Docs/What is a thoughtbase?/Thoughtbase operations
Thoughtbase operations
A thoughtbase is a folder on your disk, and the commands for handling one live at the top of the File menu — grouped there first because the natural first move is "open my thoughtbase" before doing anything in it. Each window holds one open thoughtbase at a time.
Creating and opening
Switching between thoughtbases
Keep a thoughtbase per subject and move between them however suits you:
Closing
The thoughtbase guide
thoughtbase.md, a plain-English guide to this thoughtbase — its structure, intent, and conventions — that Minerva shows the assistant at the start of every conversation. It's created from a template the first time you open it. Keeping it up to date is the simplest way to make the AI's help fit how this thoughtbase is organized.Thoughtbase properties
The Name is a display label, kept separately from the folder on disk. Set it to whatever reads best and the folder keeps its own name; leave it blank and Minerva falls back to the folder's name. This is the friendly way to fix a thoughtbase called notes-final-v2 without renaming anything on your file system.
Every fact in your knowledge graph is identified by an address built on a common prefix — the base IRI. You'd change it if you're publishing your graph and want its identifiers to live under a domain you control.
Saving a new base rebuilds every index so all those identifiers regenerate. It has to be an absolute http:// or https:// address ending in a slash; anything else is refused with the reason shown in the dialog. Your proposals are carried over automatically, and wiki-links between notes aren't affected — they don't use the base at all. What does break is anything outside Minerva that referred to the old addresses: exports you've already published, and any identifiers you'd copied elsewhere by hand.
Most thoughtbases never need this. If you're not publishing the graph, the default is fine.
Renaming, moving, or deleting a thoughtbase
There are two different things you might mean by renaming a thoughtbase. To change what it's called in Minerva, set its Name in Thoughtbase Properties — that's instant and touches nothing on disk. To change the folder, do it in Finder or your file manager like any other folder, then open it again from its new location.
Deleting works the same way: a thoughtbase is an ordinary folder, so removing the folder removes the thoughtbase. There's no command inside Minerva for it. (Renaming, moving, and deleting individual notes is handled inside Minerva, from the sidebar.)
Related
Once a thoughtbase is open, these cover what you do next: