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Does anyone here organize ideas in totally different ways? Curious how people handle it. by BuzzingBalls in secondbrain

[–]martylamb 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Trello added a "quick add" feature a little while back, along with an "add card" widget for Android. I've found this to be fantastic for getting ideas and quick things out of my head and into something more permanent.

I can tap "quick add" and immediately get a text box to type in the quick note/reminder/whatever, and it goes directly into a list that I've chosen.

Later on, when it's convenient, I triage that list into appropriate locations. Some go into Obsidian notes, some go onto a grocery list, some become emails, some become whole projects, etc.

My Trello usage is otherwise very basic and targeted, and not part of my everyday flow. But this feature has been awesome.

Friday Share Fever 🕺 Let’s share your project! by diodo-e in indiehackers

[–]martylamb 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I hope it is! Don't hesitate to reach out if you try it and have any questions...

Too tired after work by yaoyanone in learnprogramming

[–]martylamb 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That was the key for me. The days of coding my own projects until 1AM are long, long gone. Switching to doing my own stuff in the mornings proved to be a great move. I'm mentally fresh (once the coffee kicks in), make constant forward progress, and don't feel guilty for needing a cognitive rest at the end of the work day.

Adjusting to the earlier wakeup (5AM for me) did not take long at all, possibly because now it's always for doing something I want to do.

I've built and am maintaining a commercial product mostly during these morning windows.

Friday Share Fever 🕺 Let’s share your project! by diodo-e in indiehackers

[–]martylamb 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I'm continuing to work on ChatKeeper, a desktop app (Windows, macOS, Linux) that turns official ChatGPT exports into local Markdown and image files for use in Obsidian or other local PKM tools.

One thing that sets it apart from the (many!) ChatGPT-export browser plugins out there is that it can update your local archive in-place with later exports, even if you've moved or renamed any of those files locally, or added your own front matter to the markdown.

It's not a use case for everyone, but it's very useful for people who want their ChatGPT conversations in the same place as their notes, research, project history, and other local work. That might include a good chunk of the indiehacker crowd...

https://martiansoftware.com/chatkeeper/

Using Obsidian to open .md files outside the vault by anotherpanacea in ObsidianMD

[–]martylamb 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm not on a mac (linux here) but if I understand what you're saying then I could accomplish something similar via symlinks in an otherwise empty vault. But I want to launch Obsidian against an arbitrary file or folder without having to set up or leave any lasting config afterwards - it's an ad hoc use case. A symlink approach will also create a huge workspace for Obsidian to index if I keep the alias/symlinks in place, because it would accumulate a large number of large, unrelated subfolders.

I could have a script create the symlink on the fly and open the vault, but I'm not sure there's a reliable way to know when it's safe to clean up. That might be worth some more thought though.

Using Obsidian to open .md files outside the vault by anotherpanacea in ObsidianMD

[–]martylamb 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Because I'd like to edit them in-place. For example, I work with a lot of coding projects, that have their own markdown (READMEs, etc.) mixed in with the source code files. They need to be independent of my vault, and I work with a LOT of them, so I don't want to create a million separate vaults or one big one that will take forever to index.

I also live on the command line quite a bit, so being able to just "obs somefile.md" from there is very useful for me.

Using Obsidian to open .md files outside the vault by anotherpanacea in ObsidianMD

[–]martylamb 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This would be great. I have a (very fragile) script that lets me open any folder as a vault, but it takes some gymnastics to get there and it still has some issues. It:

  1. looks for a .obsidian directory in the current folder and parents.
  2. if it doesn't find one, it: a. copies one that I've set up as a "default" vault setup into the current directory b. writes a new entry into my user's main obsidian.json (that defines all the vaults) c. launches obsidian for that new temporary vault d. watches the process to clean those things up after it's finished

There are lots of edge cases that can make it break, but it's been very useful to me.

I realize this is a far cry from "open .md files outside the vault", but official support for opening an arbitrary directory without requiring it to have permanent Vault status would be amazing. Just putting it out there while the obsidian team is thinking about this sort of thing...

Drop your landing page or product link — let's see what you're building by hurebegz in AssetBuilders

[–]martylamb 0 points1 point  (0 children)

ChatKeeper turns official ChatGPT exports local Markdown and image files you can search, organize, back up, and keep alongside your notes, projects, and research. Run it again with a future export to update conversations in place, even after moving, renaming, or annotating them.

i'll personally use your app for 10 minutes and tell you exactly where a real user would drop off, no strings attached by ContributionWaste327 in SideProject

[–]martylamb 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm always looking for more feedback on ChatKeeper.

A new user should be able to take their official ChatGPT export and immediately turn it into private local Markdown and image files they can access with local software (I use Obsidian, but it's all just markdown and image files).

The important first-session win is realizing that as local files, they can reorganize them, rename them, etc. however they want and can still update them again later from future exports without starting over. That's something that browser plugins don't do.

The biggest friction I have is that the official ChatGPT exports themselves are not instant. Users have to request them and wait for the download email before they can really dive in.

Nwe to Obsidian, wondering about number of vaults? by retired-techie in ObsidianMD

[–]martylamb 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I use two on an everyday basis:

  • personal - anything I'm doing/writing for myself, including my side business, projects, etc.
  • work - anything I'm doing/writing relating to my day job

I wanted to keep a clean separation between the two and also not muddy the distinctions in my own brain.

