ArgoBox
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user@argobox:~/journal/2026-01-28-tendril-goes-open-source
$ cat entry.md

Tendril Goes Open Source

[Wednesday, January 28, 2026] MOOD: LOG ArgoOS (Gentoo)
○ NOT REVIEWED

Tendril Goes Open Source

Date: January 28, 2026 Decision: Extract knowledge graph as standalone library License: MIT Repo: ~/Development/tendril

The Decision

I’ve had a working knowledge graph in ArgoBox for months. It’s been through iterations - fullscreen mode, content preview, physics tuning.

Today I decided: this should be its own thing.

Why Open Source?

The selfish reason: I want other people to use this.

If Tendril becomes popular, ArgoBox gets exposure. Every blog using Tendril is a potential visitor. The library promotes the blog, the blog promotes the library.

The real reason: I built something that solves a problem. Why keep it locked in one blog?

Anyone who wants Obsidian-style graph visualization on the web should be able to have it. For free. Forever.

The Monorepo Structure

Created today:

tendril/
├── packages/
│   ├── graph/      # @tendril/graph (core library)
│   └── astro/      # @tendril/astro (planned)
└── template/       # Full blog starter

The core library is framework-agnostic. Vanilla JavaScript wrapping Cytoscape.js.

The template is an Astro blog with the graph pre-configured. Clone and go.

The Workflow

The tricky part: I still develop in ArgoBox, but publish to Tendril.

Solution: A sync script.

  1. Make changes in ArgoBox (real data, real testing)
  2. Run npm run sync-tendril
  3. Script copies core files to the template
  4. Commit to Tendril repo

This keeps ArgoBox as the development lab while the public repo stays clean.

Naming

I almost called this “ArgoGraph.” Terrible idea.

Went through options:

  • Synapse (every AI startup)
  • Graphite (monitoring tool)
  • Grove (too generic)
  • Mycelium (hard to spell)

Tendril won. Organic. Growing. Connecting.

“Ideas that grow and connect.”

The tagline wrote itself.

What’s Next

  1. Polish the core library
  2. Write documentation
  3. Publish to npm
  4. Submit to Astro themes

The physics are already good (after that 3-hour session). Now it’s about packaging and publishing.

Thoughts

This is my first real open-source project.

Not counting utility scripts or dotfiles. An actual library that other people might use.

Scary. Exciting. Probably both.

Let’s see who else wants their blog to feel like Obsidian.