Collective Toolbox
A graph‑based (what's a graph?) workspace for linking documents and data—across local and shared knowledge—so you can query, explore, and build reports with clarity.
Built with a focus on user respect and transparency. Free‑software licensing for study and modification; paid hosting planned for convenience and reliability.
For Businesses
A BI and groupware platform for linking multiple datasets—internal sources and shared graph resources—into a unified semantic view. Query, join, and visualize without locking yourself into a single format.
- Combine datasets with semantic links
- Reference and link shared concepts and datasets from a global graph
- Query across documents and relationships
- Build reports and visualizations from graph queries
- Optional team sharing of documents and graphs
For Individuals
A structured, synchronized desktop-like environment for your documents. Link notes, references, and media to shared concepts and run powerful queries.
- Semantic tagging of local documents
- Link to global concepts (places, people, topics)
- Sync across devices
- Search and query over structure and content
- Build personal knowledge bases
How it works
Graphs of documents
Everything is a node: documents, relationships, tags—even sub‑documents. Work with data at the level of abstraction that works for you: from simple statements (e.g., “blue” is an instance of “color”) to rich interactive documents. In Collective Toolbox, relationships are also nodes, and able to have relationships themselves, making them first-class entities for querying and reporting.
Local and global knowledge
Maintain one or more local graphs. Reference concepts from a shared global graph to align data to common entities and vocabularies.
Query and explore
Run queries across documents and relationships. Planned: a visual query builder and optional AI assistance to translate natural language into graph queries.
Graphs, in everyday terms
A graph is just a way of saying “dots and lines that show how things are connected.” Collective Toolbox uses this idea to model your notes, documents, and concepts.
- Nodes are the “things” in your world — a person, a company, a document, a tag, or a place.
- Relationships are the links between those things, like “works at”, “mentions”, or “is part of”.
- Properties are details you attach to a node or relationship, such as a title, date, or status.
A graph database stores data in this connected form. That makes it easier to ask questions like “Which documents mention the same project?” or “Who works with which team?” without forcing everything into rigid tables.
Simple example
Below, each circle is a node. The arrows show relationships between them. In the app, you can create many more nodes and connections, then query over the whole graph.
Preview status
The current alpha is a technical demo: a simple HTML UI to create nodes and view relationships (relationships are nodes). Expect limited functionality while the core graph implementation stabilizes.
Demo features (in progress)
- HTML UI on localhost
- View list of documents
- Add new documents
- Store relationships in a basic concept graph
MVP roadmap
- Registration and secure login
- Document editing, revisions, sync
- Shared global graph with references
- Keyword search
- Subscription service
Future ideas
- Collaborative real‑time editing
- Deterministic document rendering and interactivity
- Browser extension for embedding
- Multimedia documents
- Desktop UI and “boot to Collective Toolbox”
Downloads
A hosted demo is planned. The desktop version will generally perform better. The web demo runs the same software inside a VM.
Recommended: 1 GB disk for the app, plus 10 GB+ for data. RAM TBD. System requirements similar to Firefox.
- [Planned] Try online (limited performance)
- Download installer (Linux x86_64) You may need to mark the file as executable. Automatic updates are not implemented yet; you'll need to re-download it from here to get newer versions.
- [Planned] Download installer (Windows x86_64)
Documentation
See the documentation index for user and developer guides.
Project structure
Collective Toolbox is free software (AGPL‑3+ and others). You may study and modify the code; see the source code (ZIP) for license details. Source code of dependencies (ZIP) is also available.
A paid subscription service is planned for hosted convenience:
- Hosted instance accessible from anywhere
- Remote backup of your data
- Cloud synchronization
- Network services for browser access
Terms of service for hosting will include conditions specific to the service, separate from the software license.
Pricing and finances
Target pricing: a moderately priced subscription. Final pricing will be set to ensure sustainability and responsible margins. Goal: approximately $1–$5 per month for typical individual use.
To avoid loss‑leader dynamics, users will be billed at least at cost to support ongoing reliability. We'd like you to be able to depend on the service to be around in the long term.