Second Brain

Second Brain is my private, password-protected reading and research desk. A source-neutral Markdown knowledge base sits underneath it, so the material remains usable on desktop, iPhone, and outside the app.

Raw evidence stays separate from compiled knowledge. Safari and news briefs live under news/raw; Readwise articles, podcasts, and PDF briefs under library/raw; and sources, concepts, entities, maps, and comparisons under knowledge/wiki. Stable note IDs, provenance, and [[wikilinks]] preserve the path back to the original material.

The interface follows the way I research:

• What’s New and Library keep fast-moving news apart from durable reading.
• Dossiers and storylines assemble linked notes into narratives with references and related material.
• Grounded Ask answers from compiled, provenance-resolved notes rather than dumping the raw archive into a prompt.
• Pathfinder explores connections between topics, with an explanation for each step and alternatives when a different route is useful.

Research trails can be saved in the browser, shared through an authenticated deep link, or exported as Markdown with citations. Pathfinder keeps cited evidence distinct from shared mentions, preserves source and date context, and offers filters for news, durable reading, and time periods.

Each completed knowledge ingest also produces a draft Brainwave beside its daily briefing: a short social-post idea derived from the compiled material, ready for editorial review. Knowledge-health checks flag ageing summaries and possible concept overlaps for review.

The Next.js app generates a versioned research index during development and deployment. Markdown remains the source of truth; the index makes thousands of files practical on Vercel. Mobile navigation, safe-area handling, and refresh-on-resume make it usable as an installed iPhone app rather than a desktop archive squeezed onto a small screen.