The Digital Garden

This garden uses Denote-style file naming: plain text, no database, Unix-compatible.

File Naming

TIMESTAMP==SIGNATURE--title-in-kebab-case__keyword1_keyword2.md

Components:
- TIMESTAMP: 20251018T220400 (ISO 8601, unique ID)
- SIGNATURE: ==proj (optional, for ordering)
- TITLE: --the-digital-garden (kebab-case)
- KEYWORDS: __meta_denote (underscore separated)
- EXTENSION: .md (markdown)

Philosophy

From Protesilaos Stavrou’s Denote:

1. Simplicity Through Convention - Predictable file naming - Clear indication of content without metadata lookup

2. Portability and Unix Philosophy - Plain text, no database - Works with standard Unix tools

3. Stable Identifiers - Timestamp-based IDs for permanent links - Can change title/keywords without breaking links

Linking

Use [[denote:TIMESTAMP]] format. The FastHTML app converts these to proper links and calculates backlinks automatically.

Growth

The garden grows organically: - Seedling - Early ideas - Growing - Active development - Evergreen - Refined concepts

No hierarchy, just links and emergence.

Technical

Single-page FastHTML app: - Parse Denote filenames - Convert denote links to HTML - Calculate backlinks - Minimal, clean design - Mobile responsive

Code at ~/system/deployments/guardens/

Related

Part of Scriptorium Architecture - the public face of Lab’s Lab.