diff --git a/getting-started-vault/capturing-people-and-meetings.md b/getting-started-vault/capturing-people-and-meetings.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..e4c9b73d --- /dev/null +++ b/getting-started-vault/capturing-people-and-meetings.md @@ -0,0 +1,38 @@ +--- +title: Capturing People and Meetings +is_a: Note +related_to: "[[Personal Knowledge Management]]" +author: "[[Luca Rossi]]" +date: 2025-01-28 +--- + +The Person type is one of the most useful in my vault. Here's how I use it. + +## One note per person + +Every person I interact with meaningfully gets a Person note. Not just colleagues — also people I meet at conferences, authors whose work I follow, collaborators I might reach out to. + +A minimal Person note looks like this: + +```yaml +--- +title: Matteo Cellini +is_a: Person +role: Head of Partnerships +related_to: "[[Refactoring Newsletter]]" +--- +``` + +The body holds context: how we met, what they're working on, anything I want to remember. + +## Meetings as connections + +When I have a meeting, I create a note for it and link everyone present via `related_to`. This means every Person note accumulates backlinks over time — a natural history of interactions without any manual effort. + +## Finding things later + +The power comes when you need to remember something. Open a person's note, look at their backlinks — you see every meeting, every shared project, every note that mentioned them. It's the closest thing I've found to having a good memory. + +## The pattern + +Person notes are intentionally sparse upfront. I add context as I interact with people. A note that starts as just a name and a role grows into something genuinely useful over months. diff --git a/getting-started-vault/how-i-organize-my-vault.md b/getting-started-vault/how-i-organize-my-vault.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..d9009b34 --- /dev/null +++ b/getting-started-vault/how-i-organize-my-vault.md @@ -0,0 +1,31 @@ +--- +title: How I Organize My Vault +is_a: Note +related_to: "[[Personal Knowledge Management]]" +author: "[[Luca Rossi]]" +date: 2025-01-15 +--- + +My vault follows a structure loosely inspired by PARA, adapted to how I actually think and work. + +## The four types I use + +**Projects** — things with a clear outcome and an end date. Building a feature, writing an article, preparing a talk. Projects are active or done, never vague. + +**Responsibilities** — areas I own ongoing, with no end date. Newsletter, health, finances, team. A Responsibility never "completes" — it just gets better or worse. + +**Topics** — concepts, ideas, and subjects I care about. Personal Knowledge Management, Software Architecture, Cycling Training. Topics are the intellectual threads that run through everything else. + +**People** — anyone I interact with meaningfully. Each person has a note with context, how we met, what we've worked on together. + +## How they connect + +A Project `belongs_to` a Responsibility. A note `related_to` a Topic. A meeting note `related_to` the people who attended. Over time, these connections turn a flat list of files into something closer to how memory actually works. + +## Events + +I also sync calendar events into my vault as Event notes — one note per meeting or important event, linked to the people present. [[Luca Rossi]]'s AI assistant Brian handles this automatically via a cron job. + +## The rule I follow + +If I create a note and don't connect it to anything within a day or two, it goes to Inbox and stays there until I organize it. The Inbox is the queue — not a dumping ground. diff --git a/getting-started-vault/luca-rossi.md b/getting-started-vault/luca-rossi.md index ca456e03..f4f60df8 100644 --- a/getting-started-vault/luca-rossi.md +++ b/getting-started-vault/luca-rossi.md @@ -4,9 +4,17 @@ is_a: Person role: Founder website: https://refactoring.fm twitter: https://twitter.com/lucaronin -related_to: "[[Getting Started]]" +related_to: + - "[[Personal Knowledge Management]]" + - "[[Getting Started]]" --- -Creator of Laputa and founder of [Refactoring](https://refactoring.fm), a newsletter about engineering leadership and software craft. +Creator of Laputa and founder of [Refactoring](https://refactoring.fm), a newsletter about engineering leadership and software craft for senior engineers