PKM Weekly - 2025-09-28
A look at the latest Personal Knowledge Management PKM news from the past week.
Hi Everyone,
I apologise for missing a week last week, but we are back on track with another episode of PKM Weekly. Let’s see what is in store for us today.
Obsidian
Roadmap Update
Bit of an update to the Obsidian roadmap:
Give Me (Nick Milo) 15 Minutes. I’ll Teach You 80% of Obsidian
In this video Nick goes through how to use Obsidian - from beginner to pro in 15 minutes.
Reddit Posts
Obsidian vault for notes on a book
OP posted an image of their Obsidian vault for notes on a book:
Picked a vault that holds my permanent notes for a few-year-long project on a book. it is enough to overwhelm Obsidian’s Graph view with 6236 atomic notes that contains a lot of reference links.
I wrote an article discussing the problems that I’ve faced with the graph view and how I mitigate it.
Obsidian bases are great, but is making a separate note for each item practical?
OP posted: I really like Obsidian bases in terms of automation, customisation and overall look. It’s pretty and functional. However, there are cases where making a note for each entry can be a bit excessive. Do you think it’s possible to have multiple items from one note?
Example use case: movies to watch, games to play. Say you want to have 200 entries, do you really have to make 200 notes? If you make lists like this, you end up with potentially thousands of empty notes (besides the metadata).
Capacities
Group By - and more
You can now group object types and query results by any of your properties, making it easier to see your information in meaningful sections.
For example, you might group your books by reading status, or your reading list query by fiction vs. non-fiction.
other updates include:
Better performance in content views and across the app
Revised Export
Capacities AI Help Assistant
Free Trial
Check it out here: Changelog
Offsite Catch-up
The team are on their offsite meeting to discuss and plan lots of cool things.
We’re currently on our third team offsite, this time in Wiesbaden, Germany 🇩🇪 ! We’ve spent the week so far doing deep work sessions, working on exciting features together, exploring the area, and getting to spend time as a team in real life! Remote work is amazing, but it’s always nice to spend time together offline as well. 🥳
We’re working on super cool topics and are excited to share more with you all very soon! 🤩 We’re also very much missing Beth, who unfortunately couldn’t come this week
Hiring and GDPR
Data Processing Agreement now available - We are happy to share that Capacities now provides a Data Processing Agreement (DPA) in accordance to GDPR regulations in Europe. You can read more about it here
We are hiring! - Capacities are looking for a “Working Student – Frontend Web Development”. You can read more about the role here.
TANA
Tana Updates
New Study Scheduler template available with a guided walkthrough!
Added ability to delete nodes from search nodes. A modal warns when nodes have references elsewhere - proceeding deletes only the original node while references remain (shown as trash icons). For complete removal including all references, use ‘Hard delete including references’ from the command line. Nodes and referencesSearch nodes
AI agent configurations (Cmd+K -> Convert to agent) now display in a cleaner UI and model picker rather than system node options. Ai command nodes
Added more accessible ‘Unpublish’ button in publish preview. Tana publish
Inline references in published content now have the same hover state as in Tana. Tana publish
and more - changelog.
Tana Learn Live
A new biweekly live session designed to help you get hands-on with Tana features is being released. The sessions are interactive: Tana team will demo, you’ll try it live, and discuss the results together.
When: Wednesday, October 1st, 1pm CET. Register here: https://luma.com/ihcixoah
In the first session, the following will be looked at:
Write and organise your notes in Tana’s flexible outline
Understand how you navigate the editor
Create and use references so information can be resurfaced without duplication
To tackle common questions like: “Where should I write in Tana, and where does that note go?”, “Is there a difference between a node and a page?”, “Why are references in Tana more powerful than links in other tools?”
Most tools force you into rigid folders or endless note streams where ideas get lost. Tana’s outliner and node structure work differently: they let you capture ideas quickly, structure them naturally, and connect them across contexts without duplication. We’ll cover these essential features and dive into the underlying concepts that make them powerful.
