MindBase

An AI research assistant that builds and maintains a wiki from your sources. Not RAG-in-a-vector-DB. A real markdown wiki on your disk, that an LLM gardens for you between conversations.

MindBase implements Andrej Karpathy's LLM-Wiki pattern as a product. You feed it sources (papers, articles, thoughts). The LLM reads, cross-references, flags contradictions, and writes structured wiki pages. Later, when you ask a question, the wiki already has the synthesized answer — no vector search re-derivation at query time.

<p align="center"> <picture> <source media="(prefers-color-scheme: dark)" srcset="docs/assets/hero-dark.svg"> <img alt="MindBase: you feed sources, the LLM gardens them into a wiki that compounds — plain markdown on your disk" src="docs/assets/hero-light.svg" width="920"> </picture> </p>

Status: Early access. Beta for feedback (2026-Q3). Data model + core loop stable; some UI features still in v1 → v2 migration.

---

Table of contents

• Why MindBase
• How it works (30 seconds)
• What makes it different
• Prerequisites
• Install — choose your AI editor
  • Claude Code (flagship experience)
  • Cursor
  • Windsurf
  • Cline (VSCode)
  • Continue.dev
  • Any other MCP-compatible client
• First project (2 minutes)
• Core workflows
• Working with multiple projects
• Web UI (optional companion)
• Feature matrix by editor
• Where your data lives
• Architecture at a glance
• Troubleshooting
• Roadmap
• Beta feedback
• License

---

Why MindBase

You read a lot. Papers, articles, tweets, docs. You want to remember them, connect them, form opinions from them. Today you have two bad options:

• Notion / Obsidian / Roam: Passive containers. You do all the organizing. AI features are bolted-on generation, not maintenance.
• NotebookLM / Perplexity Pages / ChatGPT search: RAG-based. Nothing accumulates. Every question re-derives the answer from raw sources.

MindBase is the third option: the LLM actively maintains a persistent, structured wiki as you feed it sources. Knowledge compounds. Your context.md gets sharper every time you contribute. The AI remembers you across sessions because your beliefs are written down in markdown files — not stored in a chat history that gets summarized away.

Think of it as a personal Wikipedia that an AI intern writes for you, kept up to date, cross-referenced, and honest about what it doesn't know.

---

How it works (30 seconds)

Three physical layers on disk (Karpathy's model):

Layer 1 — sources/          You add these. Append-only. LLM reads, never rewrites.
   ├─ contributors/          Your thoughts, dated per-user (like a lab notebook)
   ├─ research/              Wiki pages the LLM writes (concepts, entities, syntheses)
   └─ raw/                   PDFs, URL captures, pastes — original binaries

Layer 2 — README.md          The rules of your wiki. You edit. LLM reads at every op.
          context.md         The synthesized current truth. LLM writes. You read.
          index.yaml         Auto-generated file catalog. LLM maintains.

Layer 3 — logs/              Chronological log of every operation. LLM appends.
          artifacts/         Generated outputs: daily briefs, exports, lint reports.

Three operations the AI can run:

Operation	What happens
Contribute	You feed a thought / PDF / URL. LLM reads, discusses key takeaways with you, updates 5-15 relevant wiki pages, appends log.
Ask	You ask a question. LLM reads your context.md first (already-synthesized truth), then drills into cited source pages. Cited answers with [[wikilink]] provenance.
Lint	LLM audits the whole wiki for contradictions, stale claims, orphan pages, missing cross-references, gaps that need investigation.

They form a loop — good answers and lint findings flow back in as new contributions, so the wiki compounds:

flowchart LR
    C["contribute<br/><small>thought · PDF · URL</small>"] --> S[("sources/<br/><small>append-only</small>")]
    S --> B["build<br/><small>LLM synthesizes</small>"]
    B --> W[("context.md<br/>research/*.md")]
    W --> Q["ask<br/><small>cited answers</small>"]
    W --> L["lint<br/><small>contradictions · orphans · gaps</small>"]
    Q -. "good answers filed back" .-> C
    L -. "follow-up notes" .-> C

That's the entire product. Everything else is UX.

