Medium Launches TK, a Free Writing App Whose AI Won’t Write for You

On Monday, November 9, 2026, Medium launched TK, a private notebook app built to assist writers without generating prose for them. Accessible at tk.xyz, it takes its name from publishing shorthand for “to come.” Our verdict: TK is a thoughtful draft incubator that respects authorial voice, but an undisclosed AI model, an unreviewed agent plugin and no word on Arabic mean most of our readers should treat it as a workshop to try, not yet a home for their archive.

Assisted Drafting Without Ghostwriting

Rather than ghostwriting articles, TK acts as an in-editor sounding board. Typing “@TK” mid-sentence lets writers check facts, retrieve past notes, or get unstuck. Built-in AI skills give editorial and headline feedback, checks drafts against Medium publication style guides, and notices if writing could form a book. Any search, tag, or topic can be condensed into a wiki-style summary linked to source notes. It also features daily prompts from past writing and social libraries like Public Journal, Write a Book, and Get Feedback on Your Writing.

Medium draws a firm boundary against automated text generation. Writing in the Medium blog, Tony Stubblebine wrote that TK “won’t write your essay for you,” arguing that “TK is the gym and Medium is the stage.” Published notes can also disclose human versus AI contributions, “right down to the prompting and source material.”

Pricing Ambiguity and Unconfirmed Store Releases

TK is advertised as “Free with your Medium account” and “Free to start, private until you choose to share.” No paid tier or usage limits are published yet, though “Free to start” hints that paid plans may follow. TK runs on the web, and Medium stated the launch includes “a mobile app” with capture widgets. However, TK could not be confirmed in a US App Store search, and native desktop apps remain unreleased.

Users can import Medium posts, Markdown files, or vaults from Bear and Obsidian AI, with Markdown export available. Crucially, TK is cloud-based for collaboration. As TechCrunch reported, writing is not encrypted because the service prioritizes sharing, leaving privacy dependent on access settings.

The Model Context Protocol and Privacy Caveats

On privacy, Medium claims: “No AI company ever trains on your writing or uses it without your permission.” Medium also excludes ad targeting and has reported profitability since August 2024. For agent workflows, TK offers an MCP server and a Claude plugin to maintain daily notes from Claude Code, with optional connectors to Slack, Gmail, Google Calendar, Linear, and Granola.

However, the plugin repository README warns that personal-marketplace plugins are unreviewed by Anthropic. Wiring an unreviewed plugin into your email and Slack is a real security decision, not a formality. Furthermore, Medium does not disclose which AI model powers TK, what usage limits apply, or whether country restrictions exist.

Audience Fit in an Era of Publishing Skepticism

TechCrunch noted that publishing faces deep friction over generative text, with authors dropped over AI use and skepticism toward automated detectors. TK fits essayists and Medium writers seeking structured critique without sacrificing voice. Writers who want their notes stored locally, or who want an assistant that drafts whole passages for them, are better served elsewhere: Notion AI will happily write a first draft, which TK deliberately refuses to do.

The Arabic Support Void and a Five-Minute Verification

Medium and TK publish nothing about Arabic or right-to-left support, and publication style checks are exclusively for English outlets. Arabic writers should run this five-minute test before committing:

• Type an Arabic sentence with an English word to verify bidirectional punctuation and cursor order.
• Query “@TK” in Modern Standard Arabic and a dialect to see if it replies in Arabic.
• Run headline feedback on an Arabic title.
• Export to Markdown to ensure Arabic characters remain uncorrupted.

If what you need is Arabic proofreading rather than a notebook, a tool built for Arabic such as Qalam is the safer bet for now.

Recommended Next Steps for Writers

If you have a Medium account, test TK on the web to evaluate its feedback against your drafting process. If you use Claude, try the MCP connection with a test library before you let the Daily Note plugin anywhere near work email or Slack. And export your archive to Markdown now and then: keep local backups of your writing until desktop apps, pricing tiers, and language support are confirmed.