and engineering leaders. -Luca built Laputa to organize his own knowledge — projects, people, and ideas — in a way that stays grounded in plain files and version control. +Luca built Laputa to solve his own problem: after years of using Notion, Roam, and Obsidian, he wanted a knowledge base that was truly his — plain files, real version control, and AI that can operate on the vault directly. + +Some of his writing on how he thinks about knowledge management: +- [[How I Organize My Vault]] +- [[Why Plain Files]] +- [[Syncing Calendar Events into Laputa]] +- [[Capturing People and Meetings]] diff --git a/getting-started-vault/personal-knowledge-management.md b/getting-started-vault/personal-knowledge-management.md index cb2258dc..02d7ea40 100644 --- a/getting-started-vault/personal-knowledge-management.md +++ b/getting-started-vault/personal-knowledge-management.md @@ -5,4 +5,13 @@ is_a: Topic Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) is the practice of collecting, organizing, and connecting the information you encounter — notes, ideas, references, and people — so it becomes a durable personal asset. -Laputa is designed as a PKM tool. Unlike traditional note-taking apps, it treats your notes as a graph of interconnected entities. Types give structure, wikilinks create connections, and views let you slice through the graph from different angles. +Laputa is designed as a PKM tool. Unlike traditional note-taking apps, it treats your notes as a graph of interconnected entities: types give structure, wikilinks create connections, views let you slice through the graph from different angles. + +## How Luca uses Laputa for PKM + +These notes describe the actual system behind this vault — written by [[Luca Rossi]] as examples you can learn from and adapt: + +- [[How I Organize My Vault]] — the structure: Projects, Responsibilities, Topics, People +- [[Syncing Calendar Events into Laputa]] — turning meetings into connected knowledge +- [[Capturing People and Meetings]] — building a useful network of Person notes +- [[Why Plain Files]] — why markdown + Git beats proprietary tools diff --git a/getting-started-vault/sidebar-and-navigation.md b/getting-started-vault/sidebar-and-navigation.md index 0f98dba9..3cf6b4e0 100644 --- a/getting-started-vault/sidebar-and-navigation.md +++ b/getting-started-vault/sidebar-and-navigation.md @@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ belongs_to: "[[Getting Started]]" ## Main sections -- **Inbox** — notes you haven't organized yet. Once you've added relationships or toggled "organized", they leave the Inbox. +- **Inbox** — notes you haven't organized yet. A note leaves the Inbox when you mark it as "organized" using the ✓ button in the breadcrumb bar. - **All Notes** — every note in your vault - **Archive** — notes you've finished with but want to keep - **Trash** — deleted notes, recoverable for 30 days @@ -20,3 +20,13 @@ Use the sliders icon next to **TYPES** to show or hide types from the sidebar. U ## Favorites Star any note to pin it to the top of the sidebar. Click the ⭐ icon in the breadcrumb bar at the top of the editor, or use **Cmd+K → Favorite**. + +## Keyboard shortcuts + +| Action | Shortcut | +|--------|----------| +| Quick open | Cmd+P | +| Command palette | Cmd+K | +| New note | Cmd+N | +| Settings | Cmd+, | +| Search | Cmd+F | diff --git a/getting-started-vault/syncing-calendar-events.md b/getting-started-vault/syncing-calendar-events.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..ffbb32cb --- /dev/null +++ b/getting-started-vault/syncing-calendar-events.md @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +--- +title: Syncing Calendar Events into Laputa +is_a: Note +related_to: "[[Personal Knowledge Management]]" +author: "[[Luca Rossi]]" +date: 2025-02-10 +--- + +One pattern I've found genuinely useful: every significant meeting or event gets a note in my vault. + +## How it works + +My AI assistant Brian runs a cron job that checks my calendar daily. For each meeting, it creates (or updates) an Event note in my vault with the relevant metadata — title, date, attendees — and links each attendee to their Person note. + +The result: every person I meet has a trail of events in their backlinks. I can open [[Luca Rossi]]'s note and immediately see every meeting