The use case
You’re filling out a thought record with a client. They type: “My boss didn’t email me back, she’s going to fire me.” You want to remember the cognitive pattern for your formulation, but you don’t want it floating on the client’s screen mid-session. You click the ✎ note button beside the thought field and type: “catastrophizing — primary distortion this session.” When you export the thought record at the end of the session, the PDF includes:How it works
Annotations live in your browser only. They are:- Never sent to the client. On a client-fillable template, Rivet streams field updates between practitioner and client — but annotations are excluded from those messages. Your client’s browser doesn’t know annotations exist.
- Never cached anywhere durable. Client-fillable templates briefly cache field values so a reconnect restores work in progress. Annotations are intentionally excluded. If a reconnect happens, the field value comes back; the annotation doesn’t.
- Included in the export. When you Copy for session notes or Download as PDF, every annotation appears as an italic Therapist note: paragraph indented below its field. Practitioner- private notes (SOAP/DAP) behave the same way — annotations carry through to the PDF and the session-summary export.
- Local to the session. When the template overlay closes, annotations are freed along with the rest of the in-memory state. They don’t persist across sessions.
When to use them
Some patterns from practitioners using annotations:- Diagnostic impressions mid-session that you want to capture in the chart but not put in the client’s view. “Possible GAD overlay on top of presenting depression.”
- Risk-relevant observations that don’t rise to a formal flag but you want documented. “Mentioned alcohol use in passing — follow up next session.”
- Treatment-direction prompts to your future self. “Try behavioural-activation focus next session.”
- Quotes for your own reference that capture the client’s exact phrasing — useful for tracking themes across sessions when you paste the export into Jane.
- Counter-transference notes if you keep them — same posture as a paper-chart annotation a colleague wouldn’t see.
What annotations are not for
- Things you wouldn’t want to defend in a chart review. Annotations end up in your exported document. They’re not whisper-only. Write them as you’d write any chart note.
- Risk concerns that require action. If you’re documenting a safety risk — current SI, threats of harm, child-safety concern — use the main field, the Assessment section, or a Safety Plan template, not a side annotation. A risk note tucked under a field is harder to find later.
- Long narratives. The textarea grows but the export format keeps annotations as one-paragraph addenda. If you’re writing a full formulation, use the Assessment field directly.
In the export
Three places annotations appear:Clipboard copy
Plain text, indented two spaces below the field’s value:Per-template PDF
Italic, indented, with a blue left rule:The thought that went through your mind “I’m going to be fired”Therapist note: catastrophizing — primary distortion this session.
Session-summary PDF
Same indented italic block, inside the corresponding template’s section of the summary. Annotations attached to a SOAP or DAP note’s field appear in that note’s section; annotations on a client-fillable template (thought record, safety plan, screening scale) appear in their section.A small UX detail
The ✎ note button shows a small dot once an annotation has content, so you can see at a glance which fields you’ve annotated. Empty annotations don’t render in the export — typing in the box and then clearing it doesn’t leave an empty Therapist note: line.Related articles
How documentation works
The full practitioner-private posture that annotations sit inside.
Exporting notes
Where the annotations land in each of the three export formats.
Reviewing and editing notes
The note-writing flow that annotations fit into.