Inkwell

A collaborative, AI-powered notes workspace. Write in markdown, generate summaries and action items with AI, share notes with a single link, and track productivity — all in real time.

Stack: Next.js 16 · Convex · Clerk · Google Gemini · Tailwind 4

Live demo: notes.itsrohith.dev

Setup instructions → SETUP.md

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Features

Notes Workspace

• Markdown editor with live preview toggle (Ctrl+/)
• Auto-save on 700ms debounce
• Tags and categories for organization
• Archive and soft-delete
• Full-text search with fuzzy ranking (title → tag → body, recency boost)

AI Integration

• Summaries — 1-3 sentence distillation of note content
• Action items — concrete tasks extracted from the note
• Suggested titles — 3-8 word titles generated from content
• Auto-tags — topic-based tags generated alongside titles
• Drift-gated: title regenerates only when content changes >30%, summary >35%
• Single Gemini call returns all artifacts as strict JSON

Real-Time Collaboration

• Toggle a note public to mint a /share/:id URL
• Visitors read without login; signed-in users can request edit access
• Owner approves/denies via a real-time notifications bell
• Collaborator edits propagate instantly across browsers (Convex reactivity)
• Per-field sync: editing content doesn't block title/tag updates from other users

Productivity Dashboard

• Total notes, word count, AI usage stats
• Most-used tags breakdown
• Weekly activity sparkline (edits + AI calls)

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+N / ⌘N	New note
Ctrl+K / ⌘K	Focus search
Ctrl+/ / ⌘/	Toggle write/preview
Ctrl+. / ⌘.	Toggle AI panel
Ctrl+B / ⌘B	Bold
Ctrl+I / ⌘I	Italic

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Architecture

Next.js (App Router)              Convex (serverless)
─────────────────────             ─────────────────────
app/                              convex/
  page.tsx        (landing)         schema.ts      (5 tables)
  notes/          (workspace)       notes.ts       (CRUD, archive)
  dashboard/      (insights)        ai.ts          (Gemini action)
  share/[id]/     (public view)     share.ts       (access flow)
  api/            (REST adapter)    search.ts      (full-text)
proxy.ts          (Clerk gate)      insights.ts    (dashboard)

Data Model

Table	Purpose
users	Clerk → Convex shadow records
notes	Markdown content, AI artifacts, share state
collaborators	(noteId, userId, role) — editor/viewer
shareRequests	Pending access requests, drives notifications
activityLog	Edit/AI events, feeds weekly sparkline

API Endpoints

The app uses Convex's typed RPC internally. REST adapters are available at:

Method	Endpoint	Maps to
GET	/api/notes	notes.list
POST	/api/notes	notes.create
GET	/api/notes/:id	notes.get
PATCH	/api/notes/:id	notes.update
DELETE	/api/notes/:id	notes.remove
POST	/api/notes/:id/generate-summary	ai.generate
GET	/api/shared/:shareId	notes.getByShareId
POST	/api/shared/:shareId/request	share.requestAccess

Authentication is handled by Clerk (modal flow, JWT sessions).

Why Convex?

• Reactive queries — editor, sidebar, notifications all live-update without polling
• Built-in full-text search — keyword search with re-ranking client-side
• Server actions — Gemini calls run securely without exposing API keys

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Sample Outputs

See sample-outputs/:

• api-responses.json — example responses from each endpoint
• ai-summaries.json — three Gemini outputs (short, medium, long content)
• database-schema.json — full schema with field types and indexes

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Trade-offs

• No CRDT co-editing — Convex reactivity provides "everyone sees updates" but simultaneous edits on the same paragraph use last-write-wins. A production app would layer Yjs.
• No Clerk webhook — User sync runs client-side via ensureCurrentUser on first render. Production would add a Clerk → Convex HTTP webhook.
• Textarea editor — Chosen over Tiptap/ProseMirror to keep dependencies small. Toolbar inserts markdown syntax; preview renders with react-markdown.