{"id":37,"slug":"matuschak-evergreen-notes","title":"Andy Matuschak: evergreen notes — atomic, concept-oriented, densely linked, accreting over time","kind":"reference","scope":"business","status":"current","audiences":["claude-code","candid-team"],"topics":["content-architecture","knowledge-base"],"reference_body":"**Claim:** Andy Matuschak's public notes (<https://notes.andymatuschak.org>) introduced \"evergreen notes\" — notes that *\"evolve, contribute, and accumulate over time, across projects\"* (updated 2023-07-13). The principles: atomic (one concept per note), concept-oriented (titled like APIs), densely linked.\n\n**Quote:** *\"These notes are mostly written for myself: they're roughly my thinking environment.\"*\n\n**Related framing (Matuschak, crediting Robin Sloan):** *\"One of my favorite ways that creative people communicate is by 'working with their garage door up.'\"*\n\n**Source:** <https://notes.andymatuschak.org/About_these_notes>, <https://notes.andymatuschak.org/Evergreen_notes>, <https://notes.andymatuschak.org/Work_with_the_garage_door_up>\n\n**Confidence:** Verified (primary).\n\n**Use for Candid:** The methodology this very KB applies. Each entry here IS an evergreen note in Matuschak's sense. **But:** Brief 3 warns the \"digital garden\" label is a B2B liability — reframe as \"research-backed knowledge base\" in client-facing copy.","rationale_body":null,"metadata":null,"links":{"outgoing":[{"slug":"diataxis-framework-procida","title":"Diátaxis (Daniele Procida): four documentation types — tutorials, how-to, reference, explanation","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"}],"incoming":[{"slug":"astro-content-collections-zod","title":"Astro Content Collections (stable since 2.0, modernized in Content Layer API late 2024): Zod-validated frontmatter, build-time TypeScript types","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"research-brief-kb-backed-website-methodology","title":"Research brief: The knowledge-base-backed website (piece 3 of 15)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"research-first-tooling-stack-2026","title":"Reference: research-first tooling stack 2026 — Obsidian + Git + Quartz/Astro + AI overlay (RAG)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"research-first-named-practitioners-2026","title":"Reference: 8 named exemplars of research-first/docs-as-product methodology — Stripe, Twilio, Anthropic, Gwern, Matuschak, Appleton, BAM, Construction Physics","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"rule-research-first-sequence-foundation-before-article","title":"RULE: Foundation research before article, article before marketing page. Never write the marketing page first.","kind":"rule","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"}]},"created_at":"2026-05-22T18:57:39.622Z","updated_at":"2026-05-22T18:57:39.622Z"}