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Posted by u/setnone 2 years ago
Show HN: I built a non-linear UI for ChatGPTgrafychat.com...
Hi HN,

I built this out of frustration of the evergrowing list of AI models and features to try and to fit my workflow.

The visual approach clicks for me so i went with it, it provides more freedom and control of the outcome, because predictable results and increased productivity is what I’m after when using conversational AI.

The app is packed with features, my most used are prompt library, voice input and text search, narration is useful too.

The app is local-first and works right in the browser, no sign up needed and it's absolutely free to try.

BYOAK – bring your own API Keys.

Let me know what you think, any feedback is appreciated!

lIIllIIllIIllII · 2 years ago
For what it's worth, one CSS line lags the HELL out of my laptop on the site. It's backdrop-filter: blur(0.1875rem) for modals, like the youtube video popup
wildrhythms · 2 years ago
I'm a front-end dev and I refuse to apply this effect for this reason. Even on high end laptops it uses way too much power and starts blasting the fans.
LorenzoBloedow · 2 years ago
Does anyone know why the blur effect always takes so much power? Is there not a way to use the GPU, or is the problem something else entirely?
niutech · 2 years ago
You can tell CSS to use GPU by adding `transform: translate3d(0, 0, 0);`

Explanation of slow CSS filter performance is in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oie6KqSPPlE

carlosbaraza · 2 years ago
Sometime ago I had an idea for a similar interface without the dragging feature. Basically, just a tree visualisation. I usually discuss a tangent topic in the same conversation, but I don't want to confuse the AI afterwards, so I edit a previous message when the tangent started. However, OpenAI would discard that tangent tree, instead it would be nice to have a tree of the tangent topics explored, without necessarily having to sort them manually, just visualising the tree.
IanCal · 2 years ago
ChatGPT keeps the full tree doesn't it? You can swap back and forth on any particular node last I checked.
endofreach · 2 years ago
I haven't seen that. So i have actually built what parent wrote.

So it seems i did waste time unnecessarily... but where exactly do i find the full tree in ChatGPT convos?

btbuildem · 2 years ago
Interesting take! It does seem to address a typical "intermediate" workflow; even though we prefer linear finished products, we often work by completing a hierarchy first. I've been using Gingko [1] for years, I find it eases the struggle of organizing the structure of a problem by both allowing endless expansion of levels, and easily collapsing it into a linear structure.

In your case, do you hold N contexts (N being the number of leaves in the tree)? Are the chats disconnected from each other? How do you propose to transition from an endless/unstructured canvas to some sort of a finished, organized deliverable?

1: https://gingkowriter.com/

setnone · 2 years ago
Great questions!

> In your case, do you hold N contexts (N being the number of leaves in the tree)?

It depends, contexts are just a form of grouping

> Are the chats disconnected from each other? > How do you propose to transition from an endless/unstructured canvas to some sort of a finished, organized deliverable?

RAG with in-app commands, i'm working on a local RAG solution, it's early but promising. Basically chat with all your data and applying a wide range of command on it.

TeMPOraL · 2 years ago
> How do you propose to transition from an endless/unstructured canvas to some sort of a finished, organized deliverable?

Why would they, though? For me as a potential user of this (and someone who thought about building a tool like this for myself), the tree (or better, a directed graph) is the desired end result.

Ringz · 2 years ago
Slightly OT, but there was a standalone software just like gingko for the Mac. Do you now something about it?

Edit: I think it was an old version of gingko as a desktop app. Still available at https://github.com/gingko/client/releases

floam · 2 years ago
Are you thinking of FlowList?

https://www.flowtoolz.com/flowlist/

ludwigschubert · 2 years ago
Are you thinking of Bike?

https://www.hogbaysoftware.com/bike/

(Maybe not — this isn’t markdown first; but it is a very macOS-y, keyboard driven, hierarchical outliner that I enjoy.)

djeastm · 2 years ago
> Gingko

A subscription pricing model for software where everything should stay on my machine is a no-go for me

Hrun0 · 2 years ago
You can create something like this easily by yourself using Obsidian and a plugin like https://github.com/AndreBaltazar8/obsidian-canvas-conversati...
varispeed · 2 years ago
It's like when I replaced dropbox with just a few scripts and sftp.
igor47 · 2 years ago
Syncthing, actually.

I think you were joking but the benefit of designing software at personal scale is often an exponential reduction in complexity.

niutech · 2 years ago
Indeed, I mentioned even more free plugins for Obsidian Canvas in my comment below: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40301465
siva7 · 2 years ago
"easily"? well, no except you're a techie.
niutech · 2 years ago
What's the hassle for normal users?

1. Open Settings -> Community Plugins

2. Search for "Canvas Conversation" and install.

Done!

pants2 · 2 years ago
From watching the demo it looks interesting, but I figure I would get tired of dragging nodes around and looking for ones that I'm interested in. Does it allow searching?

It would be more interesting to me if it could use AI as an agent to create a graph view - or at least propose/highlight followup questions that self-organize into a graph.

setnone · 2 years ago
Yes, search is one of my favorite features here, try '/' shortcut
setnone · 2 years ago
> I would get tired of dragging nodes around

Me personally i find value in taking my time to organize and drag around, probably because i'm a visual thinker

altruios · 2 years ago
The only feedback I would give is I'm suspicious of (will not buy) closed sourced AI anything. With that said: thank you for sloughing off the subscription model trend! That is welcome.

But going open source so that I know "for sure" no telemetry is being sent and charging for support would be the only way to get money out of me for this. I'm probably the odd one out for this, so take that with a fair helping of salt.

This is a great idea, so much so that this is also something I could probably put together a MVP of in a weekend (or two) of dedicated work (the fancy features that I personally don't care about would probably take longer to implement, of course...).

Good work! Keep it up.

IanCal · 2 years ago
> But going open source so that I know "for sure" no telemetry is being sent and charging for support would be the only way to get money out of me for this.

Is the self hosted option a workable solution for you?

https://www.grafychat.com/d/docs/selfhost

Unless it's minified I guess.

altruios · 2 years ago
I would only use this (or any ai) self-hosted if it works 100% offline.

I would also not want it minified - as I would want the freedom to tinker with it to my personal specifications. Which makes me ask a question: what rights would I have to modify this software, per your license?

setnone · 2 years ago
Thank you!

I would love if we had some kind of 'open-build' methodology so those projects not willing to open the source but are willing to perform any kind of necessary audit against the build, just a thought.

ramoz · 2 years ago
I like this and wished openai or anthropic enabled similar in their UIs... it would be simple actually: "create a new chat from here"

Otherwise, great job! It's cool, but it's pricey and that is a personal deterrence.

gopher_space · 2 years ago
I've pegged my thinking on software purchases to local McDonald's drive-thru menu equivalencies.
diebillionaires · 2 years ago
macdonalds is so overpriced, so I cannot condone this method :)
shreezus · 2 years ago
Third-party clients support this. I like MindMac for instance - it's the "Fork from this message" feature.
tippytippytango · 2 years ago
I find editing a previous question accomplishes this well, the existing UI already keeps all your previous edits in a revision tree.
siva7 · 2 years ago
Good landing page, explained to me the product well enough. I like your concept also as i wished sometimes for something similiar in the past.