PKM Weekly - 2026-01-04
A look at the latest Personal Knowledge Management PKM news from the past week.
Hi Everyone,
Happy New Year.
We are back with another episode of PKM Weekly. Let’s see what is in store for us today.
Thymer
Taking Shape
The closed alpha launch only happened about 10 days or so ago, but it already feels like so much has happened in the meantime.
The devs have been very intently listening to users’ feedback in Discord
Several bug fixes have already been implemented, and more have been identified for the team.
There are ongoing discussions about the outline mode and tags and their functionality. Very nice to see the devs taking different perspectives on board and considering these.
For people who have still not gotten in yet, fear not, the devs also want to get the app into more people’s hands and even commented, “A bunch of bugs we want to fix and a few things we want to add, but also really looking forward to moving to beta and inviting a whole bunch of more people”.
Given the speed at which things are going, I am sure the app will move to the beta phase soon enough. And although the devs will hate me, if you have not already received an invite, keep an eye on Twitter, make sure you follow @wcools and @jdvhouten and ask them for an invite, as they are generally online responding to messages. If you don’t have Twitter, join the Discord as invites are also published there.
First impressions
Daniel did a First Impressions: Why Thymer Could Be the Next Big Thing in Note-Taking blog post.
In the blog post, he talks about how “Every year, I see new applications. Some are great, some are good, some are terrible, and some are interesting. Every couple of years, I come across an application that gains a lot of hype and is so good that I think, This will be one of the big ones. Apps like Tana and Anytype, which I got to test out early, fall into that category. I was so excited about those apps in early 2023, and I’ve been waiting for another app to generate as much hype as those two. I think I’ve finally found it.”
Definitely worth checking out if you are interested in Daniels’s thoughts on Thymer.
The Power of Plugins
For those wondering about the power of Thymer, you can go easy, as well as hard…
Easily implement wide view mode with a few clicks (Claude and JD, with assistance for the wide mode code).
riclib created an AI chat plugin that can turn Thymer into an AI-native workspace. Context aware and can use multiple providers: Anthropic, OpenAI, Ollama and other custom models. Amazing.
Obsidian
Using Obsidian with Claude Code?
If so, Kepano wants to know more about your workflow.
For those looking to get started with Obsidian + Claude Code , check out the PKM Starter Kit by ballred - A complete personal knowledge management system that combines Obsidian's powerful note-taking with Claude Code's AI assistance. Go from zero to a fully functional PKM in 15 minutes or less. Link.
100 million Obsidian Plugin Downloads
2026 will be a big year for Obsidian plugins. The devs plan to make plugins easier to discover, safer to use, simpler to build, and faster to approve.
My 2026 Obsidian Setup
Curtis showcases how he will use Obsidian in 2026. His philosophy for 2026 focuses on reducing "productivity clutter" and keeping only the tools that facilitate actual thinking and writing by:
Having a core organisation with a few folders
Having some essential core and community plugins
Manual over automated
Tidying up
Interesting Reddit Posts
Capacities
2025: A year of Capacities Updates
SystemsAndFlow posts that they almost left Capacities for a dedicated project management tool. Then, Capacities shipped Kanban views, task management, and Readwise integration in the same quarter. They are now wondering why they ever considered leaving.
If you’re tired of juggling a PKM app, a project manager, and a task list, Capacities deserves a serious look. 2025 is the year it stopped being “good for a note-taking app” and started being genuinely competitive as a complete productivity solution.
Check out the full article here.
Walkthrough of How Ella Uses Capacities
Ella does a walkthrough of their current Capacities set up, focusing on:
Objects: why and how they are used
How the Objects are structured.
Their use of Capacities as PKM, as a second brain, as a journal and as a commonplace.
TANA
A bit quiet in the Tana world this week with most people on vacation.
Getting content OUT of Tana
OP asks, Is there a secret rune, known only to insiders of the order, that magically releases clean sentences and paragraphs?
