# Getting help

> Ask Margin Intelligence how something works, report a problem from inside the app and follow what happens to it, and check the status page when you can't tell whose fault it is.

There are three places to go. For how something works, ask the assistant. If
something is broken or missing, send a report from inside the app. If you
can't tell whether the problem is on your side or ours, the status page
answers that.

## Ask Margin Intelligence

Open Margin Intelligence with `⌘ J` (`Ctrl J` on Windows and Linux) and ask
how anything in The Margin works: "how do I share one note with my sister?",
"why didn't my phone buzz?". It answers from these docs and links the page it
used, so you can read the whole thing.

An outside assistant connected over MCP gets the same two help tools,
`search_help` and `get_help_article`, so it can answer the same questions from
the same pages. See [Agents and MCP](https://themarginapp.com/docs/agents-and-mcp) for how to connect
one.

The docs are also published as markdown for any AI to read:

- `https://themarginapp.com/docs/llms.txt` lists every page, each with a link
  to its markdown
- `https://themarginapp.com/llms-full.txt` is the product and tool
  reference in one file

## Report a problem

**Settings → Help and reports** is where reports start and
where you see what happened to them. You can also open the same form from
**Report a problem** in the menu under your picture at the
top of the screen, or from the command palette. When something fails, the
error screen has a **Report this** button that opens it too.

**Send a report**

1. Choose what it is: **Something broke**,
   **A request** or **A question**, then
   **Write it**.
2. Say how bad it is: App unusable, Something is broken, Annoying, or Idea.
3. Write what happened in your own words, up to 4,000 characters.
4. Press **Send report**. You get a short report id back,
   which you can quote if we email you about it.

Each report carries some diagnostics: the page you were on, your browser, which
build of the app you have, recent console lines, and the sync state. Open
**Include diagnostics** to read exactly what will be sent before you send it.
It never includes the text of a note, card or message.

Under **Your reports** is everything you have sent, in your words, with where
it got to: Received, Read, Being worked on, Fixed, or Not planned. Reports we
decide against stay in the list with that status.

A reply to your report comes by email, to the address on your account. You
can send up to five reports an hour.

The same page also has **Getting started**: **Replay** shows
the welcome from your first day again, and a switch brings back the Start
here list on your dashboard.

> **On the phone:** In the phone app, **Settings → Help** has
> **Report a problem** and **Service status**.

## The status page

[themarginapp.com/status](https://themarginapp.com/status) shows whether The Margin is working right
now. It is public, so it opens even when you can't sign in.

It checks our monitoring once a minute and updates itself, so you don't need
to reload it. Each part has its own line: the app, the database, sync, live
presence, the assistant, assistant tools and outside assistants. Each line
reads Running, Down, or Not known. Anything going wrong right now is listed
under **Open now**.

The page lists only problems you would notice, such as the app, sync or the
assistant being slow or down. Trouble with our own machines that doesn't reach
you stays off it. If our monitoring itself stops answering, every line reads
Not known and the page says so, rather than claiming all is well.

If sync is down, you can keep working. The Margin keeps your data on your
device and catches up when the connection returns. See
[Working offline](https://themarginapp.com/docs/working-offline).

The phone app's **Service status** adds a row at the top for your phone:
whether it is connected, when it last caught up, how many of your changes are
still waiting to go up, and whether the server refused any. That is usually
enough to tell whether the problem is your connection or ours.

If something is broken and the status page doesn't show it, tell us: send a
report, or email <hello@themarginapp.com>.

**Where to next**

- [Working offline](https://themarginapp.com/docs/working-offline): what keeps working with no connection
- [Agents and MCP](https://themarginapp.com/docs/agents-and-mcp): connecting an outside assistant
- [Notifications and sounds](https://themarginapp.com/docs/notifications): push, sounds and the bell


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Section: Control and connections. Checked against the running product on October 3, 2026.
Web page: https://themarginapp.com/docs/getting-help. Every docs page: https://themarginapp.com/docs/llms.txt
