WikiBonsai

A knowledge bonsai wends through concepts in semantic space, like a melody winds through harmonies in music.

cite me!

⚠️ 🌱 This project is newly sprouted! So please consider it a beta: Remember to backup all data and please use version control.

The WikiBonsai project¹ transforms a collection of markdown files into a text-based, easy-to-navigate jungle gym for thought² with an API for the mind³. This is accomplished by enabling personal knowledge management (PKM) workflows that rely on [[wiki]] syntaxes, "semantic trees" or "knowledge bonsais", and data visualizations that are viewable on screens or in augmented/virtual reality.

This project is about strategically implementing functionality that will benefit the most users and developers across the digital ecosystem. Thus, it abides by the Unix Philosophy: Everything is modularized and implemented in such a way as to maximize re-use whether it be for the browser, desktop, mobile, or headset. It's about furthering the state of PKM as a whole by building atop "standardization bedrock" instead of just creating a single application.

Further, these workflows may also facilitate the mapping of semantic space which could prove an invaluable resource in building a better understanding of how neural nets work and furthering the development of interpretable, explainable AI.

Only time will tell how far this path may go.

Notable Workflows

These are the workflows the WikiBonsai project enables for markdown-based collections of notes:

1. Expanded [[wikirefs]] syntax for quick associative linking (a.k.a. "wikilink", "bidirectional link", "internal link", etc.).
2. Mechanics to build a unified "semantic tree" or "knowledge bonsai" across a collection of markdown files.
3. Graph utilities to visualize the relationships formed by syntaxes 1 + 2 and unify them into an interactive "memory palace".
4. A lean markup language for attributes, similar to yaml (with built-in [[wikiref]] support).

These workflows are what distinguish the "WikiBonsai" from other styles of digital garden -- particularly the semantic tree.

Project Info

Docs

The documentation in this repository describe the philosophies, mechanics, and terminologies that are adopted throughout all of the WikiBonsai projects:

• For Use:
  • How To Use
  • Privacy and Security
• For Dev:
  • Design Principles
  • Terminology
  • Code of Conduct
  • Contributing
• For Lore:
  • Guiding Philosophy
  • Origin Story
  • Citations and Sources
• For Input:
  • Questions

Repos

The following links point to repositories of the WikiBonsai project and are organized by stack depth. Projects toward the top are ready-to-use and meant for the end user, while projects toward the bottom are meant for developers to build with and integrate into other solutions:

• For Use:
  • AI:
    • semtree-germ: An AI-powered "Semantic Tree Germinator" to generate starter semantic trees to transplant into one's own digital garden.
    • prompt: Prompts for AI-powered digital gardening.
  • Notes:
    • vscode-wikibonsai: A VSCode extension for tending a WikiBonsai digital garden.
    • tendr-cli: A CLI tool for tending a markdown-based WikiBonsai digital garden.
  • SSG:
    • jekyll-wikibonsai: A jekyll template that can be imported as a gem or cloned as a template project.
    • astro-wikibonsai: An example setup to enable WikiBonsai workflows for an astro-based statically generated site (SSG).
    • eleventy-wikibonsai: An example setup to enable WikiBonsai workflows for eleventy-based static site generation (SSG).
  • Starters:
    • garden-beds: A collection of starter WikiBonsai digital gardens.
    • germs: A collection of markdown files meant to be added to pre-existing WikiBonsai, or other style, digital gardens.
• For Dev
  • Markdown Parsers:
    • markdown-it-caml: A markdown-it plugin to enable :colon::attributes.
    • markdown-it-wikirefs: A markdown-it plugin to enable [[wikirefs]].
    • remark-caml: A remark plugin to enable :colon::attributes.
    • remark-wikirefs: A remark plugin to enable [[wikirefs]].
  • Jekyll:
    • jekyll-graph: A jekyll plugin to generate graphs of blog content.
    • jekyll-semtree: A jekyll plugin to generate a semantic tree from index collections.
    • jekyl-wikirefs: A jekyll plugin to enable [[wikirefs]].
  • Base:
    • caml: Base utilities for Colon Attribute Markup Language (:colon::attributes).
    • caudex: An index to cache and store WikiBonsai relationships.
    • semtree: Base utilities for "semantic tree" or "knowledge bonsai" building in markdown.
    • treehouze: Generalized graph utilities with minor specialized features for visualizing WikiBonsai-enabled markdown-based PKMs.
    • wikirefs: Base utilities for [[wikirefs]].
  • Spec:
    • caml-spec: Test suite for Colon Attribute Markup Language (:colon::attributes) specification.
    • wikirefs-spec: Test suite for [[wikirefs]] specification.

⚠️ Usage Note

The systems you interact with have an effect on the way you think. This system is meant to provide a "jungle gym for the thought," but it can't do everything and might even have negative consequences if used improperly. Here are some supplemental suggestions for adopting a framework such as this, especially for educational purposes:

Write Full Essays

The workflows this project enables are meant to help develop an explicit relationship with the words you use. It's possible over-reliance on a tool like this (like many other digital productivity tools) can allow, or even facilitate, overly modular and fractured trains of thought. Writing full essays can combat fractured thinking and exercise those parts of the mind.

Refer to Common Cultural Reference Points

(such as britannica or wikipedia)

By adopting a tool specifically meant for mapping vocabulary, it can be tempting to use niche words or make up one's own to demarcate an idea. But too much of this risks building a Tower of Babel and losing the ability to communicate effectively with others. Use shared vocabulary where you can and if you've found a word of better fit, use it with others. That is the purpose of language after all.

There is Never a "Final Word"

Like this project it is best to view a set of notes and explicit knowledge as a current state of affairs -- it's the state of the trail; of how much clutter has been cleared away. The goal is to build a navigable path for yourself, but to remain aware of what other things lie beyond the already-explored path. Always be open to what hard reality is telling you, especially while getting your hands dirty.

Get Your Hands Dirty

The digital world cannot replace practical, hands-in-the-mud experience. No matter what you learn or study be sure to learn something, anything, that requires your hands in the real world.

Forward

As with pretty much all human endeavors, this project does not represent any kind of "final word" or "best solution" but a "clearing of brush" or "cutting away the chaffe"...Of making the road ahead a touch less bumpy and a bit more wonder-full for those that follow.

just keep tending...🪴

🇺🇸 Made in the USA 🦅 🐊

Footnotes

1. 🤖 AI Collaboration: To date, code and prose of the WikiBonsai project was not written by AI, but was occasionally consulted to improve overall quality. This may or may not change going forward. ↩

2. Not too dissimilar from a "bicycle for the mind". ↩

3. Please excuse the mixed metaphor soup. ↩