Vakana.mg

A Malagasy knowledge management system, on your phone.

A small fragment of what the physical Vakana System, the Malagasy ancestral practice of beads, is capable of. This app is one modest echo of that art.

v0.81.0 · Android only · pre-1.0 · free, as in freedom

Welcome to

The Malagasy Knowledge
Management System,
on your phone.

Step 1 · 5
An idea
Got an awesome idea. The details…

Take a note

Write what happened today.
A thought, a moment, a win.

Step 2 · 5
💡
“having an idea”

Shape its bead

Pick a shape, a color, a pattern,
a glyph. The bead keeps the feeling.
You decide what it means.

Step 3 · 5
💡
An idea
Got an awesome idea. The details…
👩
Mom
I used Mom’s money to buy some parts…
🤝
Meeting someone
Ask a buddy to help me build this. He agreed

A few times a day

Each note gets its own bead.

Step 4 · 5

Sunday, 16 August

💡
👩
🤝
Got an awesome idea. The details…
I used Mom’s money to buy some parts…
Ask a buddy to help me build this. He agreed

Your day threads itself

Vakana strings today’s beads into
a chain. Walk the chain. Each bead
opens its note again.

Step 5 · 5
My awesome project X
💡 🤝 🔧 👩 🏆 🥂

Or string your own

Days thread themselves. You can
also string your own thread.
A story, a project, a habit.

The three main views

The Vakana list: entries grouped by day, each carrying its bead

Vakana

Beads of life

Your entries in the order they happened, grouped by day.

The Tetiandro calendar: a month grid with a bead on each day that holds an entry

Tetiandro

Book of days

A month at a time, with each day's bead and the reminders you set.

The Tohivakana threads list: each thread shown as its chain of beads

Tohivakana

Threads of life

Every chain you have strung, and the ones you have closed.

An entry: a note with a title, text and a rendered list

Entries

An entry is text, with markdown, photos and voice notes. It saves as you type; there is no save button.

Vakana customization

A bead is composed from eight shapes, eight patterns, a mood that sets its color, and a glyph you type. Save a bead under a name and it joins your saved beads; picking one applies it in a tap. Reshape a saved bead later and the past entries that carry it can be rewritten to match.

The bead composer: saved beads, shapes, patterns, moods and a glyph
The attach sheet: take a photo, pick from the library, voice note, audio file, mention a thread

Attachments

Take a photo, pick from the library, record a voice note, or import an audio file. An entry can also mention a thread.

Threads

A thread is a chain of beads. Read it as a beaded line, or stacked with the entries in reach.

A thread laid out as a beaded line The same thread stacked, with an entry preview open
The filters panel: shapes, moods, patterns and glyphs as the search vocabulary

Filters

Filter entries by what you encoded: shape, mood, pattern, and glyph.

Themes

Six palettes, each in light and dark. Cappuccino is the default.

The theme settings: mode and six palettes
The possibilities catalog, inside the app The user guide contents, inside the app

The guides are in the app

The user guide and a catalog of possibilities, searchable offline.

Close the loop

When a cycle ends, close the thread. The chain clasps into a ring and keeps the date you closed it.

A closed thread laid out as a loop, beads set around a ring
The export sheet: Org, Markdown, HTML, PDF and Slides

Export

Everything stays on the device until you export it. A thread exports to Org, Markdown, HTML, PDF or a slide deck. Exports go one way; nothing syncs back. The Org zip includes vakana.el.

Download APK · 73.4 MB

v0.81.0 · Android only · pre-1.0 sha256 14a2e5f231b1be562a6b1dc66981205c51b18625a60d35d153e22ca6ec0dd009

Vakana.mg is free, free as in freedom. I build it in my own free time, out of my own freedom.