MissionOS User Guide

The first time you open MissionOS, Today is empty and offers a Start here card. Tap it, or go to Settings › Getting started, to build your plan with mOS.

1. Add a Priority. What matters most to you.
2. Add a Project. A goal with a target date.
3. Add an Action. The next concrete step towards it.
4. Add a Routine. A habit on a schedule.

Each takes about a minute, and you can start with just one. Once there's something in your plan, Today suggests your next step, your Mission Score has a starting point, and you can ask mOS about any of it.

Moving around

Five tabs run along the bottom: Today, Mission, Focus, Routine and Reflection. The same four buttons sit at the top of each one:

• Settings (the gear), top left.
• Capture Inbox (the tray), with a badge when a recording is ready to review.
• Capture (the microphone), to record a thought or a meeting.
• Ask mOS (the speech bubbles), top right.

Today answers one question: what should I do next?

Suggested next

The large card is the Action MissionOS thinks is most worth doing now, with its score out of 100, the Priority it supports and how long it should take. Tap Open Action to see it in full, or View reasons to see exactly what lifted it to the top: a deadline, a Priority, other work waiting on it, or a Project you've chosen to focus on.

Below it, You could also… offers a couple of good alternatives, and Today's Actions opens the full list for the day.

Your score and your day

At the top, the Mission Score sits beside two rings: how much of today's planned work is done, and how much of this week's. On a day with nothing due, the ring says so ("Nothing due today") rather than counting it against you.

Capacity and Energy

Capacity compares the work you've planned with the time you've said you have (set it in Settings › Planning & Capacity). Energy is set by you, or estimated from Apple Health if you connect it. Both help MissionOS choose sensibly: a light task when you're tired, a deep one when you have the time.

The Mission tab is your whole plan in one place.

• My Mission at the top, with your Mission Score and how many Projects are active. Tap the switch on the card to edit it.
• Suggested focus: the Project that most needs your attention now, with its score, due date and work remaining. Why this Project? explains the choice.
• Projects and Targets: switch between the two lists. Use + to add one and the arrows button to sort the list.

Inside a Project

A Project shows its Project Score, its due date, the Priorities it supports, progress on its Actions and anything that needs attention, such as an overdue Action. From here you can:

• see all its Actions and add more;
• open the Project Timeline;
• choose Focus on this Project for a week, which gives its Actions a fixed boost for seven days (you'll see it in their reasons);
• add Targets, and see how much work remains.

Targets

A Target is how you'll know the Project worked. It can be met when a Metric reaches a value (for example, a run of 21.1 km), when certain Actions are complete, when a routine has been kept, or when you say so. An Action can also wait for a Target to be reached before it becomes available.

Editing

Most screens open read-only so nothing changes by accident. Flip the switch in the top-right corner to edit; leaving the screen saves your changes.

An Action is one concrete step. Its page shows everything about it.

• Status and title in the blue header, with a short description below.
• Project it belongs to.
• Schedule: estimated time, time recorded so far, due date and whether it repeats.
• Before, after & completion: what it depends on, what it unlocks, and what completes it (you, or a Health total, for example).
• View reasons: its current score and why.
• Additional requirements: the kind of work it is, where it happens, and any need such as daylight.

At the bottom: Set up Focus session, Start timer and Complete.

Dependencies

If "Choose a builder" depends on "Get three quotes", it won't be suggested until the quotes are in. Finishing one Action can unlock the next.

Notes, photos and documents

Each Action has a Notes page with dated notes and links, photos, and documents. You can attach PDFs, text, Markdown, CSV, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Pages, Numbers and Keynote files, up to 20 MB each. Tap a document to preview it, or use its menu to share or delete it.

Location and daylight

Tap Use current location to label where an Action happens. If an Action needs daylight, MissionOS shows how long the light lasts where you are ("Daylight until 18:42") and won't suggest it after dark. See chapter 12.

Focus helps you give one thing your full attention, and records the time it really takes.

Start a session

1. On the Focus tab, choose Actions, Routines or Free Focus.
2. Choose your work.
3. Pick Timer (15, 25 or 50 minutes, or Custom) or Stopwatch.
4. Tap Start Focus.

You can also start from an Action with Set up Focus session.

During a session

The timer fills the screen. Pause and Resume, Finish for now (your time is saved and the Action stays open), or Complete to finish and mark the Action done. Details opens the Action, and the notes button keeps session notes. Reset focus timer restarts the clock without deleting time already recorded.

Turn your iPhone on its side for a landscape view: the timer on the left, the details on the right, and the controls always in reach.

