Talk to the past versions of yourself

Local-first outliner for writers. Paragraph focused, with search that understands meaning, and past thoughts that resurface when your current thoughts rhyme with them.

Apply for the genesis cohort macOS and Linux. Windows later.

This app is a bicycle for the mind. And I really like how I've decided to hide the echoes and show them on demand, because it doesn't break the flow when I'm writing. I want to explore what I'm thinking first before being bombarded by external opinions.

When did we decide not to empower people anymore and instead decided to enslave them? I remember reading somewhere how all industries degrade over time to be the shadow of what they once were and instead of providing value start extracting it. I think that happened with the tech industry since the era of Steve Jobs who worked hard on empowering people and giving as much value as possible.

This app needs to encourage cross-polination of ideas. We'll see if it does what it sells after the today's writing session. So far it's good for keeping the flow for the first draft.

Paragraph focused

A page is just a collection of paragraphs. When you write [[a name]], page gets created. Braid your writing by pasting paragraphs. Paste a paragraph somewhere and it appears as a copy.

When I read the published journals of others, they start by saying something profound right from the start. For example, here are two first sentences from Anne Truitt's Daybook: The Journal of an Artist that appear right after "12 August":

Unless we are very, very careful, we doom each other by holding onto images of one another based on preconceptions that are in turn based on indifference to what is other than ourselves.

For me to arrive at such sentences, I need to spend half an hour at least of letting out the wastewater first. How do they arrive at such profundity right of the bat?

We like to underestimate ourselves and think that others are better than us but the truth is actually mundane. No one arrives at beautiful sentences right of the bat. They need to be earned. I find this comforting.

I've watched my first documentary by Werner Herzog yesterday and I quite liked it: Grizzly Man. It's an absurd movie but raises some interesting questions.

Peek and then pull it out

Hover a link or an echo to preview it without leaving what you're writing. Press ⌘D and the card becomes a new window on your desktop. Open as many as you need and arrange them however you'd like.

September 6th, 2026

They say that you should just write what comes to your mind. Here's what comes to my mind as I write this.

Let's call it what it is. My writing habit is being completely annihilated by making the tool for improving the writing habit.

It looks like the writing is not flowing as much as it needs to today. But I guess that is okay. Not every day needs to be brilliant.

Search for the meaning and not for the exact word

Semantic search on your own machine. Describe a thought and it finds other thoughts that rhyme with it based on meaning and not the exact vocabulary match.

Search thoughts...

Have a conversation with your past self

The old paragraphs closest to what you are writing right now appear in the footer. Scrolling down brings old days and displays everything you have written on that day. Jump to a random paragraph and have a conversation with it.

August 9th, 2026

Again I'm reminded of Emerson and how he wrote even when he didn't have anything to write about. He wrote about that. That quote has stayed with me from one of his biographies. This really is a mark of a great writer. To continue. Even when there is nothing.

And now the moment of truth. Can I write something good in this app? Can it give me the spark that is necessary for writing one of the great posts? Can I find the relevant connections?

On this day

Design facilitates uniquely enjoyable and productive writing

Or maybe not. Perhaps I should just say that my writing flows better in Bear than it does in Roam and that's why I would like to spend more time in Bear.

August 10th, 2026

More ideas for this app. The brain doesn't start working. It's fun to build things. I have ideas about backlinks and how best to display them.

Record of every day

See the past six months of your contributions under the calendar. Each cell represents a day, the brighter the more you have written.

Nothing leaves your machine

Your notes live in one SQLite file on your machine. Editable titles are auto-summarized by a small language model that runs locally.

Titling model

The local model that titles your blocks — a GGUF model that runs on your machine. New models download in the background on first use; switching re-titles in the background too.

Qwen2.5 1.5B — best quality (recommended)

Search model

The local model behind semantic search. Switching re-indexes every block in the background; new models download on first use (~100MB).

LEAF-IR — best quality (recommended)

Built-in Readwise integration

Import your highlihts as paragraphs that are quoted as the author. Braid your own thoughts around them and have a conversation with the author when you write something similar.

I could feel such a delta between what I was making and what I wanted to make, and I wanted to know how I could close that gap. And I guess what I understand now is that no one can really tell you that. The most important thing I've learned since then is that consistency is proficiency—only you can teach yourself what you need to know.

This is good. I'm also trying to close this delta but sometimes it feels I'm widening the gap. Not every day that I'm writing feels like I'm closing it. Perhaps the right way to think about it is just attempting to show up every day and that's it. Perhaps I'm overthinking it.

Zen mode

Focused writing when you want to eliminate distractions. Navigation and echoes still work when you need them.

It's 5 am and I'm writing. Life is good. But then again, not sure to write about. Let's see what comes out of this. Let's see if there is anything good. Emerson wrote even when he had nothing to write about so I shall try to be like him.

Perhaps that's wrong. There's always something to write about. Maybe not in a stream-of-consciousness style of writing. But there is always something. I can always just jump around this network of notes that I have and try to find something interesting.

Twenty themes

Twenty themes to choose from. Editable accent for the caret and links.