A calm, CLI-first cognitive holding space for unfinished thoughts.

Not a task manager, notes app or journal.

Quick install (release binary):

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/divijg19/peony/main/install.sh | bash

To also add an optional bloom shell function that opens Bloom (peony tui):

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/divijg19/peony/main/install.sh | bash -s -- --alias --shell bash

Peony is a local-first, humane CLI application designed to help you capture, tend, and gently resolve half-formed thoughts—without forcing them into tasks, deadlines, or artificial structure.

Modern tools demand commitment too early:

• task managers ask “when will you do this?”
• notes apps become noisy dumping grounds
• journals require emotional energy on demand

Peony offers a middle ground: a quiet place for thoughts that are not ready yet.

Peonies bloom slowly. They do not rush, yet they are unmistakably full.

Peony exists for thoughts that need time, space, and kindness.

A thought may:

• rest
• mature
• transform
• or dissolve entirely

Peony respects that process.

Peony never nags. Thoughts resurface when they feel ready, not when a reminder fires.

Peony speaks softly. Commands are verbs, not flags. There are no streaks, no scores, no guilt loops.

Everything is stored locally. No accounts. No sync. No analytics. Your inner life is not a dataset.

• ❌ Not a productivity dashboard
• ❌ Not a goal tracker
• ❌ Not an AI coach
• ❌ Not collaborative or social
• ❌ Not optimized for speed or scale

Peony is optimized for clarity and care.

The fundamental object in Peony.

A Cognitive Unit(CU) can represent:

• an unresolved decision
• a lingering worry
• an idea in early formation
• a memory fragment
• a question you’re not ready to answer

Each CU has:

• a lifecycle state
• a temporal context
• optional emotional metadata
• a gentle interaction history

1. Captured – softly recorded, without classification pressure
2. Resting – intentionally left untouched
3. Tended – revisited when appropriate
4. Evolved – transformed into a task, note, or plan
5. Released – consciously let go
6. Archived – preserved without demand

Nothing ever “fails.”

Peony is designed to be used from the terminal, thoughtfully and slowly.

peony add
> What’s on your mind?
> "Unsure whether to double down on Go or consolidate Python first."

peony tend
🌱 2 thoughts feel ready for reflection today.

peony view
🌸 This thought has been resting for 14 days.
🌿 You last touched it late at night.

Commands are designed to feel inviting, not mechanical.

• add - capture a thought gently
• tend - surface thoughts ready for reflection
• view - read a thought in context
• rest - intentionally defer
• evolve - convert into a task / note (external)
• release - let go without guilt
• archive - long-term memory
• tui - open the full-screen terminal garden

Bloom is Peony's keyboard-first terminal garden-inspired interface.

peony tui
bloom  # only if installed with --alias

Bloom opens to a calm TUI with focused scopes for Ready, Resting, and All visible thoughts. Archived thoughts stay out of Bloom and remain viewable through the CLI. Bloom keeps a detail pane close by for content, state, readiness, timestamps, and event history. From there you can capture, tend, rest, evolve, archive, search, filter, reload, and permanently release thoughts without leaving the terminal.

Peony includes an optional, read-only WebUI frontend- a window into your inner landscape.

• Visualize thought lifecycles
• Observe seasons of thinking
• Reflect without interaction pressure

• No metrics
• No dashboards
• No urgency signals
• Slow transitions
• Soft color palette

The WebUI exists to help you see, not manage.

Peony
├── Core Engine (Go)
│   ├── Thought lifecycle
│   ├── Temporal logic
│   └── Language system
│
├── CLI Interface
│
├── TUI
│   └── Bubble Tea + Lip Gloss
│
├── Storage
│   └── SQLite (local-first)
│
└── Read-only WebUI
    ├── GoTH + HTMX
    └── Tailwind (minimal, soft)

• Go — clarity, longevity, low cognitive overhead
• SQLite — durable, portable local storage

• Bubble Tea — calm, state-driven terminal UX
• Lip Gloss — intentional visual hierarchy

• GoTH + HTMX — minimal, server-driven UI
• Tailwind CSS — restrained visual language

• No cloud dependency
• No accounts
• No telemetry
• Your data lives with you

Peony will still work the same way in ten years.

Peony is for people who:

• think deeply
• feel overwhelmed by premature structure
• value reflection over optimization
• prefer calm tools over clever ones

It is especially suited for:

• developers
• researchers
• writers
• designers
• long-horizon thinkers

Peony is CLI and TUI complete, and WebUI is yet to be worked upon. The focus is on:

• core lifecycle correctness
• language tone
• UX restraint

Feature creep is intentionally resisted.

• v0.1 - Core CLI, lifecycle, local sqlite storage, entry function, add & view commands
• v0.2 - CLI pagination, view and pagination filters, tend command
• v0.3 - Database re-design for temporal context, tend notifications, tend visual and terminal editor implementation, config settings for tend time and editor choice, evolve
• v0.4 - Archive, Release, solidified tend notification consistency
• v0.5 - CLI polish, user feedback iteration
• v0.6 - TUI frontend initialization
• v0.7 - TUI Polish, CI and Docs
• v0.8 - TUI Finalization and Completion
• v0.9 - Read-only WebUI frontend (Eden integration)
• v1.0 - Overall polish, interactivity and user feedback iteration
• Beyond - Eden, Dashboard, Semantic AI integration, Heuristics & Fuzzing

AI integration, if ever added, will be:

• opt-in
• reflective only
• non-prescriptive

MIT You are free to use, modify, and learn from Peony— just as gently as it was designed.

🌸 Some thoughts don’t need solving. They need somewhere safe to wait.