---

What makes it different

vs. Notion: You own the data (markdown files, not a proprietary DB). The AI is a maintainer, not a bolt-on generator. context.md evolves; Notion pages don't.

vs. Obsidian: You get the same local-first markdown vault, but with an AI that actively writes the wiki — you don't have to hand-craft every note. Comes with [[wikilinks]] cross-referencing done for you.

vs. NotebookLM / Perplexity: Knowledge compounds. Ask "what's my view on RAG?" and the answer already exists in context.md. NotebookLM re-derives it from raw sources every time — nothing accumulates.

vs. any RAG tool: RAG is stateless retrieval. MindBase is stateful synthesis. The wiki gets richer with every ingest. Answers get faster and more consistent over time.

---

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20+ (that's it for Cursor / Windsurf / Cline / Continue — the MCP server installs itself via npx)
• One of: Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Cline, Continue.dev, or another MCP-compatible AI editor
• pnpm 10+ only if you install the Claude Code plugin or the web UI from source
• (Optional) A modern browser, if you want the web UI

MindBase runs entirely on your machine. No cloud upload, no signup, no telemetry.

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Install — choose your AI editor

MindBase ships as an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server — published on npm as mindbase-mcp. Every MCP-compatible AI editor can use its tools with a one-line config; no clone, no build. Claude Code gets an extra layer of polish (slash commands, sub-agents) via the plugin.

---

Claude Code (flagship experience)

Get the full Karpathy 8-step ingest with sub-agents, slash commands, auto-context, and per-agent tool boundaries.

Install the plugin — two commands inside Claude Code, no clone, no build:

/plugin marketplace add frankchu91/mindbase
/plugin install mb@mindbase

Restart Claude Code when prompted. (The plugin launches its MCP server via npx -y mindbase-mcp, so npm delivers the server automatically.)

<details> <summary>Developing the plugin from a clone?</summary>

git clone https://github.com/frankchu91/mindbase.git
cd mindbase && pnpm install
claude --plugin-dir apps/plugin

</details>

Verify: Open Claude Code, type /. You should see /mb:contribute, /mb:ask, /mb:build, /mb:status, and 8 others. Run /mcp — you should see mb connected with 49 tools.

What you get:

• 12 slash commands (/mb:*)
• 5 sub-agents with security boundaries (contributor, builder, curator, researcher, migrator) — each has a strict tool allowlist
• SessionStart hook — every new Claude Code session auto-injects your project's README + context + recent log entries
• The full Karpathy 8-step ingest: read → discuss takeaways → propose plan → wait for approval → execute

Skip to First project.

---

Cursor

Add to ~/.cursor/mcp.json (create the file if missing):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mindbase": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mindbase-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Restart Cursor. Open Cursor Chat → the tool picker should list mindbase_contribute, mindbase_ask_wiki, and 47 others.

Optional but recommended: teach Cursor's LLM about MindBase conventions by adding to ~/.cursor/rules.md (or per-project .cursorrules):

# MindBase conventions

When the user mentions "mindbase", "mb", "my wiki", "记一下", or "记忆",
the following MCP tools are available: mindbase_contribute, mindbase_ask_wiki,
mindbase_status, mindbase_load_project, and more.

Rules:
1. When user says "add to mindbase X" or "记一下 X", ALWAYS call mindbase_contribute
   with text=X. Never just acknowledge without calling the tool.
2. When user says "ask mindbase X" or "问问我的 wiki", call mindbase_ask_wiki
   with query=X.
3. When ingesting a PDF/URL, follow the 8-step Karpathy loop:
   read → discuss 3 key takeaways with user → propose plan → wait for approval
   → then call mindbase_contribute with the summary.
4. Default project comes from config.json currentProjectId. If the user says
   "for project X" or "在 X 项目里", pass projectId=X to the tool call.

Skip to First project.

---

Windsurf

Windsurf uses the same MCP config format. Open Cascade settings → MCP → add:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mindbase": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mindbase-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Restart Windsurf. Same rules-file approach as Cursor works — put a MindBase conventions block in your Cascade rules.

