Knowtation Know + Own + Action
Your notes, searchable. One place for you and your agents.
Portable vault, semantic search, and a single place for proposals—so you and your agents stay in context.
Precise so fewer tokens and faster. Fetch only what agents need. Streamlined requests mean lower cost.
Sign in above to open your vault in the Hub, or self-host from the repo.
{ "path": "projects/myapp/decisions/auth.md", "project": "myapp", "tags": ["auth", "decisions"], "date": "2025-03-10", "causal_chain_id": "auth-decisions", "entity": ["auth"], "episode_id": "sprint-12" },
{ "path": "inbox/auth-meeting-notes.md", "project": "myapp", "tags": ["meeting"], "date": "2025-03-08" },
{ "path": "inbox/decisions-2025-03.md", "tags": ["decisions"], "date": "2025-03-01" }
], "total": 3 }
project: myapp · tags: auth, decisions · date: 2025-03-10 · causal_chain_id: auth-decisions · episode_id: sprint-12
Chosen: OAuth + JWT. Rationale: ...
Why Knowtation
Knowledge scatters across tools and chats. Models need context—but dumping everything in a window wastes tokens and hurts accuracy. The bet here is notation you own plus retrieval that returns the right slice: precise faster fetch, fewer tokens, lower cost.
The problem
What matters is rarely one document—it is how decisions, rationale, and history connect. When that map lives only in people’s heads or inside a vendor’s closed session, you lose continuity when teams change or when you switch tools.
The shift
Long context alone is not enough. Agents need high-signal segments: scoped by project, tag, time, and cause. Over-fetch wastes money; precise retrieval—--limit, --fields, then get-note only for what matters—saves tokens and keeps answers sharp.
What we built
A vault of Markdown you control, indexed for search, callable from any agent via CLI or MCP. Tiered retrieval: narrow scope, cheap first (paths or count), fetch full content only when needed. Import from the tools you use; keep authority in files you can copy, diff, and move.
CLI: Connect via CLI or MCP
knowtation search, get-note, list-notes. MCP: same tools in Cursor/Claude. AGENT-INTEGRATION.md (in repo)Retrieval & token levers
--limit, --fields path, --since/--until, --count-only. Tiered retrieval = fewer tokens. RETRIEVAL-AND-CLI-REFERENCE.md (in repo)
Intention & temporal
Agents often lack intention and an overarching view over time. Knowtation helps.
Time-bounded search
--since, --until to scope results to date ranges.
Causal chains
Track decisions and events across time. Optional links: follows, caused by.
Hierarchical memory
Chunk, note, episode, project — reason at the right granularity.
What we track (summary)
All of these use optional frontmatter: date, project, tags, causal_chain_id, entity, episode_id, follows. Set them in the Hub (New note full form) or via CLI/API. Not auto-extracted—you or your agent add them. Filters: --since, --until, --chain, --entity, --episode. Full list and behavior: INTENTION-AND-TEMPORAL.md (in repo) and How to use in the Hub.
Knowtation Hub (hosted)
No servers to run. Sign in with Google or GitHub; your vault lives on the Internet Computer. Back up to GitHub anytime.
What you get
Vault
Markdown + frontmatter (Obsidian-style). Single source of truth. Use any editor.
Hub
Web UI to view and search the vault, manage proposals, and review imports. Self-host or use hosted when available.
CLI + MCP
Search, get-note, list-notes, index, write, export, import. Same interface for you and agents.
Import
ChatGPT, Claude, Mem0, NotebookLM, Google Drive, MIF, audio/video transcripts.
Multi-project
One vault, many projects. Filter by project or tag. All content available when you need it.
Transcription
Audio and video → one note per recording. Smart glasses and wearables supported.
Agent-ready
Cursor, Claude, DeerFlow, Windsurf, MCP-Agent — any runtime that speaks CLI or MCP.
Savings and speed
Tiered retrieval: narrow with --limit, --fields path, then fetch only what you need. Fewer tokens, lower cost, faster answers.
API for developers
REST API for search, notes, and proposals. Integrate Knowtation into your app or pipeline; JWT auth and CORS for hosted deployments.
Simple pricing
Self-hosted
- Full CLI + vault + search + write
- Indexer, capture, transcription locally
- Optional MCP server
- Data never leaves your machine
Knowtation Hub (hosted)
- Everything in self-hosted
- Hosted vault + API
- Proposals & review queue
- Web UI: view, search, approve
Building a flywheel
Capture and import into the vault → index → query from agents with tight fields and filters → refine notes → index again. Each cycle improves what retrieval can see; nothing depends on a single model release or a single vendor’s memory.