Wondering if there are other similar tools out there which people love, and why ChatGPT/Gemini/Claude won't let you do the same in their native apps.

I explore a bit, get interrupted, come back days later, ask new questions, find new sources, and gradually build understanding.

Existing AI tools are great at answering questions once, but they reset context every time. Notes tools preserve text, but not understanding — they don’t help me reconnect ideas, revisit sources, or see how my thinking has evolved.

I built Kerns to sit in between.

Kerns is an AI research workspace designed for research that unfolds over time. Each topic lives in a long-lived space where:

• You can ask new questions as they emerge • Upload PDFs, papers, or documents alongside discovered sources • Run deep research in parallel, not one query at a time • Move fluidly between summaries and original source text • Revisit work weeks later without losing context

Instead of scattering work across chats, documents, and bookmarks, research accumulates in one place and compounds as you return to it.

I’ve been using Kerns myself for things like:

• Reading and synthesizing books and essays • Comparing technical papers and model releases • Tracking ongoing policy or industry topics as they evolve

I’d love feedback from anyone who does sustained research — analysts, researchers, founders, students, or serious self-learners.

Thank you!

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46702372

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

Kerns is built for this mode of research.

It groups multiple deep researches under a single research area, so follow-ups and side investigations accumulate instead of fragmenting across chats and docs. Outputs are structured so you can start shallow and selectively go deep—because you don’t know upfront which deep researches will matter.

Synthesis is an explicit second step. Kerns helps you connect and reconcile insights across deep researches, grounded in the sourced material rather than one-off summaries. This stage also lets you consult other docs on the same level as deep researches.

Research doesn’t stop once a report is written. Kerns passively keeps your work up to date by monitoring sources and surfacing meaningful changes, so staying current doesn’t require restarting.

Built for researchers, analysts, investors, and serious self-learners doing multi-week or multi-month research where clarity and correctness actually matter.

Would love feedback!

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46651496

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

You define topics and sources once. Kerns continuously tracks them over time, surfaces what changes, and structures the material so understanding compounds instead of resetting each session.

The key difference is the interface layer. Beyond feeds and summaries, Kerns organizes research into reasoning-ready views—maps, structured summaries, and synthesized perspectives—so you can actually think through complex areas rather than just store information.

We built this for people doing deep, long-running research (researchers, analysts, investors, founders, autodidacts) where the hard part isn’t finding sources, but keeping a coherent mental model as the space evolves.

Would love feedback, especially from people who’ve tried to maintain research across weeks or months.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46534355

Points: 5

# Comments: 0

Kerns is an AI interface designed to help with all of this - there's a powerful chat agent to search and reason with over the web and your sources. You can run deep research, and enable background agents in the app to work on your behalf. You can read original source with a powerful AI reader that offers chapter level summarization and in context question answering. There's a powerful interactive mindmap you can build on your sources, and visual notetaking as you chat.

I would love any feedback!

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46131222

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46062851

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

My goal is to have one place to do understand any topic which minimizes manual context engineering, and jumping around between chat/notes/readers.

Please let me know if you try it and have feedback!

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46049966

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

My goal is to have one place to do research on any topic which minimizes manual context engineering, and jumping around between chat/notes/readers.

Please let me know if you try it and have feedback!

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45884473

Points: 7

# Comments: 4

I think in general these things should not be confused to be the one and same artifact - that of a personal memory device and that for LLM context management. Right now, it seems to double up, of which the main problem is that it kind of puts the burden on me to manage my memory device, which should be automatic I think. I don't have perfect thoughts on it, so I'll leave it at this, its work in progress..