Skip to First project.

---

Cline (VSCode)

Open VSCode → Cline extension settings → MCP Servers. Add:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mindbase": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mindbase-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Cline auto-detects. Every tool call gets a confirmation dialog by default (transparency win). Skip to First project.

---

Continue.dev

Open ~/.continue/config.json. Add under experimental.modelContextProtocolServers:

{
  "experimental": {
    "modelContextProtocolServers": [
      {
        "transport": {
          "type": "stdio",
          "command": "npx",
          "args": ["-y", "mindbase-mcp"]
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

Restart VSCode. In Continue chat, MCP tools appear under @. Skip to First project.

---

Any other MCP-compatible client

If your editor supports MCP (Zed, Aider, Goose, ChatGPT Desktop's future MCP support, custom Claude Agent SDK apps), the pattern is identical: point it at

npx -y mindbase-mcp

as a stdio server. See your client's MCP docs for the exact config location.

---

First project (2 minutes)

Once your editor has the MCP server connected, create your first project.

Claude Code

/mb:init my-research --mission "Study transformer attention mechanisms"

Claude will scaffold ~/mindbase-data/projects/my-research/ with README.md, context.md, index.yaml, and empty sources/, logs/, artifacts/ directories, and set it as your current project.

Cursor / Windsurf / Cline / Continue

Type in chat:

Create a new mindbase project called my-research about transformer 
attention mechanisms.

The LLM will call mindbase_init_project({ name: "my-research", mission: "..." }) and confirm.

Verify

/mb:status              # in Claude Code

Or ask any other IDE:

what's the status of my mindbase?

You should see:

MindBase — Project: my-research
Location: ~/mindbase-data/projects/my-research

README     28 lines
context.md 8 lines  (last built: never)
index.yaml 5 lines

Contributors: 0 users, 0 entries
Sources:      0 research, 0 raw
Logs:         1 day
Artifacts:    0 outputs

You're ready.

---

Core workflows

The four things you'll do every day.

1. Contribute a thought

Add a short observation, a decision, or a hot take. Goes straight into today's contributor file, no ceremony.

Claude Code:

/mb:contribute "Attention is basically a soft dictionary lookup — each query 
retrieves a weighted average of values based on similarity to keys."

Any other IDE:

Add to my mindbase: Attention is basically a soft dictionary lookup — each 
query retrieves a weighted average of values based on similarity to keys.

Result: appends to ~/mindbase-data/projects/my-research/sources/contributors/<you>/2026-07-11.md and logs the operation.

2. Ingest a substantive source (paper, article, PDF)

For a real source, MindBase walks through Karpathy's 8-step ingest.

Claude Code (flagship — with sub-agent):

/mb:contribute /Downloads/attention-is-all-you-need.pdf

The contributor sub-agent will:

1. Read the PDF fully
2. Come back to you with 3 key takeaways
3. Propose which wiki pages to create/update
4. Wait for your approval
5. Execute — creating sources/research/attention-mechanism.md, updating context.md, appending log
6. Confirm: ✓ Created 4, updated 3, logged.

Any other IDE (lite mode — no sub-agent):

Read this paper [/Downloads/paper.pdf] and ingest it into my mindbase. 
Walk me through the 3 key takeaways before committing anything.

You get most of the value but the sub-agent's structured approval flow is a Claude Code exclusive. The LLM in Cursor/Windsurf/Cline will typically call mindbase_contribute directly — you can steer the ritual manually via your prompt.

3. Ask your wiki

Query with cited answers.

Claude Code:

/mb:ask "how did I resolve the attention scaling factor question?"

Any other IDE:

Search my mindbase — how did I resolve the attention scaling factor question?

The LLM calls mindbase_ask_wiki (graph-aware retrieval: top hits + wikilink neighbors) then synthesizes a cited answer:

You resolved this on 2026-06-15 [context.md:42-51]. The 1/√d_k scaling 
prevents dot products from growing too large in high dimensions, which 
would push softmax into low-gradient regions [attention-mechanism.md:23-28].

