PKM Weekly - 2025-08-17

A look at the latest Personal Knowledge Management PKM news from the past week.

Aug 17, 2025

Hi Everyone,

We are back with another episode of PKM Weekly. Let’s see what is in store for us today.

TANA

GPT-5 is now available in Tana!

OpenAI’s latest GPT-5, GPT-5 Mini, and GPT-5 Nano are now in Tana for use in AI Chat, custom agents, AI-enhanced fields, and command nodes.

Strong reasoning and web search in all three models
Better instruction following and reliability than earlier GPT models
Mini and Nano offer faster, lower-cost options for everyday work

You’ll find them in the model picker alongside other OpenAI models and options from Anthropic and Google, so you can choose the best tool for the job.

Tana Updates - 15 August

Improved - Code blocks/paste as code: Language picker only shown on hover, and you can type to search. Highlighting updates when you edit. Button to copy code.
Improved - Improvement to grouping. When you choose a field to group by, the default is now "All groups" - any new groups will be automatically added. If you want to remove some groups, turn this off. Now, you need to manually specify which groups should be shown.
Improved - You can now use sys:nodeId, sys:nodeURL or sys:tags on an ancestor node (using sys:owner one or multiple times). Use with Insert Tana Paste command to reference ancestor nodes, for example: [[^${sys:owner.sys:nodeId}]], or to include information in AI prompts.

and much more - changelog.

Student Workflow Tana Live Build Session

The session started off with some experiments in using AI to map out our syllabus. They then walked through setting up tags to record lectures / take notes / link topics, then closed out with some calendar planning and customised flair.

Even though the session was about creating a student workflow, don’t be fooled as there are some great hints and tips / suggestions that can be used in all workflows. A comment on the video was “I watched the video and I thought: Wow! This is brilliant. So many things in just one hour”.

TANA: How to Get Into Flow (in Seconds)

Tana notes app and workspace allow instant flow states at work- see how.

Obsidian

Obsidian Updates

V 1.9.9 Desktop (catalyst only for now)

Improvements - Added "Toggle readable line length" command.

V 1.9.8 (catalyst only for now)

Bases: New File#hasProperty() function. To check if a file has a property (regardless of value), use file.hasProperty("property"). In the filter menu, "exists" is no longer a valid operator. This was returning incomplete and incorrect results. Instead of "<property> exists", you will need to update your filters to say "file has property <property>".
Bases: "Tags" and "File tags" are now hidden from the filter menu. Prefer to use "file has tag " instead.
Bases: Added String#reverse and String#repeat functions.
Bases: Added support for list concatenation using + (e.g. list1 + list2).
Bases: Added "New base" option to the ribbon.
File Explorer: When the view is active, holding Command/Ctrl while navigating through files using the arrow keys will now open the file under the cursor.
File Explorer: Right-clicking in the file explorer will now include options to create a new base or a new canvas.
The menu item "Move file to..." is now available in all link context menus.
Added "Copy path" and "Copy relative path" to the link context menu.

I have not seen anything that indicates when the bases feature will be rolled out to everyone.

Mike’s 8 Obsidian Plugins That He Can't Live Without

I've tried hundreds of Obsidian plugins over the years, but there are only 8 that I would consider "essential" for the way I work in Obsidian. While I use 39 plugins currently, if I had to do a tier ranking of all the plugins in my vault, these would be the "S Tier" that are critical for my PKM workflows.

Couple of Interesting Reddit Posts

Anyone using Obsidian NOT for work or school? - I graduated a long time ago and my work doesn't need it (Retail) I'm obsessed with Obsidian and have a vault for my writing hobby and a personal vault for journaling and collecting stuff that interested me!

I'm curious about what you use Obsidian for besides works and school?

Why Obsidian works (personal experience)?

Obsidian Web Clipper 0.11.9

Obsidian Web Clipper 0.11.9 has a new "embedded" mode that opens in the page instead of a pop-up.

This means you can use highlighter and interpreter in multiple browser tabs, at the same time

https://x.com/kepano/status/1956784001316000253

The Past, Present and Future of Digital Knowledge Management: From Paper to AI-Enhanced Systems

Knowledge Management has evolved dramatically over the past two decades, transforming from simple document storage to interconnected knowledge graphs powered by AI.

In this article, Sebastien explores the fascinating evolution of Knowledge Management, from isolated paper documents to today's AI-enhanced knowledge systems, and shares his vision for what lies ahead.

https://www.dsebastien.net/the-past-present-and-future-of-knowledge-management/

Capacities

Label Properties

The latest Capacities release introduces label properties — a simple way to structure and filter content within a single object type.

