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Your list and its links

A list needs no account. Once its first item has a name or a weight, it’s saved and gets two links, both in the Sharing panel.

  • The edit link lets anyone who holds it change the list. Keep it private and save it somewhere safe.
  • The share link is read-only and always shows the latest version. It isn’t listed or indexed anywhere.

Two people with the edit link can edit at once and see each other’s changes within seconds.

If a link gets out

“Replace edit link” in the Share tab makes a new edit link, and the old one stops working. The share link can’t be replaced, so if it reaches the wrong person, use “Duplicate this list”, which gives the copy new links, and delete the original.

If you lose the edit link

“Your packs” in the editor lists every list this browser has opened. If you clear the browser’s data, a list with no account behind it opens only from its edit link, and I can’t recover that.

Signed in, the lists this browser made and every list you make are filed under your account, and open on any device you sign in on. To file a list someone sent you, use “Add to your account” in the Share tab.

Undo, history and deleting

Removing a row or folder can be undone for a few seconds. “Recent changes” in the Share tab lists each change with its time and who made it. Mahonia keeps the last few versions of every list, so if something is lost past undo, email me.

“Delete this list” removes it for everyone and can’t be undone in the app. Only a list with one item or none is ever cleared automatically, after 30 days untouched. The privacy policy has the details.

Packing

Packing turns the list into a checklist. Ticks are saved for everyone with the edit link, and the share link doesn’t show them. “Clear checks” resets them.

Weights and the catalog

As you type an item’s name, the catalog suggests matching gear, and picking one fills in its brand, type and weight. Nearly every catalog weight is the maker’s published figure, from its own page or a shop’s. A few were weighed by hand, and a few marked “community” were typed by other people and haven’t been checked yet.

How some gear is weighed:

  • Tents at their packaged weight, with stakes and bags, which is heavier than the trail or minimum figure. A tent found only at trail weight says “trail weight”.
  • Food with its pouch. A row found only at net weight says “net”, and a canister’s “net fuel” is the gas alone.
  • Trekking poles, shoes, socks and gloves as a pair. A multi-pack says so (“3-pack”), and everything else is one item.

When a weight is wrong

Type your own weight over it. Your list uses your number, and the row stays linked to the catalog. If the catalog is wrong, use “suggest a fix” on the row, ideally with a link to the maker’s or a shop’s page. A fix with a link from a known maker or shop updates the catalog for everyone at once, and any other fix to a checked weight waits for a source.

Units and totals

  • Type a weight with its unit, like 820 g or 3.8 oz. The row keeps that unit while totals stay in the list’s unit, which you change by tapping the big total.
  • Base is the pack without what gets used up. Worn is what’s on your body. Consumable is food, water and fuel. Carried is base plus consumable.
  • A row can be partly worn, like one pair of socks out of three.
  • Food rows take calories, totalled for the list and per day once the trip has dates.
  • “Keyboard shortcuts” in the editor’s ⋯ menu lists the rest.

Moving from LighterPack

“Import a list…” in the editor’s ⋯ menu takes a LighterPack share link, a CSV or a Mahonia backup, and makes a new list from it.

  • Each LighterPack category becomes a folder, and each item keeps its name, description, quantity, weight and unit, worn and consumable marks, and link.
  • Prices, the list’s name and its unit don’t come across.
  • Rows that exactly match a catalog product arrive linked to it.
  • A list holds up to 1,000 items in 50 folders.

Getting a list back out

The Export tab in Sharing copies the list as plain text or Markdown, or downloads it as a CSV or a JSON backup. The backup has everything except your body weight, and importing it restores the whole list. A share link offers the same exports in its ⋯ menu, without the route or ticks, and adding .md to its address gives you Markdown.

Planning a trip

The Trip tab works from the list’s dates and trail.

  • Add the trail in the list’s header. Mahonia doesn’t open a linked page, so with a link you type the distance yourself. A map file (GPX, KML, KMZ, TCX, FIT, GeoJSON or GeoRSS, up to 10 MB) gives the distance and climb. The file stays in your browser, and Mahonia keeps only the line the trail follows.
  • The days follow the trip’s dates. Type how far each day goes, or drag the camps along the map.
  • Each day shows its distance, climb and descent, walking time, daylight, calories and a link to the forecast. Marking water on the route adds the day’s longest dry carry.
  • “Add people” in the ⋯ menu names who’s coming, up to 12. Each person’s load is the items marked as theirs, worn things included.

Where the numbers come from

  • Walking time uses Tobler’s hiking function, slowed about 1% per kilogram carried. The pack gets lighter each day as the food is eaten (water isn’t counted, since you refill it). Breaks aren’t included.
  • Daylight is sunrise to sunset at the middle of the day’s route, without allowing for hills. It changes colour when the walk leaves less than two hours spare.
  • Calories use your body weight if you give it, and are good to about 20%. Your weight stays on this device.
  • Distance is in miles unless you pick kilometres. Climb is in feet or metres to match.

What a share link shows

A share link shows each day’s name, distance, climb and note, and the elevation profile. It leaves out the map, the route line and your waypoints, because a recorded track can start where you live.

My Gear and your account

My Gear keeps the gear you own and offers it on every list you make. It needs an account. Sign in with a passkey or an emailed link, which works once within 15 minutes, and a new address gets an account the first time it asks for a link.

  • While you’re signed in, My Gear saves each named row that has a weight or a catalog link as you build. On someone else’s list, it asks first.
  • A kit is a set you pack together, like a stove, pot and lighter, and goes onto a list as one group. Make one under Kits in My Gear, or save a list’s group with “Save to My Gear as a kit”.
  • “Remove” puts a piece away, and lists that still carry it won’t bring it back. Adding it again in My Gear does.
  • “Download everything” on your account page downloads your filed lists and My Gear.
  • “Delete account” erases your email, passkeys and My Gear. Your lists stay, with their links, unless you tick “Delete my lists too”.

From an assistant

Mahonia is also a connector. Add https://mahonia.app/mcp to an AI assistant that speaks MCP, and you can ask it to work on your lists. Without signing in, it can read a list from its share link, search the catalog, make a list, and change one given its edit link, with the same permissions those links give a person.

Signed in, it can also reach the lists filed under your account, and My Gear. It asks you to sign in the first time, and stays connected until you disconnect it under “Assistant access” on your account page.

Setting it up

  • Claude, on the web, desktop or phone: add Mahonia as a connector and choose “Sign in when needed”. It works in Claude Code too.
  • Cursor and VS Code: one click, for Cursor or VS Code.
  • ChatGPT: in Settings, turn on Developer mode and add the address with “No Authentication”.
  • Claude Code: claude mcp add --transport http --scope user mahonia https://mahonia.app/mcp
  • Gemini CLI: gemini mcp add --transport http mahonia https://mahonia.app/mcp
  • Anything else takes the address. A client that only speaks stdio can bridge to it: npx mcp-remote https://mahonia.app/mcp

A client that can’t sign in can use a token instead. Make one under “Assistant access” on your account page and send it as an Authorization: Bearer header. It’s shown once and lasts until you revoke it.

Questions?

Email hello@mahonia.app, or use “Send feedback…” in the editor’s ⋯ menu.