Using Claude with DeeperAI (Mac) Part 1: What DeeperAI is and what you can do with it

Series: Using Claude with DeeperAI Mac, Part 1: What DeeperAI is and what you can do with it ← you are here Mac, Part 2: Setup and AI configuration (coming) Mac, Part 3: Using the app (coming)

This is an English version of an article I originally published in Japanese on Qiita.

Introduction

Most of us use AI chat as one long scroll: ask, read, ask again, and a week later you can't find the answer you needed.

DeeperAI takes a different approach. It is a Mac / iPhone / iPad app where you pick a topic, break it into a tree of sub-topics, and talk to Claude inside each node of that tree. The conversation stays attached to the topic, so next time you pick up where you left off.

This first article covers what DeeperAI is and what it can do. Setup comes in Part 2.

Ways to use Claude

A quick map of the routes, so you know where DeeperAI fits:

• 🌐 Web - claude.ai in the browser (Free / Pro / Max plans)
• ⌨️ CLI / IDE extension - Claude Code in a terminal or VS Code (included in Pro / Max, no extra charge)
• 🔑 API key, your own - a third-party app such as DeeperAI with your own Anthropic API key; you contract directly with Anthropic and pay per use
• 🔑 API key, provided by the app - the app supplies the key; you pay the app (free tier, subscription) and need no Anthropic account

DeeperAI on iOS / iPadOS uses the API-key route. The free tier and the subscription use an app-provided key, so you can start without an Anthropic account; you can also enter your own key.

The Mac version adds one more backend: the claude CLI. Part 2 explains how to choose.

The structure: a tree, mirrored as folders

DeeperAI manages topics as a tree:

Theme (node)
├── Sub-theme A
│   ├── Sub-sub-theme A-1
│   └── Sub-sub-theme A-2
└── Sub-theme B

Each node can hold notes and attached files. Attachments are saved automatically in folders that mirror the tree, so the way you organize things in DeeperAI and the way they look in Finder stay in sync.

Left: the tree in DeeperAI. Right: the same hierarchy in Finder. Folders are created as chats and attachments accumulate under a theme. DeeperAI.dpai is DeeperAI's data file.

What you can do with it

The core workflow is: pick one theme and go deeper with AI, step by step. I'll use a deliberately vague theme as the example - "AI usage" (I want to get better at using Claude) - and show how the tree grows.

1. Pick a theme and split it into sub-themes

   Start with one theme. It can be as vague as "AI usage." Then ask yourself what it contains and what steps it needs, and hang those off it as sub-themes.

   In the screenshot, "What should I start with?" sits under "AI usage," with three sub-themes below it. The tree is on the left; on the right you see the selected theme's Overview (title, Notes, Status) and its sub-theme list.

2. Tell themes apart with emoji

   Themes can have an emoji. Once the tree grows, an emoji makes a theme much easier to spot. Click the square button left of the title to open the emoji picker (you can register your favorites). The small blue sparkle (✦) at its lower right asks the AI to suggest an emoji that fits the title.

   In the screenshot I picked 🤖 for "AI usage" myself and let the AI choose for "What should I start with?" - it picked 🚀.

3. Keep going deeper

   Sub-themes can have sub-themes, and so on. Because it's a tree, you never lose your place in the whole, however deep you dig.

4. Stuck on sub-themes? Ask the AI

   Press Suggest Sub-themes and the AI proposes some. They appear in the AI Suggestions column; press Adopt to add one as a real sub-theme. The three sub-themes in step 1 came from exactly this: the AI proposed five, I adopted three. The other two stay in the column - adopt them later, or dismiss them with ×.

5. Chat with the AI, per theme

   Every theme and sub-theme has its own chat. The contents of the open theme are passed to the AI, so the conversation is focused on that theme - no more hunting through one giant chat history.

   In the screenshot I opened "Tooling and environment setup" and briefly asked, "Which one is easiest to use with DeeperAI?"

6. Give context in the Notes

   Each theme has a Notes field (center of the screenshot above). Write your premises and goals there and the AI takes them into account, so you don't repeat the same explanation in every chat.

7. Save the AI's answers as attachments or sub-themes

   Ask in chat, "Make a comparison table and save it as a document" or "Give me this as sub-theme ideas," and the result arrives in a Content ready from chat dialog. For a document, choose Save as attachment; for a tree-shaped proposal, choose Import as subtopics. Either way it stays in the tree instead of scrolling away.

   For example, in "What should I start with?" I asked: "Give me a 4-week curriculum for someone starting with AI, as sub-theme ideas." Weeks 1-4 from the answer were imported into the tree as a new sub-theme, "Intro to AI usage."

8. View attachments and diagrams in the viewer

   Attached files and AI-made documents open in a viewer window. Here, the comparison table saved in step 7 is opened from the attachment list on the theme's Details tab. You can also ask the AI, "Draw this as a diagram and show it in the viewer." Nothing is saved as a file - you just look at it.

9. Pick up where you left off

   Everything is kept in the tree, so when you reopen the app you can see at a glance how far you got. The tree keeps stacking up the more you use it.

10. Open the same tree on iPhone / iPad

    The whole tree lives in a single file (DeeperAI.dpai, the one in the Finder shot above). Put that file in an iCloud Drive folder and open it from DeeperAI on iPhone / iPad to share the same tree with your Mac. (Only one device can edit at a time; if another device has it open, the app tells you.)

    You can chat and add notes on the train, then dig deeper on the Mac when you get home.

In the "AI usage" example, I started from a vague theme, worked out what to start with by talking to the AI, and had it draft a curriculum. From there the natural next step is to treat Claude as a teacher and take the lessons week by week.

Anything you'd want to explore in depth - planning a project, researching a subject, working out the steps of a task - fits the same flow. Part 3 covers where each control lives and the features not mentioned here.

A few more things

Beyond going deep on a theme, DeeperAI has a couple of other features. A quick tour:

The AI watches the web for you (Antenna)

Register a topic you want to watch on a theme, and the AI searches the web periodically and collects what it finds (frequency ranges from every 6 hours to manual-only). The first collection runs right after you register; after that, only the differences from last time pile up as Updates.

Results appear on the theme's Antenna tab and on the dashboard, and anything worth keeping can be saved as an attachment.

The AI edits and tidies the tree

Ask in chat, "Reorganize everything under this theme," or "Break this note into child nodes," and the AI does the tree editing itself. Changes are approved one at a time, so nothing you didn't intend gets applied.

Wrapping up

DeeperAI is one way to use Claude as an app. The biggest difference from claude.ai in the browser: the context of your conversations stays in the tree, and you can continue from there next time.

In Part 2 I'll walk through installation and API-key setup; Part 3 covers where things are and the features I skipped here.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/deeperai/id6761641850