Crate

Crate is a personal knowledge system designed for ideas worth keeping — written once, refined over time.

Inspired by the practice of digging through a record crate, Crate emphasizes curation, authorship, and revision over volume. It’s not a notes dump. It’s a living archive for patterns, lessons, and decisions you want to revisit.

Deployed app → https://crate-kohl.vercel.app/

Why Crate?

Most note-taking tools optimize for capture. Crate optimizes for retention and refinement.

Like a vinyl collection:

• You don’t keep everything
• You revisit what matters
• You improve your understanding over time

Crate is built to support that workflow.

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Core Concepts

• Articles
  Individual pieces of knowledge — technical notes, ideas, lessons, or references.

• Revisions
  Articles are immutable over time. Each edit creates a new revision, preserving history and authorship.

• Tags
  Lightweight organization for browsing and discovery.

• Reading Mode
  A focused, distraction-free way to revisit content.

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Features (WIP) / Roadmap

• Full CRUD for entries
• Revision history with authorship
• Tag-based browsing and filtering
• Markdown-based content
• Focused reading mode
• Authenticated editing with role-based access
• Accessible, keyboard-friendly UI

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Tech Stack

Frontend

• Next.js (App Router)
• TypeScript
• Tailwind CSS
• shadcn/ui
• Server Components & Server Actions

Backend

• Neon (Postgres)
• Stack Auth
• Drizzle ORM
• Vercel Blob (Blob/Object Storage)
• Upstash (Redis - Key-Value Store)

Other

• Markdown rendering
• Optimistic UI updates
• Accessible semantic HTML

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Data Model (High Level)

• articles
  Represents the canonical identity of a page.

• revisions
  Immutable snapshots of entry content over time.

• tags
  Shared labels for grouping and discovery.

This structure ensures:

• Full edit history
• Clear authorship
• Safe iteration over time

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Design Philosophy

• Clarity over cleverness
• Refinement over volume
• Calm, readable interfaces
• Subtle metaphor, never forced

The music / vinyl theme is used as framing and tone, not as a constraint on content.

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Local Development

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Run database migrations
npm run db:migrate

# Start the dev server
npm run dev

About This Project

Crate began as a learning exercise and evolved into a product I genuinely wanted to use. It reflects how I think about software, knowledge, and craft: intentional, iterative, and human.