Plaintext First

Crucible is built on a simple principle: your notes are just files. Markdown files in folders on your computer. No database required, no cloud dependency, no proprietary format.

Why Plaintext

Portability

Your notes work everywhere:

Any text editor (VS Code, Vim, Obsidian, Notepad)
Any operating system
Any device
Any decade - markdown will outlive any app

Ownership

Your files live on your machine:

No company holds your data hostage
No subscription to access your notes
No internet required to write and read
You control backups and sync

Simplicity

Files are simple:

No migration when tools change
No export/import workflows
Version control with Git
Scriptable with standard tools

What Crucible Adds

Crucible enhances your files without changing them:

Your Files	Crucible Cache
Source of truth	Derived data
Portable markdown	Local database
Always accessible	Rebuilt anytime

The database (SQLite by default) is a cache. Delete it and Crucible rebuilds it from your files - no content is lost. One caveat: embeddings for semantic search are not derivable from the files alone, so a rebuild recomputes them through your configured embedding provider (re-run cru process; for a cloud provider that means paying the API calls again). Your notes are never modified unless you ask.

The Markdown Contract

Crucible commits to:

Never require proprietary format - Standard markdown works
Never lock you in - All features work with plain files
Never modify without consent - Your files, your control
Always be rebuildable - Cache from source, not source from cache

Wikilinks and Extensions

Crucible uses [[wikilinks]] - a widely-supported markdown extension. These work in Obsidian, Logseq, Foam, and many other tools.

Other extensions (frontmatter, block references) are also standard across the PKM ecosystem.