# Plain notes (https://openknowledge.ai/docs/workflows/plain-notes)

The simplest setup: one folder for notes and one for a daily journal. Just write, link the things worth linking, and a connected web of notes builds itself. Built on the Plain notes starter pack.

**Plain notes** is the "I just want to write" layout. Two folders, no structure imposed: a flat `notes/` for topics and a `daily/` journal. You write; you link the things worth linking; and a navigable graph emerges on its own. It's the pack to reach for when the other packs feel like too much scaffolding for what you're actually doing.

```html preview
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    <div id="pn-days" style="display:flex;flex-direction:column;gap:6px;justify-content:center"></div>
  </div>
  <div class="cap">Left: mention something in a note and it becomes a link — the graph builds itself. Right: each day's entry links to yesterday's, so the journal is also a chain.</div>
</div>
<style>
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```

There's no pipeline and no lifecycle here. The only discipline is the linking habit — and OpenKnowledge's graph, backlinks, and search do the rest.

Note-takers get a plain notes app backed by markdown they own, with an agent keeping everything linked and nothing locked in a proprietary format. Journalers get each daily entry chained to the last, with mood and gratitude fields, so the journal is also a navigable graph to look back across. And if you're not sure which pack to pick, this is the lightest possible starting point — begin now and promote notes into a more structured layout later.

## The folders

```
notes/    one file per topic, flat
daily/    one journal entry per day (YYYY-MM-DD.md)
```

The pack ships just two templates — `note` and `daily`. The daily entry has a light shape (morning intentions, capture through the day, evening reflection) plus optional `mood`, `top3`, and `gratitude` frontmatter fields you fill when journaling, so you can look back across days later.

## The one habit: link liberally

The entire value of this pack is the graph that emerges from links. So when a note or entry mentions something worth its own page, link it — and if that page doesn't exist yet, stub it. The agent does this for you:

> Turn today's notes into a daily entry. Link anything worth its own page and stub the ones that don't exist yet. Link this entry to yesterday's.

On the first entry of a day the agent links back to yesterday's entry and pre-fills the date, so your linear journal is also a navigable graph you can walk in either direction.

## What's in your project after seeding

Seeding needs an initialized project — run [`ok init`](https://openknowledge.ai/docs/get-started/quickstart) first. Pick **Plain notes** in the starter-pack picker, or run:

```bash
ok seed --pack plain-notes
```

The pack creates `notes/` and `daily/` at the project root (no subfolder), each with its `.ok/frontmatter.yml` guidance and template. That's the whole footprint — minimal on purpose.

> **Seeding also installs a skill**
>
> `ok seed --pack plain-notes` installs the **Plain notes** project skill into your agent editors (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, OpenCode). It's the "how to work here" guidance that gives the agent the linking habit and the daily-chain behavior — read automatically, and editable like any other doc. It lands as a real `SKILL.md` committed to your repo in your project's skills directory (`.agents/skills/` when you have one, otherwise your editor's), copied into the skills directory of each editor already set up for the project. The copies refresh from the source until you hand-edit one. See [Skills Studio](https://openknowledge.ai/docs/features/skills) and [what OpenKnowledge writes to disk](https://openknowledge.ai/docs/reference/what-open-knowledge-writes).

## Cadence

| When                         | Do                                                                              |
| ---------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Any time                     | Drop a note in `notes/`; link the nouns worth their own page                    |
| Each morning or evening      | A `daily/` entry; let the agent chain it to yesterday and fill mood / gratitude |
| Weekly                       | Ask the agent to link loosely-related notes so the graph tightens               |
| When a topic outgrows a note | Promote it — or switch to a more structured pack for that area                  |

## Further reading

- **[LLM wiki workflow](https://openknowledge.ai/docs/workflows/karpathy-llm-wiki).** When your notes become source-grounded research, this is the pack to graduate to.
- **[Writing pipeline workflow](https://openknowledge.ai/docs/workflows/writing-pipeline).** When your notes grow into essays or newsletters, this pack adds ideas → drafts → published stage gates.
- **[Core Concepts](https://openknowledge.ai/docs/reference/core-concepts).** Links, backlinks, and the well-connected graph that make the emergent structure visible.
- **[Skills Studio](https://openknowledge.ai/docs/features/skills).** What the installed pack skill is, and how to edit it.
- **[Claude Code](https://openknowledge.ai/docs/integrations/claude-code)**, **[Cursor](https://openknowledge.ai/docs/integrations/cursor)**, **[Codex](https://openknowledge.ai/docs/integrations/codex)**, **[OpenCode](https://openknowledge.ai/docs/integrations/opencode).** MCP-capable agent hosts.