Tana is probably the best app for note capture out there – helped by node structure, excellent voice transcription and supertags.
All good at this point – until you come to get a note or a portion out of Tana and into another editor. (A bit of context – I am a writer and I like to produce clean copy that builds into a bigger piece of writing.) I don’t want bullets and I especially don’t want spurious headings and values left over from Tana’s AI.
Logseq
Android (new app)
This PR converts the Android app from Java to Kotlin and updates it to use the modern storage API.
Android App Modernisation
Convert Java to Kotlin: Migrate
MainActivity.java,FolderPicker.java,FsWatcher.javato KotlinModern Storage API: Update to use
com.google.modernstoragefor better file handlingKotlin Best Practices: Apply Kotlin idioms and null safety features
Build Configuration: Update Gradle files for Kotlin support
CI Workflow Improvements
Fork Compatibility: Workflows now work without requiring main repo secrets
Unsigned Builds: Generate unsigned APKs when keystore not available
Platform Support: Linux and macOS builds (removed Windows)
Trigger Updates: Only run on pull requests and manual dispatch
Logseq Publish
Logseq publish coming together nicely...and a bit of news about versioning going forward (and as discussed in a couple of other posts)
https://github.com/logseq/logseq/pull/12279
Charting data in Logseq
With logseq-DB and its ability to introduce a fixed schema and the underlying new data layer really opens up many possibilities. One of them is the ability to render charts really easily, compared to the MD version.
This is nicely showcased by HKGNP, who updated their chart-rendering plugin to make full use of the DB mode. You can find this in the Logseq plugins.
Craft
A fading thought showcases AI for Your Notes: Structure Ideas, Find What You Mean (Craft)
Craft has become my go-to place to manage projects and capture ideas I actually want to do something with.
In this video I want to show you some of the possilibities with Craft’s new AI Assistant. Especially where it helps me the most: search, connecting ideas across notes, and resurfacing the information I need in the right moment. I’ll walk you through how I use AI to shape raw thoughts into structure without losing my voice. You’ll see the exact prompt I use to turn a wall of text into an outline with headings, better questions to explore, and clear next steps I can drop into my task management (I keep my tasks in Craft too!).
Joplin
Joplin are proposing an update to their CLA to clarify how AI-assisted contributions are handled in Joplin. They would really appreciate community feedback before finalising it.
Rationale for the CLA update (AI-assisted contributions)
Copyright law in major jurisdictions requires human authorship. Authorities such as the U.S. Copyright Office have made clear that purely machine-generated output is not copyrightable, while AI-assisted works are protected only to the extent that a human exercised creative judgment (e.g. selection, modification, arrangement):
https://www.copyright.gov/ai/
Given this, the CLA was updated to:
explicitly allow AI-assisted development, reflecting modern practice; and
exclude fully automated submissions, which would not provide reliable copyright ownership.
Heptabase
Heptabase are interested how you use Zotero, if you do:
For academic users who want Zotero integration: Since Zotero offers both cloud (web library) and local storage, we’d love to know how you manage your files—especially PDFs and media.
A. I have most of data uploaded to the cloud
B. I have most data locally due to the cloud storage limitation
C. I have most data locally for other reasons
Octarine
v0.32.0 out now!
Native Menu Bar - A native operating system menu bar is now available on macOS, providing quick access to app actions through File, Edit, View, Navigate, Workspace, AI, and Help menus.
Git sync - now handles offline scenarios gracefully — changes are committed locally when offline and automatically sync when connectivity is restored.
Views - Columns can now be resized by dragging the column header edges. Column widths are persisted and restored across sessions.
Date pickers now have an optional clear button to remove the selected date.
and so much more, changelog.
Zettlr
Zettlr 4.0 released - Version 4.0 is a major upgrade bringing with it a new table editor, image and PDF viewer, improved citation parsing and access to a Lua interface
https://md-handbook.com/blog/zettlr-4-released/
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.
So logseq android will be delayed further?