Labels provide a dropdown menu ideal for categorising items such as meeting types, reading status, project phases, and more. They will also be compatible with the upcoming group-by functionality in object types and queries.

The above label properties are part of a number of recent updates. We’ve also added a property type conversion tool, so you can easily switch between property types without starting from scratch, plus improvements to queries, a new Funnel – Quick Capture integration for iOS, faster graph view, more embed options, and plenty of fixes and polish.

See more in the changelog.

Capacities vs Craft: Which is the better note-taking app?

melody aka melocreating, has a video that is planned to be released tomorrow discussing the differences between Capacities and Craft. The video will look at

Features
Integrations
Usage
Opinion
How I use them.

I hope it will not be one of those “it depends” conclusions, but we shall see.

Syncing issues?

If you are like OP: Are there some serious sync issues with Capacities? I'm accessing Capacities through my phone and two laptops. I had recently updated properties for a couple of objects on one laptop while connected to the internet, and have used it for quite some time after that. I have been using Capacities on my phone and other laptop since yesterday, and just noticed all of those properties are missing. I've also seen notifications saying local version of a file is different from the remote version, and then I have to select one, but a lot of times both seem to have the same character count etc., so I guess they aren't really that different?

Then this may help, from the Team. If you're having sync issues, please make sure your content is downloaded to your device, and then do Settings > Account > Reboot

Logseq

Group Sorting

The devs are working on group sorting functionality to database views, allowing users to sort grouped page content by various page properties. The implementation introduces three new properties to control sorting behaviour and adds UI components for configuring the sort options.

Adds support for sorting groups by journal date, page title, updated date, or created date
Introduces three new database properties for managing group sorting configuration
Implements UI controls in dropdown menus for selecting sort criteria and order

Migrating from Roam to Logseq

OP writes: I’ve been using Roam since the beginning, but am considering migrating to Logseq. After experimenting with it, I’m really enjoying the experience, especially the fact that it’s open source and uses Markdown.

I have a couple of questions:

Is there a reliable migration guide to ensure my notes transfer to Logseq correctly?
I’ve read about the upcoming database upgrade. What changes should I expect? I’m currently on version 0.10.13, does this version already include the database?

AppFlowy

Hi @everyone, v0.9.7 is out! This release comes with exciting updates

AppFlowy Web now supports real-time collaborative editing

Edits made from different devices or users on the same page sync in real time without the need to refresh the page.
This applies to the entire AppFlowy web app, including Grid & Kanban pages,

Mention or assign a person in the desktop and mobile apps

Use @ or /person to mention a collaborator,
The person will get notified about the mention in their email.

GPT-5 & GPT-OSS are available in AppFlowy

You can also continue to use GPT-4.1 or GPT-4o,
GPT-OSS requires installation via Ollama

Work in progress:

Page version history,
Push notifications,
Self-hosted commercial plans

Full details and download here.

Recall

The #1 most requested feature is finally live! You can now chat with all the content you consume: YouTube videos, podcasts, TikToks, PDFs, your own notes, and much more.

ChatGPT lets you have a conversation with the internet, and that’s powerful. But sometimes, the source matters. When you’re trying to understand your research, put together a health protocol, or just keep track of your interests — books, recipes, movies — you need something more concrete and more tailored.

Check out the full post here, or if you want to sign up.

Lots of promotional sponsored videos following the release, but I think this one if my favourite

Heptabase

v1.69.0 - August 12, 2025

Chat: Ask AI questions using selected PDF cards as context

Introduce MAX mode for handling longer context.
Enable giving thumbs up or down to help the Heptabase team improve AI features.
Enable regenerating AI responses.
Add GPT-5, GPT-5 Nano, GPT-5 Mini, Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite, and Claude 4.1 Opus models.

and more - changelog.

Also, Tom pointed out Next Up on Heptabase, and there is some exciting stuff.

AFFiNE

V 0.24

Focuses on fixing some critical bugs while also adding some features. Now support self-hosted users using their own AI API key and more AI features.

Changelog

Thymer

Is this the last tease before the app is actually released?

Smooth WYSIWYG part 2: never trap the cursor. Slide in, out, before, and after content

Unfortunately, on the release, the devs communicated: August will be very tight! It's just a matter of fixing bugs now, but there are still many things remaining that we want to fix before the public release. We don't want to keep postponing the beta, but we also don't want people to get a bad first impression. Difficult!

That’s all for this week. Thank you very much in advance for reading and I look forward to bringing you more PKM news next week.

PKM Weekly