I wrote a manifesto about plain text 3 years ago. It just paid off.

I wrote a private little manifesto about the merits of writing in plain text and markdown file a few years ago.

Since then, I’ve collected nearly 7000 notes inside my private knowledgebase. It’s the engine behind all my content, coding and business ideas.

It also just paid off in a way I never expected thanks to Claude Code.

First, here’s the gist:

No vendor lock-in​
If you use plain text and Markdown, your writing isn’t trapped in fancy-pants database or a proprietary format.

I’ve tried all these greatest apps (and few lousy ones). I always end up regretting it. While a few are worht using, they inevitably bolts on features, I don’t want.

Use Any App With My Notes​
Tools should never own my data or ideas.

Assuming the app doesn’t force me into a walled garden, I want to interact with my library of notes. I want to edit and write iA Writer, VS Code, Obsidian, or TextEdit without locking myself in.

But the file must stay the same. And I must be able to switch tools without migration headaches.

It Must Be Portable​
I want to be able to use a library of plain text and markdown files works on Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, and Android and any other device.

It should sync easily via iCloud, Dropbox, or git or whatever I feel like using. And it should be future proof.

Friction Creates Better Thinking​
Managing a library of thousands of notes introduces some friction. You see the raw structure while writing…think headings, links, and formatting.

But this slight resistance means I’m more likely to review and edit the note. And iterative writing is a key part of maintaining a personal knowledgebase..

Last Saturday, something clicked.

I installed Claude Code on my Mac and pointed it at my knowledge base.

I started with a simple prompt.

While I put my son to bed, Claude read through thousands of my notes, found patterns across years of thinking, and even built a custom analyzer that runs once a week for me packed full of content ideas I overlooked.

Claude Code only works because I’m using plain text files.​
Apple Notes, Evernote and Notion can’t do this. All of these apps have their use cases, but they still lock my data and wriitng in a proprietary database.

I can’t run Claude Code or Gemini of that.

But plain text and markdown?

Claude Code reads it natively.

Here’s what I built with Claude Code and my library of plain text notes:

Content Pipeline Analyzer​
Tracks what I’m working on, identifies draft clusters, suggests which pieces to finish first

Deep Pattern Analyzer​
Finds connections across 3 years of notes I’d never spotted manually

Business Intelligence Dashboard​
Pulls worklog activity, counts domain mentions (build, MBA, trading, training)
​Email Analyzer​
Reads newsletter drafts, analyzes them with a 10-section editorial framework, rewrites them better than I wrote them

My private little manifesto wasn’t just about avoiding vendor lock-in. I wanted to keeping my options open for new tech.

With Claude code, that bet paid off.

Reply 'SCRIPTS' if you want my analyzers or 'COURSE' if you want to pre-order the full training

($297).