I only knew I wanted like to be put with like, automatically.

This was sort of happening with folders, but it’s felt off. I wanted more and didn’t quite know what that was. All I know is that folders ain’t it, because I’m not using them.

Throughout my time with Sanctum  often I notice that something could be better and simply make it better. I’ve hit the end of obvious noticings, and now I have longer periods of time where I feel like something is off or that there is a feature I want but I can’t quite point to it and know it.

I am no longer in full heads down mode with the app, and instead have just been using it and working on other things (like a web app for helping me manage my newly begun job search 😉!).

I’ve been wanting to have like a “list”, or a space for certain kinds of thoughts. I go on walks very often and will ramble into Sanctum and I’d love for those to just get dropped into a list of “rambles” joining my other notes that are similar.

In the middle of scrambling eggs an entire feature came to me like a lightning bolt, fully formed.
It’s a collection!
I immediately started babbling to Sanctum to capture it. I want a collection that is based on kinds of things, and I just want Sanctum to know what kinds of things should go where. I want to define what a specific collection is, in natural language and just have my notes land there automagically.

I built the core of this feature in a day, but then had to go through the process of actually using it to land on what feels like good UX. A collection can be made in 3 ways with varied layers of involvement.

1. Select existing notes and have the LLM create the “collection”.
2. Make a new recording and simply say “Hey Scribe, I’d like a collection for my rambling thoughts.”
3. Manually go in and write what should be in it.

Each layer is a different need that arose through use. Sometimes I knew what I wanted grouped. Other times I wasn’t sure but I saw that I had a ton of notes with shared tags that are clearly a collection. For full manual mode, I knew it was just the base. But the base enabled me to feel the feature, line up ducks for reviewing and editing auto created ones and also enabled a clear path for reliable automated testing that didn’t require the LLM.

Lining up ducks is key, just like when I was an eng lead. Manual collection creation enabled semi-automatic which in turn enabled automatic creation. As a result this feature is stable, stackable and architecturally sound. I wrote about this in a previous post, and it is still showing itself (https://www.builtinspace.xyz/blog/begin-with-ethos ).

Over and over I am seeing that me being a genuine customer enables me to make a product that feels really good (to me at least, and I trust for my users as well).

Build primitives, use the primitive, let the product reveal what should be next.

Anyway, Collections is live and I’m loving it!