The most INTENT-aligned tool yet and the file-backed counterpart to Roam:
file-over-app vaults (plain .md folders, files canonical, MetadataCache a
derived index), in-file git-diffable addressing/structure (^block-id,
wikilink embeds, YAML frontmatter), and a plugin API (Plugin onload/onunload
over App.vault/metadataCache/workspace) that doubles as an adapter host —
so a vault is dual-attachable (file-store direct or in-app plugin). Mined
the plugin download rankings as demand evidence per the research brief:
#1 is drawings (Excalidraw, non-Markdown content), query-as-DB
(Dataview/Tasks) is top-tier but an add-on, Git is top-7 (bolt-on history),
Remotely Save shows sync-to-anywhere demand. Added UC-53 (attach local
vault w/ live concurrent native editor), UC-54 (query-defined dynamic
page), UC-55 (non-Markdown content types), UC-56 (outbound publish of a
projection); enriched UC-15/28/34/36/40/51/52. Boundary: a vault is one
file-backed candidate shard, not the federation layer and not a file-sync
target.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The modern bookend to the Xanadu/ZigZag dives: where those are unbuilt
ideals, Roam shipped fine-grained addressing (:block/uid), live
transclusion (block embeds), bidirectional links, and a queryable
structured space (DataScript datoms + Datalog). Studied as a candidate
DB-backed/API-attached shard (XWiki family) and as a concrete
engine-hosts-adapter surface (Roam Depot onload/onunload over
window.roamAlphaAPI). Added UC-50 (attach block-graph DB shard, block<->page
mapping), UC-51 (adopt native span IDs as portable span addresses), UC-52
(delegate derived views to a shard's native query engine); enriched
UC-32/34/35/38. Boundary: Roam is one candidate shard mapped into the
Markdown-first page model, not a substrate and not the federation layer.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Evaluated modelling a wiki information space as a zzstructure: a page is
a cell at the intersection of many co-equal dimensions (namespace tree,
created-from genealogy, version, shard, equivalence, links).
Recommendation: adopt zzstructure as a navigation/visualization/indexing
LENS (a derived dimensional projection over the union), not as the
storage substrate — Git and sovereign shards stay canonical, and the
many-to-many link graph does not fit the one-neighbour-per-dimension rank
rule. Clone <-> transclusion convergence with the Xanadu dive. Added
UC-47/48/49; enriched UC-05/22/26/29; dimensional projection layer +
genealogy-edges-in-journal logged as architecture for SHARD-WP-0002.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Document Federated Wiki mechanics (fork, journal, inverted browser model),
Caulfield lifecycle concepts, and comparison with git-backed wikis,
ActivityPub/XWiki, Xanadu patterns, and yawex REMOTE/VIRTUAL. Map
findings to shard-wiki INTENT without equating fedwiki to orchestration.
Explores WikiWikiWeb beginnings: design principles, social conventions,
navigation vocabulary, and documented use cases. Federation explicitly
deferred to a later research track.