Sources:
- [[context.md]]
- [[attention-mechanism.md]]
- [[sources/research/scaled-attention.md]]

4. Build (regenerate context.md)

After a few contributions, regenerate the curated context.md so it reflects your current thinking.

Claude Code (flagship — with sub-agent):

/mb:build

The builder sub-agent:

1. Validates project structure
2. Gathers all unbuilt sources since last build
3. Synthesizes them into a fresh context.md
4. Writes atomically (snapshots the old one first so you can rollback)
5. Rebuilds the index

Any other IDE:

Rebuild my mindbase context.md — synthesize all unbuilt sources.

The LLM will orchestrate the equivalent MCP tool calls. Slightly less structured than the sub-agent flow but functionally equivalent.

5. Health check (lint)

Ask MindBase to audit itself.

Claude Code:

/mb:lint

Any other IDE:

Run a health check on my mindbase — find contradictions, orphans, gaps.

Output looks like:

Found:
- 1 contradiction: attention-mechanism.md:15 says "scaling by √d" but 
  context.md:32 says "scaling by 1/√d". Same claim, different notation.
- 2 orphan pages: [[legacy-transformer-note]] and [[old-benchmark]] 
  have no inbound wikilinks.
- 1 gap: "positional encoding" is mentioned 4 times across the wiki 
  but has no dedicated page.
- 3 suggested cross-links: [[scaled-attention]] ↔ [[transformer-architecture]] 
  (co-mentioned in 3 sources).

Want to file follow-up notes for any of these?

---

Working with multiple projects

You can have as many projects as you want (ai-research, insurance, dissertation). One is the "current" project — everything defaults to it. To switch, or to route a single operation to a specific project without switching, use flags.

Switch current project

Claude Code:

/mb:load ai-research

Any other IDE:

Switch my mindbase to the ai-research project.

Writes {"currentProjectId": "ai-research"} to ~/mindbase-data/config.json. Persists across sessions.

One-off routing (-p flag) — Claude Code

Every command that takes a project supports -p <project-id> (or --project <project-id>):

/mb:contribute -p ai-agents "GPT-5 rumored 2026-Q4"
/mb:build -p insurance
/mb:ask -p ai-agents "my stance on agent marketplaces"
/mb:lint -p dissertation
/mb:daily-brief -p ai-agents --date 2026-07-05

The -p flag does not change your current project. It only routes this one operation.

One-off routing — other IDEs

Just mention the project in natural language:

Add "GPT-5 rumored 2026-Q4" to my mindbase's ai-agents project.

The LLM passes projectId: "ai-agents" to the MCP tool call. Current project unchanged.

---

Web UI (optional companion)

MindBase includes a browser-based viewer at http://localhost:4321. It's not required — the plugin/MCP path is the primary interface — but useful for browsing what the LLM has written.

<p align="center"> <img alt="MindBase web UI — category tree on the left, the LLM-maintained context.md in the center, chat starters on the right" src="docs/assets/webui.png" width="920"> </p>

<p align="center"> <img alt="Cmd+I quick capture in dark mode — a thought typed into the Add-to-today modal, appended straight to your contributor file" src="docs/assets/webui-capture.png" width="920"> </p> <p align="center"><em><code>Cmd+I</code> from anywhere — a thought goes straight into today's contributor file. Dark mode included.</em></p>

Start it

pnpm --filter @mindbase/server dev
# then open http://localhost:4321

You'll see:

• LeftRail tree: Contributors, Research, Logs, Artifacts, README, Context, Raw — organized as a file tree
• Article view: click any file to read it; edit inline
• Cmd+I AddEntry: quick capture that appends to today's contributor file (works in any browser tab)
• Search (Cmd+K): keyword search across your wiki
• Project switcher: dropdown at the top

What the Web UI can't do (yet):

• Run /mb:ask, /mb:build, /mb:lint, /mb:research — these need an LLM in the loop, which lives in your AI editor
• The Rebuild button in the Web UI just tells you to run /mb:build in Claude Code

Think of the Web UI as a Finder for your wiki, and your AI editor as where you talk to it.

