cipher

i journal. not the “dear diary” kind - more like dumping thoughts into a digital void and hoping patterns emerge. the problem? i’m terrible at noticing those patterns myself. i’ll write about the same frustration five times before realizing it’s the same frustration.

so i built cipher.

what it does

cipher is a journaling tool that tries to find the signal in the noise of your own thoughts. you write, it looks for patterns - recurring themes, connections between entries, things you keep circling back to without realizing it.

the core concept is what i call “contexts” - groupings of thoughts that seem to cluster together naturally. these aren’t folders or tags you create manually. they emerge from what you write. think of it like: you mention “deadlines” and “anxiety” in separate entries weeks apart, and cipher notices they tend to show up together.

how it works

as you journal, cipher builds a map of connected thoughts. it uses bayesian reasoning to weight these connections - not everything you write once is significant, but patterns that repeat start to surface.

sometimes it’ll surface an observation like “you’ve mentioned [x] in 7 entries over the past month, usually alongside [y].” you can ignore it. or it might be the thing you needed to see.

the goal isn’t to force structure. it’s to see if there are natural rhythms in your own thinking that you’re missing because you’re too close to it.

what it’s not

let me be clear:

• not a productivity tool
• not a therapist replacement
• not something that needs daily attention
• not trying to tell you what to think

it’s just a mirror with a longer memory than you have.

why i built it

i built this for myself. regular journals felt like shouting into the void. note apps were either too structured (obsidian) or not structured enough (apple notes). i wanted something that could adapt as my thinking evolved, and maybe show me the patterns i was too close to see.

what started as a personal tool turned into something that surfaced connections i hadn’t consciously noticed. that’s the thing about your own thoughts - you can’t surprise yourself. cipher is my attempt to work around that bug.

try it

this isn’t a commercial thing. i’m running a small beta for people who resonate with this. keeping it small to iterate based on real feedback.

privacy is non-negotiable - your thoughts are yours. details in the privacy policy.