we've had, what was discussed, what followed. + +## What an Event note looks like + +```yaml +--- +title: 1:1 with Matteo — Jan 10 +is_a: Event +date: 2025-01-10 +related_to: + - "[[Matteo Cellini]]" + - "[[Refactoring Newsletter]]" +--- +``` + +The body holds notes from the meeting — decisions, action items, context. + +## Why this matters + +Without this, meetings exist only in my calendar and my memory. With it, they become searchable, connected knowledge. A year later I can search "Matteo sponsorship" and find the exact conversation where we made a decision. + +You don't need a cron job to do this — you can create Event notes manually. The pattern is what matters. diff --git a/getting-started-vault/welcome.md b/getting-started-vault/welcome.md index 263231d5..5b816f1f 100644 --- a/getting-started-vault/welcome.md +++ b/getting-started-vault/welcome.md @@ -7,13 +7,31 @@ _pinned: true Welcome to Laputa — your personal knowledge base, stored as plain markdown files and versioned with Git. -Here's where to start: +This vault is your starting point. It contains real notes you can read, edit, and use as a model for your own. -- [[What is Laputa]] — the philosophy behind the app -- [[Using the Editor]] — markdown, wikilinks, and frontmatter -- [[Types, Properties and Relationships]] — how to structure your knowledge -- [[Views and Search]] — finding and filtering your notes -- [[Sidebar and Navigation]] — Inbox, All Notes, Favorites -- [[AI and Git]] — Claude Code integration and sync +## Start here -**Luca Rossi** ([[Luca Rossi]]), the creator of Laputa, built it to organize his own knowledge — projects, people, and ideas — in a way that stays grounded in plain files you always own. +**Step 1 — Learn the basics** +Read these three notes in order: +1. [[What is Laputa]] — the philosophy (2 min) +2. [[Using the Editor]] — how notes work (3 min) +3. [[Types, Properties and Relationships]] — how to structure knowledge (3 min) + +**Step 2 — Explore the app** +4. [[Sidebar and Navigation]] — Inbox, Favorites, types +5. [[Views and Search]] — Cmd+K, Cmd+P, saved views + +**Step 3 — See it in action** +Browse the [[Personal Knowledge Management]] topic to see how [[Luca Rossi]], Laputa's creator, actually uses the app — with real notes about his system, his workflows, and why he built it this way. + +**Step 4 — Make it yours** +Try editing this note. Create a new note (Cmd+N). Add a type. Connect two notes with a `[[wikilink]]`. + +--- + +**Step 5 — AI and Git** +Read [[AI and Git]] to learn how to use Claude Code to operate on your vault, and how to sync it with GitHub. + +--- + +*This vault was created by [[Luca Rossi]]. You own it — edit everything.* diff --git a/getting-started-vault/why-plain-files.md b/getting-started-vault/why-plain-files.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..993b7a35 --- /dev/null +++ b/getting-started-vault/why-plain-files.md @@ -0,0 +1,31 @@ +--- +title: Why Plain Files +is_a: Note +related_to: "[[Personal Knowledge Management]]" +author: "[[Luca Rossi]]" +date: 2024-11-05 +--- + +I've used Notion, Roam, Bear, and Obsidian at different points. I kept switching. Here's what I eventually decided and why. + +## The problem with databases + +Notion stores your knowledge in a proprietary database. It's great for collaboration and structured data, but your notes are not really yours — they live in Notion's servers, in Notion's format. Export is lossy and awkward. + +## The problem with sync-only tools + +Obsidian keeps your files local, which I respect. But the sync story is fragile, and the plugin ecosystem means your setup is fragile too. I've lost time to broken plugins more than once. + +## What I wanted + +- Files I own, in a format that will be readable in 20 years +- Version history that actually works (not "version history" as a feature — real Git history) +- The ability to use AI to operate on my vault, which requires the AI to be able to read and write files + +Markdown + Git gives me all three. + +## Laputa's bet + +Laputa is built on the same bet: your notes are files, your vault is a Git repo, and the app is just a great interface on top of that. If Laputa disappears tomorrow, your notes are still there, still readable, still version-controlled. + +That's the kind of tool I wanted to build — and use.