I am not a power user for Dendron, I mostly just use it for journaling, keeping track of who is who and what is what, and organizing architecture / ideas before they find a home somewhere else. Mostly a journal.

I do like that it’s in VS Code and I can leverage those tools and now, AI, to help.

The main functionality I use is the new daily journal from template feature. Do you use more surface area from it? What is the most useful features for you?

That last category of people are also now likely to go create something themselves with AI, but don't really want to or can't start a business from it, so they may add it to the pile of free software others can use.

Not everyone HAS to profit from their work, though I do think those who make it their passion might benefit from finding a way to do that.

I do think there is room for a few good paid text editors in the world, but most people won't pay directly for them, though they might use them if they are bundled ala Google Docs / O365 Word.

Simple utility stuff I believe should fit in this category. Things like a text editor.

The profit comes from elsewhere, larger more complex systems.

Of course someone can TRY to profit off a text editor, but unless it solves complex enough problems (like a full blown IDE, but even then...).

The issue is there is intense demand for it, and ALSO easy supply. If someone attempts a profit driving rugpull, another will pop up in it's place.

I am still using Dendron because it meets my needs, but I'm always half tempted to replace it, and I'm fairly confident I could come up with something that meets my own needs in a day or two, and it would likely also be valuable to countless others. I just keep assuming that someone else will spend that day or two, and my pain points with Dendron are not that bad for me to spend the time.

It has been super helpful and the ecosystem is growing around it.

The real benefit is having a standardized pattern for APIs, with automation and predictability built in.

Not everything can be modeled as a resource, but for any API that fits that, it’s fantastic.

It’s a bit restrictive at times, but those restrictions often shed light on bad architecture/data modeling.

They worked through a lot of feedback last year and cut a 2026 LTS release to give strong confidence to start building tooling around it.

Check out https://aepbase.io/ for an example and fun way to get started.

I made my own project, with one of the goals being discounting tokens, but found that the real goal was just ensuring quality and making things more programmatic.

https://ktext.dev

Basically ends up being agents.md in a schema driven yaml file. Thinking about extending it to also generate or replace skill.md.

I think the proliferation of markdown is cool, and lowers the barrier for entry, but it’s also very unpredictable and loose. I think over time we will drive these to be more like config files instead of free text.

Basically a structured context file, that can be used to generate AGENTS.md, and also can be validated and scored.

I think it could help with this problem.

But I’ve moved to using https://aep.dev style APIs as much as possible (sometimes written with TypeSpec), because the consistency allows you to use prebaked aepcli or very easily write your own since everything behaves like know “resources” with a consistent pattern.

Also Terraform works out of the box, with no needing to write a provider.

This is basically a structured, efficient version of claude.md.

Every time you launch a new Claude Code session it will need context for the codebase. Rather than letting it spend a bunch of tokens looking around and discovering it, why not provide it with a compact, high quality version?

Ktext has two parts: a CONTEXT.yaml which adheres to a JSON Schema, and the ktext CLI that helps create, validate, and export it.

Was going to launch later this week, and the site needs some tweaks, but the tool is ready.

Give it a shot!

I pivoted and created something way simpler, but solving a different problem. Making the basic context really efficient and high quality.

https://ktext.dev

- It is too machine like in its definition and requirements and misses the spirit of the ask.

- It very much waterfalls it, without asking for feedback midway, or revisiting the original goals after things have been built. You have such an opportunity to adjust and learn as you go, especially if you keep revisiting your goals and values and re-evaluating your original requirements which may have been flawed.

Just like with human development, it's rare that your spec is well thought out at the beginning, and impossible that it was comprehensive enough to define a working system.

I think having goals, vision, and hard requirements make sense, with some guiding principles along the way, but it's very much a journey that requires constant feedback loops and adjustments along the way.

I currently use Dendron in VS Code. Dendron is basically abandonware at this point because it couldn’t be monetized, but because it’s Apache licensed, I can fork it if I want, and continue to use it until something better comes along, or even modify it for my own needs.

It’s very hard to be successful financially in this space. Notion did it at the right time, but they are targeting enterprises who are willing to give their data to them, not individuals who want to run their own setup.

Maybe you can compete with Notion, but I’m not willing to put my stuff in a system that may not be around in a couple years, and I don’t have a license for.

It has spec driven development, which in my testing yesterday resulted in a boat load of passing tests but zero useful code.

It first gathers requirements, which are all worded in strange language that somehow don’t capture specific outcomes OR important implementation details.

Then it builds a design file where it comes up with an overly complex architecture, based on the requirements.

Then it comes up with a lengthy set of tasks to accomplish it. It does let you opt out if optional testing, but don’t worry, it still will write a ton of tests.

You click go on each set of tasks, and wait for it to request permissions for odd things like “chmod +x index.ts”.

8 hours and 200+ credits later, you have a monstrosity of Enterprise Grade Fizzbuzz.