nodepad

A design experiment in spatial, AI-augmented thinking.

Watch the intro →

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Most AI tools are built around a chat interface: you ask, it answers, you ask again. The interaction is sequential, conversational, and optimised for producing output. nodepad is built around a different premise: that thinking is spatial and associative, and that AI is most useful when it works quietly in the background rather than at the centre of attention.

You add notes. The AI classifies them, finds connections between them, surfaces what you haven't said yet, and occasionally synthesises an emergent insight from the whole canvas. You stay in control of the space. The AI earns its place by being genuinely useful rather than prominent.

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How it works

Notes are typed into the input bar and placed onto a spatial canvas. Each note is automatically classified into one of 14 types — claim, question, idea, task, entity, quote, reference, definition, opinion, reflection, narrative, comparison, thesis, general — and enriched with a short annotation that adds something the note doesn't already say.

Connections between notes are inferred from content. When you hover a connection indicator, unrelated notes dim. When enough notes accumulate, a synthesis emerges — a single sentence that bridges the tensions across the canvas. You can solidify it into a thesis note or dismiss it.

Three views: tiling (spatial BSP grid), kanban (grouped by type), graph (force-directed, centrality-radial).

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Setup

Requirements: a desktop browser and an API key from one of the supported providers.

git clone https://github.com/mskayyali/nodepad.git
cd nodepad
npm install
npm run dev

Open localhost:3000.

Add your API key: click the menu icon (top-left) → Settings → choose your provider → paste your key. The key is stored in your browser's localStorage and goes directly to the AI provider — it never passes through any server.

Enable web grounding (optional): toggle "Web grounding" in Settings to let the AI cite real sources for claims, questions, and references. Supported on OpenRouter :online models and OpenAI search-preview models.

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Providers & Models

Select provider and model from the sidebar Settings panel. Each provider remembers its key independently — switching providers and back restores your key. Once a key is entered, the model picker fetches all models available on your account and lets you search and select any of them — not just the presets listed below.

Custom base URL: override the provider endpoint in Settings to use local or self-hosted models (Ollama, LM Studio, vLLM, or any OpenAI-compatible API).

OpenRouter (default)

Access to all major models through a single key. Create a free account at openrouter.ai — use the free-tier models below with no credits, or add credits for GPT-4o, Claude, and Gemini.

Model	Notes
openai/gpt-4o	Default. Strong annotation quality, web grounding.
anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5	Strong reasoning, complex research.
google/gemini-2.5-pro	Long context, web grounding.
deepseek/deepseek-chat	Fast, cost-effective.
mistralai/mistral-small-3.2	Lightweight, fast.

Free tier — no credits required, ~200 req/day limit, Nvidia-hosted, no web grounding:

Model	Notes
nvidia/nemotron-3-nano-30b-a3b:free	Nemotron 30B — fast, reliable.
nvidia/nemotron-3-super-120b-a12b:free	Nemotron 120B MoE — higher quality, same speed.

OpenAI (direct)

Use your OpenAI API key directly. Web grounding via search-preview models.

Model	Notes
gpt-4o	Strong structured output, web grounding.
gpt-4o-mini	Fast, capable, web grounding.
gpt-4.1	Latest GPT-4, improved instruction following.
o4-mini	Fast reasoning model.

Z.ai

GLM models from Zhipu AI. Get a key at z.ai.

Model	Notes
glm-4.7	Strong reasoning, 200K context.
glm-5	Z.ai flagship model.
glm-5-turbo	Fast, community-tested.

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Keyboard shortcuts

Enter	Add note
⌘K	Command palette (views, navigation, export)
⌘Z	Undo
Escape	Deselect / close panels

Double-click any note to edit. Click the type label to reclassify manually.

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Data

Everything lives in your browser. No account, no server, no database.

• Notes are persisted to localStorage under nodepad-projects
• A silent rolling backup is written on every change to nodepad-backup
• Export to .md or .nodepad (versioned JSON) via ⌘K
• Import .nodepad files via the sidebar

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Tech

Next.js · React 19 · TypeScript · Tailwind CSS v4 · D3.js · Framer Motion

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Contributing

Pull requests are welcome. I go through them regularly. Some will be merged, others may stay open.

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A design experiment by Saleh Kayyali.

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License

MIT