---

Feature matrix by editor

Feature	Claude Code	Cursor / Windsurf / Cline / Continue	Web UI
Slash commands (/mb:*)	✅	❌ (use natural language)	❌
MCP tools directly	✅	✅	❌
Karpathy 8-step ingest with sub-agents	✅	⚠️ Manual (LLM won't auto-follow the ritual)	❌
Auto-context via SessionStart hook	✅	✅ (Cursor supports MCP hooks)	N/A
Contribute short thought	✅	✅	✅ (Cmd+I)
Ingest PDF / URL / paste	✅	✅	❌
Ask wiki with cited answers	✅	✅	❌ (planned)
Build (regenerate context.md)	✅	✅	⚠️ (button dispatches, but LLM runs elsewhere)
Health check / lint	✅	✅	❌ (planned)
Deep research (web + wiki)	✅	✅	❌
Wiki tree browsing	❌	❌	✅
Rich file editor	❌	❌	✅
Cross-project search	✅	✅	⚠️ (partial)
-p project-id routing flag	✅	⚠️ (via natural language)	N/A

Legend: ✅ works · ⚠️ partial / experimental · ❌ not yet

---

Where your data lives

Everything is under ~/mindbase-data/ (override with MINDBASE_DATA_DIR env var).

~/mindbase-data/
├── config.json                       # { currentProjectId, ... }
└── projects/
    └── my-research/
        ├── README.md                 # Ops manual — you edit, LLM reads
        ├── context.md                # Synthesized truth — LLM writes, you read
        ├── index.yaml                # Auto-generated catalog
        ├── sources/
        │   ├── contributors/         # Your dated entries (append-only)
        │   │   └── <you>/
        │   │       └── 2026-07-11.md
        │   ├── research/             # LLM-authored wiki pages
        │   │   └── attention-mechanism.md
        │   └── raw/                  # PDFs, HTML captures, binary sources
        │       └── 2026-07-11/
        │           └── paper.pdf
        ├── logs/                     # Chronological operation log
        │   └── 2026-07-11.md
        ├── artifacts/                # Generated outputs
        │   ├── briefs/               # Daily briefs
        │   ├── exports/              # Bundle exports
        │   └── attachments/          # Images pasted into notes
        └── state/                    # LLM working state
            └── builder/snapshots/    # context.md snapshots for rollback

• Everything is markdown. Open in vim, VSCode, Obsidian — all work.
• No proprietary database. No SQLite of secret sauce. What you see on disk is what MindBase knows.
• Git-friendly. cd ~/mindbase-data && git init — every change auditable and rollbackable.
• Delete freely. rm -rf ~/mindbase-data/projects/foo — nothing else needs cleanup.

Backups: if you use iCloud / Time Machine / Dropbox, they'll pick this up automatically since it's just files.

---

Architecture at a glance

       ┌────────────────────────────────────────────┐
       │  Your AI editor (any MCP-compatible):      │
       │  Claude Code · Cursor · Windsurf · Cline · │
       │  Continue.dev · Zed · Aider · ...          │
       └───────────────────┬────────────────────────┘
                           │  MCP (stdio JSON-RPC)
                           ▼
       ┌────────────────────────────────────────────┐
       │       MindBase MCP server (Node.js)        │
       │       — 49 tools: contribute, ask_wiki,    │
       │         build, lint, research, ...         │
       │       — reads/writes ~/mindbase-data/      │
       └───────────────────┬────────────────────────┘
                           │  file I/O
                           ▼
       ┌────────────────────────────────────────────┐
       │        ~/mindbase-data/projects/…          │
       │        Your markdown wiki on disk          │
       └───────────────────┬────────────────────────┘
                           │  read-only http
                           ▼  (optional)
       ┌────────────────────────────────────────────┐
       │  Web UI at localhost:4321 (React + Vite)   │
       │  Tree browser, editor, Cmd+I add-entry     │
       └────────────────────────────────────────────┘

• packages/core — TypeScript strict library; storage adapters, LLM adapters, wiki index, graph, compile pipeline
• apps/mcp — MCP server (JSON-RPC over stdio); tools + prompts; framework-agnostic
• apps/server — Express server; serves the Web UI + /api/tree/* REST endpoints
• apps/web — React 19 + Zustand + Tailwind frontend
• apps/plugin — Claude Code plugin bundle (slash commands + sub-agents + hooks + bundled MCP server)

---

Troubleshooting

"MCP server not connected"

Cause: malformed config JSON, or the server binary can't start.

