Remember: letting the AI grow the structure

I designed a typed collection system for Remember, then replaced it five days later with something simpler.

What I built

A new design for how Remember structures what it saves. Today only about ten folder shapes get real structure; everything else is saved as-is.

On 18 June I wrote a spec for a collection registry: you declare collections with typed fields before you use them. On 23 June I replaced it. In the new design the AI grows the structure as it goes, inside a thin fixed folder layout. It keeps an index describing what exists, and a regular consolidation pass merges duplicates, cleans up tags and retires stale notes.

What I learned

Declaring structure up front creates friction. That’s where a lot of note-taking tools lose people. Pure freeform fails in the other direction and slowly turns into junk.

The middle ground: describe what exists instead of prescribing what must exist, and make consolidation the background job that keeps things clean. Folders stay the source of truth, and git already gives me the history.

What’s next

Build it in phases, starting with capture.

next-step.md

Building something similar, or have a thought on this note? Say hi.