🌸 Peony

A calm, CLI-first cognitive holding space for unfinished thoughts.

Not a task manager, notes app or journal.

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What is Peony?

Peony is a local-first, humane CLI application designed to help you capture, tend, and gently resolve half-formed thoughts—without forcing them into tasks, deadlines, or artificial structure.

Modern tools demand commitment too early:

• task managers ask “when will you do this?”
• notes apps become noisy dumping grounds
• journals require emotional energy on demand

Peony offers a middle ground: a quiet place for thoughts that are not ready yet.

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Core Philosophy

Thoughts are seeds, not obligations

A thought may:

• rest
• mature
• transform
• or dissolve entirely

Peony respects that process.

Time-aware, not time-driven

Peony never nags. Thoughts resurface when they feel ready, not when a reminder fires.

Language matters

Peony speaks softly. Commands are verbs, not flags. There are no streaks, no scores, no guilt loops.

Private by default

Everything is stored locally. No accounts. No sync. No analytics. Your inner life is not a dataset.

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What Peony Is Not

• ❌ Not a productivity dashboard
• ❌ Not a goal tracker
• ❌ Not an AI coach
• ❌ Not collaborative or social
• ❌ Not optimized for speed or scale

Peony is optimized for clarity and care.

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Core Concepts

Cognitive Units (CUs)

The fundamental object in Peony.

A Cognitive Unit(CU) can represent:

• an unresolved decision
• a lingering worry
• an idea in early formation
• a memory fragment
• a question you’re not ready to answer

Each CU has:

• a lifecycle state
• a temporal context
• optional emotional metadata
• a gentle interaction history

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Lifecycle of a Thought

1. Captured – softly recorded, without classification pressure
2. Resting – intentionally left untouched
3. Tended – revisited when appropriate
4. Evolved – transformed into a task, note, or plan
5. Released – consciously let go
6. Archived – preserved without demand

Nothing ever “fails.”

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CLI-First Experience

Peony is designed to be used from the terminal, thoughtfully and slowly.

Example interactions

`Peony` add
> What’s on your mind?
> "Unsure whether to double down on Go or consolidate Python first."

`Peony` tend
🌱 2 thoughts feel ready for reflection today.

`Peony` view
🌸 This thought has been resting for 14 days.
🌿 You last touched it late at night.

Commands are designed to feel inviting, not mechanical.

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CLI Commands

• add — capture a thought gently
• tend — surface thoughts ready for reflection
• view — read a thought in context
• rest — intentionally defer
• evolve — convert into a task / note (external)
• release — let go without guilt
• archive — long-term memory

Planned for the frontend Eden integration, not CLI:

• garden — high-level overview

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Frontend: A Quiet Window

Peony includes an optional, read-only frontend—a window into your inner landscape.

Purpose

• Visualize thought lifecycles
• Observe seasons of thinking
• Reflect without interaction pressure

Design principles

• No metrics
• No dashboards
• No urgency signals
• Slow transitions
• Soft color palette

The frontend exists to help you see, not manage.

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Architecture Overview

`Peony`
├── Core Engine (Go)
│   ├── Thought lifecycle
│   ├── Temporal logic
│   └── Language system
│
├── CLI Interface
│   └── Bubble Tea + Lip Gloss
│
├── Storage
│   └── SQLite (local-first)
│
└── Read-only Frontend
    ├── GoTH + HTMX
    └── Tailwind (minimal, soft)

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Tech Stack

Core

• Go — clarity, longevity, low cognitive overhead
• SQLite — durable, portable local storage

CLI

• Bubble Tea — calm, state-driven terminal UX
• Lip Gloss — intentional visual hierarchy

Frontend (optional)

• GoTH + HTMX — minimal, server-driven UI
• Tailwind CSS — restrained visual language

No JavaScript framework is required for Peony’s core philosophy.

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Local-First by Design

• No cloud dependency
• No accounts
• No telemetry
• Your data lives with you

Peony will still work the same way in ten years.

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Intended Users

Peony is for people who:

• think deeply
• feel overwhelmed by premature structure
• value reflection over optimization
• prefer calm tools over clever ones

It is especially suited for:

• developers
• researchers
• writers
• designers
• long-horizon thinkers

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Project Status

Peony is pre-frontend, CLI-complete. The focus is on:

• core lifecycle correctness
• language tone
• UX restraint

Feature creep is intentionally resisted.

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Roadmap (High Level)

• v0.1 — Core CLI, lifecycle, local sqlite storage, entry function, add & view commands
• v0.2 — CLI pagination, view and pagination filters, tend command
• v0.3 — Database re-design for temporal context, tend notifications, tend visual and terminal editor implementation, config settings for tend time and editor choice, evolve
• v0.4 — Archive, Release, solidified tend notification consistency
• v0.5 — CLI polish, user feedback iteration
• v0.6 — Read-only frontend (Eden integration) ~
• v0.7 — Frontend polish and interactivity, user feedback iteration
• v1.0+ — Optional Semantic AI integration (non-prescriptive, reflective only)

AI integration, if ever added, will be:

• opt-in
• reflective only
• non-prescriptive

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Why “Peony”?

Peonies bloom slowly. They do not rush, yet they are unmistakably full.

Peony exists for thoughts that need time, space, and kindness.

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License

MIT You are free to use, modify, and learn from Peony— just as gently as it was designed.

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🌸 Some thoughts don’t need solving. They need somewhere safe to wait.