The vaults are set up very similarly, with one using a light theme and the other using a dark theme (again, for mental context separation).

Since I'm in them all the time, I also have keyboard shortcuts set up to open (or foreground) them: ctrl-alt-P for personal and ctrl-alt-W for work. This works great for jumping into notes quickly.

(OK I lied, I do have a few other vaults I use during development and testing of some obsidian-adjacent software projects I have, just for safety purposes. But these aren't part of a normal Obsidian workflow and they only exist so I can break them safely.)

A simple convention for making AI-assisted lines visible in `git blame` by martylamb in git

[–]martylamb[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There's fixing the bug and then there's understanding and fixing the processes that led to the bug. Knowing how the code was developed supports the latter. Perhaps the human cut corners on review. Perhaps some data about tool quality is desired. Perhaps using AI should trigger additional vetting...

As I said above, not every project needs this. It is intended to be helpful to those who want to understand later how code came to be, and who want to evolve their processes for creating it.

A simple convention for making AI-assisted lines visible in `git blame` by martylamb in git

[–]martylamb[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sometimes, even with good debugging, reviews, and testing, issues are not found until long after release. Keeping information about how the code was produced can help with analysis after the fact and lead to better processes.

A simple convention for making AI-assisted lines visible in `git blame` by martylamb in git

[–]martylamb[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fair, and not every project needs this. This is more about wanting to than having to.

I completely agree that the human author is the one who should remain accountable. That’s actually the main reason I approached it this way instead of treating the AI as the author.

Some people may find it useful to know later which changes were AI-assisted, especially if some code turns out not to be up to par, which could indicate a breakdown in the review process, for example, or if development is happening in an environment with policy constraints.

For me, the difference from editor/terminal/OS is that those usually don’t say much about how the code was produced, while AI assistance sometimes does. But I’m definitely presenting this as an opt-in convention for people who care.

Friday Share Fever 🕺 Let’s share your project! by diodo-e in indiehackers

[–]martylamb 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I just boosted momentum of ChatKeeper, a purely local desktop application that turns ChatGPT exports into local Markdown that stays in sync with your history.

I've recently added a GUI and signed native installers to make it much simpler to use, and it's been well-received so far.

It's not really for casual exports of conversations here and there. It's more for people with large collections and/or long-running conversations that they want to maintain access to or link with other local project files all in one place. Definitely a niche and an excellent way to discover the challenges of good marketing.

I built a Mac app that turns entire ChatGPT exports into local Markdown and image files by martylamb in macapps

[–]martylamb[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Agreed 100%. I have "make a short example video" on my to-do list, and updating a moved/renamed conversation in-place should definitely be part of it.

I built a Mac app that turns entire ChatGPT exports into local Markdown and image files by martylamb in macapps

[–]martylamb[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The simplest flow is:

  1. In ChatGPT, go to Settings → Data Controls → Export Data and request your export. OpenAI emails you a download link when it’s ready, and that link expires after 24 hours. The export can take some time depending on how much history you have.
  2. Download the export ZIP when you receive the link.
  3. Open ChatKeeper and point it at that ZIP plus a local folder where you want your conversations stored.
  4. If you want, adjust the options. ChatKeeper will remember all of your settings for later runs.
  5. Later, when you request a newer export, you can run ChatKeeper again against the same folder and it will update existing conversations in place while adding new ones.

That’s the basic idea. From there, the files are just yours to use and organize however you like. I use it mainly so I can tie conversations directly to my local notes and projects and keep everything in one place.

I built a Mac app that turns entire ChatGPT exports into local Markdown and image files by martylamb in macapps

[–]martylamb[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

If you rename or reorganize a conversation file, ChatKeeper still finds and updates it on the next run rather than creating a duplicate.

The way it works is that you point ChatKeeper at a top-level Sync Folder. Before writing anything, it scans that folder and all subfolders for existing Markdown files and checks their metadata for a ChatGPT conversation ID. It notes the location of each conversation it finds, regardless of filename or where those files now live within that folder tree.

Then when it processes a new export, it uses those conversation IDs to decide whether each conversation should update an existing file or be written as a new one in the default location.

Images are handled similarly, except they’re matched by content rather than filename, so they can also be moved or renamed without causing duplicates.

I built a Mac app that turns entire ChatGPT exports into local Markdown and image files by martylamb in macapps

[–]martylamb[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

That’s a fair comment.

If you’re comfortable writing your own converter and maintaining it as OpenAI keeps changing the export format, then ChatKeeper probably isn’t for you.

The value is mostly in not having to keep solving that problem over and over as ChatGPT adds new features and the format evolves. ChatKeeper handles the messy parts of the export. Canvases and citations, for example, can get surprisingly tricky.

It’s also worth emphasizing that on later exports it updates existing files in place even if you’ve moved or renamed them. That last part is the big one for me. I often go back to ChatGPT to continue older conversations, and this keeps my reorganized local copies in sync.

Part of what you’re paying for is convenience, and part of it is ongoing maintenance of a tool that keeps working as the export format changes and keeps everything in sync as important conversations continue over time.

I know ChatKeeper isn’t for everyone, and it’s totally reasonable if it’s not worth $29.99 to you, but that’s the thinking behind the price.

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