Each session blends a step-by-step walkthrough, live practice, and open discussion - so you don’t just watch, you learn by doing.
Stop Taking Notes The Hard Way (4 AI Agents That Actually Help You Think)
Transform your notes into actionable insights with this complete AI-powered knowledge workflow with this great video from Ev:
Logseq
Latest Updated
Thanks Danzu, for this great changelog update
Four major initiatives that significantly expand Logseq’s capabilities and user experience:
Mobile Audio Recording & Transcription - Complete integration of audio recording with live waveform visualisation and automatic speech-to-text transcription. iOS users can now record voice notes with the new speech API, while Android supports high-quality WAV recording. Audio transcriptions are automatically saved as child blocks.
iOS Ecosystem Integration - Deep iOS integration, including home screen widgets, shortcuts, and quick actions. Users can now capture thoughts instantly from the lock screen, home screen widgets, or through Siri shortcuts, without needing to open the app.
MCP Server for AI Integration - Introduction of Model Context Protocol (MCP) server functionality enabling AI agents and language models to interact directly with Logseq graphs. This includes tools for reading pages, searching blocks, updating content, and managing graph data programmatically, opening new possibilities for AI-assisted knowledge work. [Coming soon]
Enhanced Mobile Experience - Comprehensive mobile UI improvements, including better navigation, refined keyboard handling, improved block editing in sheets, and platform-specific optimisations for both iOS and Android.
Anyone else apprehensive about the DB version?
OP asks “is anyone else apprehensive about the DB version?” I’m looking for someone to set me straight on this new Database version because I’m not super keen about losing my Markdown files in favor of a database.
Databases can go corrupt - I know, I have to work with them at work. It’s also not easy for me to mess with my own data in a database like it is with simple markdown files. Can I still sync my stuff from one device to another with SyncThing?
Check it out here.
Is Logseq better than Workflowy?
Tech Baron takes a look at Logseq to discuss... is Logseq really better than Workflowy?
Workflowy
From daily notes, to Readwise Integration, to Catppuccin theme, to clippers, to AI, there have been an awful lot of updates to Workflowy of late that it might just be worth revisiting.
Check out the changelog for more details.
Clibu Notes
Clibu Notes Version 0.98.010
This is a major update with enhancements made across multiple areas. The emphasis with this release is improved usability and functionality while simplifying some operational aspects.
These enhancements include the use of Filters and Search, Tags tree enhancements, Editor panels remaining unchanged instead of closing, reduced unnecessary horizontal panel scrolling on narrow screens and more.
Filters and Search now work in the Tags tree, whereas previously they only worked in the Notes tree. This enables you to search for text in notes that have a specific tag vs. searching all notes. Tag Filters enable you to show only specific tags and tags with notes updated in a certain period.
Search and Filters now work independently, so search criteria used in the Notes tree is separate to that used in the Tags tree. Likewise with Filters.
Heptabase
New in Heptabase: PDF Parser
- Extract text, tables, equations & images (even from scanned PDFs) → save as clean Markdown
- Ask AI with precise context (page ranges & paragraphs) → responses include link refs back to the source
- MAX mode ensures AI reads every word → perfect for translation, summarization & fact-checking
https://wiki.heptabase.com/changelog
Talking of Heptabase, check out Tom’s latest video on his main reason for switching to Heptabase - video.
RemNote
RemNote 1.21 - Lecture Recorder, Tabs, Study Without SRS, more
Also, while recording a lecture, you can click on any confusing bullet to get an immediate explanation:
Amplenote
Recent news you might have missed:
- Task streaks
- Convert a Rich Footnote to a new note (and link to it)
- Capture a “quick bookmark” to a predefined note with Amplecap (on chromium)
- Select fixed recurrence for tasks created in the quick task menu
https://www.amplenote.com/product_changelog
Thymer
Latest update: write dashboard docs and multi-column layouts, still feels like editing plain text
https://x.com/wcools/status/1971338669782073507
Interesting comment from Wim: “84 tasks left! Yep that’s the ready-for-testing-list ;)”
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.