> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.pond.li/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Moves

> Typed acts of development — how a Thread gains direction.

A **Move** is a [Note](/notes) that's been given a **Move type** — a small label that says *how* the Note develops the Thread: as a thesis, a question, a tension, an extension of something already there.

Notes hold prose. Moves give that prose a role. Together they're the two sides of how you write in Pond: free composition (Notes) and typed development (Moves).

## Why Moves matter

Moves are the layer where a Thread stops being a collection and starts being an argument. A Thread with no typed Moves is a folder of Fragments and prose; a Thread with Moves has direction — purposes set, questions opened, claims staked, tensions named.

They also give Pond's [intelligent features](/pond-intelligence) richer signal about what the Thread is *doing*, not just what it contains.

## Move types

Every project starts with a default vocabulary. These are the types you'll see in the Move type badge:

| Type            | What it marks                                                 |
| --------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Purpose**     | What the Thread is for — the question or stance driving it.   |
| **Question**    | An open inquiry the Thread is pursuing.                       |
| **Thesis**      | A claim the Thread is staking.                                |
| **Supports**    | Material that backs up another item in the Thread.            |
| **Extends**     | Material that builds on or develops another item.             |
| **Contrasts**   | Material that pushes against or complicates another item.     |
| **Complicates** | Material that troubles, qualifies, or unsettles another item. |

You're not limited to these — any custom type you use in a Thread becomes part of that project's vocabulary going forward.

## Promoting a Note to a Move

Select a type from the **Move type badge** in the Note editor to promote a Note into a Move. You can change the type or clear it at any time; clearing it turns the Move back into a plain Note.

Once typed, Moves are filterable on the Thread's [Timeline](/threads#workspace) — filter to **Moves** to see only the typed development on the Thread, separate from raw Fragments and untyped Notes.

## Pond-authored Moves

Some Move types — **Curatorial** and **Observation**, for instance — are reserved for content Pond authors itself when it builds a Thread for you, or as it watches the Thread develop. These arrive in the Thread's [Observer drawer](/threads#the-observer), where you can review and click **Add to thread** to commit them.

Once in the Notebook they read as Moves tagged `#Curatorial · Pond agent` (or similar). You can re-type or remove the badge — they're yours to edit like any other Move.

## Where this is heading

<Info>
  **Not yet, but ideally** — the Pond agent will lean on Moves directly when it makes suggestions and builds Threads. Imagine a Fragment you save today getting surfaced as a possible resolution to a **Tension** or **Question** Move you recorded in a Thread three months ago; or the agent's Thread-building prioritising material that fills out an under-developed **Thesis**.

  Moves are how the agent reads what a Thread is *doing*. The richer your Move vocabulary on a Thread, the more useful Pond's suggestions can become.
</Info>