Swipe down (the arrow at the top left) to use the rest of the app while the session keeps running. Focus also shows on your Lock Screen, and you can run it from your Apple Watch.

The Routine tab shows today's routines and how many are done.

• Now, All day and Completed filter the list.
• Tap the circle to tick a routine, or Skip this time if it isn't happening today.
• The arrows move between days; the grid button shows your routine categories; + adds a routine.
• View all Routines lists every routine, earlier, later and anytime.

Not sure where to start? Add more with mOS asks a few questions and suggests small routines that fit your day.

With Apple Health connected, a routine such as "Evening walk" or "10,000 steps" can tick itself when the day's total is reached.

Get it out of your head. Capture records a thought, a meeting or a site visit, and turns it into Actions you choose to keep.

Record

Tap the microphone at the top of any tab, then Tap to capture. Tap again to stop. A recording can last up to three hours, and keeps going when your iPhone is locked. Recording other people may need their consent.

Review

Your recording is transcribed on your iPhone. On iPhones with Apple Intelligence, MissionOS also reads the transcript and finds the Actions and their dates, the decisions and the open questions. When it's ready, the Capture Inbox (the tray at the top left) shows a badge.

Open the capture to see the summary and the suggested items. Nothing goes into your plan until you accept it. You can add it to an existing Project, start a New Project from this capture, play the original recording, or share it. A capture can also become a PDF report to send.

Other ways in

• Record on your Apple Watch; the recording is sent to your iPhone.
• Share a voice memo or audio file to MissionOS from another app.
• Set the Action button on your iPhone to Capture.

Without Apple Intelligence you still get the full transcript; the summary and suggestions need it.

Tap the speech bubbles at the top right of any tab to talk to mOS. It opens with suggestions that fit where you are, such as What should I do now?, Give me a quick win, What is most urgent?, What is blocking me? or What have I achieved?. You can also type or dictate your own question.

mOS answers from your own plan, and runs on your iPhone. It can suggest changes, such as a new Action or a routine, but it always asks before anything is added or changed.

Drafting from a note, photo or file

Have a plan on paper, in a photo or in a document? With Plus, choose Add from a source when adding a Project: scan a page, choose a photo or file, or paste a note. mOS drafts a Project with its Actions, and you check the draft before anything is created.

The Reflection tab looks back over your week: Actions completed, Focus time logged, how your routines went, a day-by-day chart, finished Projects and recent Focus sessions.

The weekly review

Once a week, Open your review takes you through it one card at a time: your Mission Score, what you completed, your routines, and what stood out. Then it asks what worked for you, and what you'd keep or change. It takes a few minutes. Save draft lets you finish later.

Your answers are kept with the week, so you can look back on them. If you change a Priority during the review, the change takes effect straight away.

Saved as you go

MissionOS saves your plan on your iPhone after every change.

iCloud Backup

In Settings › iCloud Backup, automatic backup copies your plan to your own iCloud when you leave the app, if it has changed. It uses the iCloud account your iPhone is signed in to, so there's nothing to sign in to, and Vacuum State can't read it.

Turn on Back up attachments to include photos, documents, Capture recordings and Capture transcripts and summaries. Tick the kinds you want. Recordings back up on Wi-Fi only unless you change that.

On a new iPhone, MissionOS offers the plan from iCloud: tap Use this plan, then close and reopen the app. It never replaces a plan without asking.

Export and import

Settings › Export & Import makes one file with your whole plan. Include photos, documents and Captures if you like. Import brings a file back in, which is handy for a one-off move between devices or a copy of your own.

Privacy in brief

• No account, no analytics, no adverts, no tracking.
• Suggestions, transcription and summaries run on your iPhone.
• Apple Health is read-only and never leaves your iPhone.
• Deleting MissionOS deletes everything it stored on your iPhone.

Read more in Settings › Privacy, or in the full privacy policy.

Tap the gear at the top left of any tab.

Appearance

Automatic, Light or Dark.

Plan & Subscription

Your plan, Plus, and Restore purchases.

Reminders

Off by default. Turn on the kinds you want. Reminders are made on your iPhone.

Getting started

Set up your plan with mOS.

Planning & Capacity

How much time you have each week.

Health & Activity

Connect Apple Health.

iCloud Backup

Automatic backup and attachments.

Daylight

Your approximate location for daylight times.

Capture Inbox

Recordings waiting for review.

Export & Import

Your whole plan as one file.

Privacy, Terms, Help

The privacy summary, Terms of Use, Help & Support and Send feedback.

Help and support