Fix:

1. Run it manually: npx -y mindbase-mcp < /dev/null — should print [mindbase-mcp] connected · dataDir=… on stderr and exit 0.
2. If that works, the issue is in your editor's config (typo, wrong file, trailing comma).
3. Claude Code plugin users: verify the bundle exists — ls /path/to/mindbase/apps/plugin/mcp-server/dist/cli.js — and rebuild with pnpm --filter @mindbase/plugin build if missing.
4. Restart your editor after fixing config.

"No current project"

Cause: You haven't run /mb:init yet, or config.json is missing currentProjectId.

Fix:

/mb:init my-first-project

Or manually: echo '{"currentProjectId": "my-project"}' > ~/mindbase-data/config.json

"V1_LAYOUT_UNSUPPORTED"

Cause: you have a legacy v1 project directory (from before the 2026-06 refactor).

Fix (Claude Code only):

/mb:migrate --project <legacy-project-name>

Or delete it and start fresh: rm -rf ~/mindbase-data/projects/<legacy-project-name> then /mb:init.

Tools don't show in autocomplete

Cause: MCP handshake didn't complete.

Fix: Restart your editor. Check that no other MCP server is failing (a crash in one can block others in some clients).

The LLM in Cursor/Windsurf ignores my "add to mindbase" request

Cause: the LLM didn't recognize the intent as a tool call opportunity.

Fix: Add the .cursorrules block from the Cursor section. Being explicit ("call mindbase_contribute with text=...") works too.

"/api/counts 404" in Web UI

Cause: a pre-existing server-side route gap. Non-blocking — some tab count badges show 0 until fixed.

Fix: known issue, coming in the next patch release. Track it on the issues page.

More issues

Open a GitHub issue: github.com/frankchu91/mindbase/issues

---

Roadmap

Now (2026-Q3 beta):

• Multi-editor MCP support ✅
• Karpathy 8-step ingest via sub-agents (Claude Code) ✅
• Cross-project routing (-p flag) ✅
• Web UI tree browser + Cmd+I add-entry ✅
• Wiki v2 layout ✅

Next (Q4):

• Web UI Ask panel (skip Claude Code roundtrip for queries)
• Web UI Lint cards (visual health check inbox)
• Audio input via Whisper (/mb:contribute --audio recording.m4a)
• Browser extension for one-click "save this page to MindBase"
• Anthropic marketplace listing (/plugin install mindbase@mindbase-official)
• mindbase_command unified meta-tool (slash-like UX in Cursor/Windsurf)

Later:

• Team brain (multi-contributor projects with human-in-the-loop review)
• Audio Overview (NotebookLM-style podcast digests)
• Marp slide-deck answers
• Tauri desktop app (one-click install for non-technical users)
• Mobile quick-capture apps

---

Beta feedback

I'm running MindBase as a private beta through 2026-Q4. If you're using it:

• Bug reports / feature requests: github.com/frankchu91/mindbase/issues
• Direct feedback / 30-min interview: haobing0304@gmail.com

I read every issue and reply within 24 hours during beta. If you tried MindBase and gave up — please tell me why. The blockers you hit are gold.

What kind of feedback is most useful?

• What happened the first minute after install?
• Which command / workflow do you use every day, if any?
• Which command / workflow did you try once and never again?
• What did you expect to work that didn't?
• What broke your trust in the LLM's synthesis?
• Would you pay for this? What's the shape of the pricing that would feel fair?

---

License

MIT — do what you want, no warranty. If you build something interesting on top, I'd love to hear about it.

---

Built with the belief that AI's most valuable gift is not "generation on demand" but "gardening of a persistent artifact you own."