the item later.
The New relic dialog. Four labelled boxes down the middle: TITLE (OPTIONAL), TEXT with the cursor in it, TAGS holding one tag, and ATTACHMENTS with an Add files button. Along the bottom are a Save to Vault checkbox, Cancel, and a gold confirm button. Writing a new item by hand. Only the text (or a file) is required.
3. Add a title and tags
The title is optional. Tags are typed one at a time and added with Enter. Both are searchable.
4. Decide where it goes
The **Save to Vault** checkbox is at the bottom left. Ticked, the item is kept and never expires. Clear, it sits in history with everything else you copied today.
5. Press Create
Cancel throws it away. Create is greyed out until there is some text or at least one file.

Relic confirms it either way, and tells you when it could not:

Created in VaultCreatedCouldn't create. Too large or empty

## [Attaching files](#attachments)

**Add files**under Attachments opens your computer's file picker, and you can pick several at once. They all ride along on the one item, so a quote and the two photos that go with it stay together.

Relic shows the running total next to the button, against the size limit for one item. Anything that would push you over is left behind and the dialog says how many were skipped and what the limit is. See [when something is too big](https://relic.space/help/what-gets-captured#too-big).

## [Making it a snippet](#snippets)

At the top of the dialog is a checkbox called **Save as snippet**. Tick it and the dialog becomes **New snippet**: the title box turns into _Trigger label_ and the text box into _Snippet text_.

A trigger is a short word you invent, usually with a marker in front of it so you never type it by accident, like _;welcome_. Type it in the Relic search box and that snippet jumps to the top of the list, ahead of everything else, even if the words inside it match nothing you typed. You do not need the marker when you search: typing _wel_ finds _;welcome_.

A snippet is an ordinary item with a reserved _snippet_ tag, so it syncs, searches, and can be edited like anything else.

[Snippets](https://relic.space/help/snippets) covers writing good triggers and keeping a set of them tidy.

Related

[Save something and name itCapture](https://relic.space/help/save-and-annotate)[Keep the last thing you copiedCapture](https://relic.space/help/keep-the-last-thing)[What Relic capturesCapture](https://relic.space/help/what-gets-captured)[The Relic windowGet started](https://relic.space/help/the-popup)