Product Vision
Schema enforcement for Markdown. Type-safe personal knowledge management.
What is Bowerbird?
Section titled “What is Bowerbird?”Bowerbird is a CLI tool that enforces strict schemas on Markdown/YAML files. It brings TypeScript-style type safety to personal knowledge management.
One-liner: Bowerbird is the type system for your notes.
The Three Circles
Section titled “The Three Circles”Bowerbird’s functionality exists in concentric layers:
- Schema (core) — Type enforcement, validation, migration
- PKM (middle) — Queries, organization, knowledge discovery
- AI (outer) — Optional automation, never required
If the schema layer doesn’t work, nothing works.
Core Philosophy
Section titled “Core Philosophy”Schema is King
Section titled “Schema is King”The schema is the source of truth. Notes must conform.
Composable, Not Monolithic
Section titled “Composable, Not Monolithic”Bowerbird does one thing well. Use Git for version control, ripgrep for search, Neovim for editing.
Portable and Offline
Section titled “Portable and Offline”No internet required. Works on any folder of Markdown files. No account, no cloud, no lock-in.
Incrementally Adoptable
Section titled “Incrementally Adoptable”Start minimal. Add types as patterns emerge. Migrate when ready.
Consistency Above All
Section titled “Consistency Above All”Small command surface. Consistent flags. JSON mode everywhere.
What Bowerbird Is NOT
Section titled “What Bowerbird Is NOT”- Not a note-taking app
- Not a database
- Not a sync service
- Not a web app
Success Criteria
Section titled “Success Criteria”Bowerbird succeeds when you stop thinking about it—the schema holds, notes are valid, queries work, and you write.
For the full vision document, see docs/product/vision.md in the repository.