Newsletter Archive

DeveloPassion's Newsletter #213 - TypedMark and the Emergence of Typed Markdown Systems

A newsletter discussing AI, Knowledge Work, Knowledge Management Systems, Zen Productivity, Personal Organization, and everything in between!

Sebastien Dubois

23 Jun 2026 — 13 min read

Edition 213 of my newsletter, discussing Knowledge Work, AI, Knowledge Management, Zen Productivity, Personal Organization, and more!

Hello everyone! I'm Sébastien Dubois, your host. You're receiving this email because you signed up for DeveloPassion's Newsletter, or bought one of my products. Thank you for being here with me ✨

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DeveloPassion's Newsletter logo: lightbulb sprouting colorful idea nodes

Welcome

Welcome to all the new readers ❤️

After months of dogfooding the note-type system inside the OSK plugin, I realized it deserved to live outside Obsidian. So I generalized it into an open specification that any tool can implement. That's TypedMark; an open standard for typed Markdown systems, now live and ready to explore.

The past five weeks have been a consolidation sprint after the intense OSK v4 push. But "consolidation" is a generous word; there's been a ton of shipping. Beyond TypedMark, I put out seven Obsidian tips videos, released new and improved plugins, launched the PKM AI Wiki publicly, and kept pushing on the small-but-mighty tooling ecosystem around Obsidian.

On the personal side, life is good. The family is doing well, I'm reading consistently, and I'm keeping my friends and partner close while the wedding plans keep moving along.

I've continued reading a ton of fiction books lately. I've finished The Lost Years (book) by Mary Higgins Clark, Mon tour de manège (book) by Gilles Legardinier, Intensity (book) by Dean Koontz, Sorceleur - L'Intégrale (book) by Andrzej Sapkowski, Never Lie (book) by Freida McFadden, ...

Aside from that I've been really busy with my day job. We're helping our organization level up with AI Coding, and it's tons of fun!

🏃 Running & Training

The past five weeks have been a solid block of consistent running. I logged 25 runs covering ~136 kilometers, with a clear ramp in volume during week 24 when I broke into a 9-run week (~35.8 km), including an interval session on June 8 that I was really proud of, hitting a personal record 5km in about 28 minutes. My longest run was 15.5km on June 10. I was tempted to do a half-marathon, but it was time to prepare dinner (no kidding ;-)).

My resting heart rate has drifted down over the period, from around 64 bpm in late May to 60 bpm by mid-June, which suggests my body is adapting well to the load. Nothing dramatic, no races or big peaks, but that's kind of the point: this has been about building fitness through repetition and consistency.

Although, right now I have to take a break because of the heat wave we're going through in Europe. Quite tough to work/exercise with that weather!

Highlights

🚀 TypedMark specification draft published ; an open standard for typed Markdown systems
📹 Seven focused Obsidian tips videos on workflow efficiency
🌐 PKM AI Wiki launched publicly at https://pkm-wiki.knowii.net ; an AI-powered, vault-grounded knowledge base
🔌 Multiple plugin releases and improvements: Bookshelf, Life Tracker, Update Time, Obsidian CLI REST MCP, Typefully, ...
🎬 New YouTube videos
📚 Knowii Voice AI v0.6.1 released with a transcribe CLI feature; macOS and Linux support in preview
💰 Sales momentum sustained through June, post-v4

Before You Go Any Further

Help me reach more people; share the link with someone in your circle who'd benefit from joining us. And don't forget to mention the Knowii Community ❤️

And if you bought some of my products or courses? Please leave a rating/review. It really helps ❤️

The Lab 🧪

Knowii Voice AI v0.6.1

I've released a new version of Knowii Voice AI. This release features a transcription CLI that enables transcribing audio/video from the command-line (ideal when combined with AI agents).

Also, I've finally made macOS and Linux versions available (in preview).

Announcement:

Get it today!

🚀 TypedMark; an Open Specification for Typed Markdown Systems

After months of dogfooding inside OSK, I realized the note-type system deserved to live outside Obsidian. So I started working on a generalized solution in the form of an open specification that any tool can implement.

What is TypedMark? Every note has a type. That type defines what fields it has (or can have), what constraints apply, what defaults to use, etc.

Why does this matter? Without types, Markdown systems decay as they grow. Notes end up in the wrong place. Metadata drifts. Links rot. AI assistants can't navigate reliably and start guessing. Types are how plain-text systems stay clear, trustworthy, and useful as they scale.

The specification is in draft, and there's a TON of work ahead, but I think this will become really valuable for the community.

I'm looking for contributors, so if you're interested, you're more than welcome to join me on this journey ;-)

Specification Website:

TypedMark — TypedMark

TypedMark is an open specification for typed Markdown note systems.

TypedMark

Repository:

🧠 The Open Knowledge Format (OKF) and TypedMark

Worth pairing with the above: Google Cloud released the Open Knowledge Format recently. OKF is a minimal substrate; every concept gets a type frontmatter field (a free string), relationships are plain Markdown links, and consumers tolerate unknown types.

TypedMark and OKF converge on the same foundation (Markdown + YAML readable by humans and agents). TypedMark goes further: it actually specifies what a type is (real schemas with fields, constraints, defaults, and typed relationships), supports inheritance, codifies validation, and adds a whole systems layer with versioning, deterministic composition, ... If you're building typed note systems, both are worth knowing. But Google's will surely make a ton more noise ;-)

🌐 PKM AI Wiki Is Live

The PKM AI Wiki launched publicly at https://pkm-wiki.knowii.net a few weeks ago. It's a knowledge base about Personal Knowledge Management, grounded in my own vault notes.

It's a working example of the LLM Wiki pattern (source-tracked, connected, AI-maintained) combined with the HTML generation capabilities of AI.

It's the clearest demonstration I have of what an LLM Wiki looks like running in production.

By the way, I also created a reusable template for this:

📹 Seven Obsidian Tips Videos

Seven short videos went out on YouTube, each focused on one small feature/tip:

Sidebars ; using sidebars for distraction-free reading and multi-window layouts
Attach notes to sidebars ; pin specific notes so they're always within reach
Focus Mode plugin ; zen editing that minimizes interface clutter
Pin to the top-left menu ; keep your most-used commands one click away
Reveal Active File plugin ; automatically highlight the current note in the explorer
Doubleshift plugin ; fast command navigation with double-shift instead of Ctrl+P
Quick Opener ; a minimal launcher for rapid note access

I've also published an overview of OSK v4:

I'll record more of those if you're interested. Go check those out: https://youtube.com/@dsebastien.

🔌 Plugin Releases and Improvements

I've released new versions of multiple plugins recently:

Life Tracker plugin for Obsidian ; visualize health metrics (sleep, exercise, stress, HRV) with trends and streaks; a big UI improvement

Trends:

Streaks:

Also:

Bookshelf plugin for Obsidian ; turn Obsidian into your reading library (track books by status, write reviews, link to permanent notes)
Obsidian CLI REST MCP plugin for Obsidian ; expose your vault to external agents safely via MCP
Typefully plugin for Obsidian ; updated with new features
Update time plugin for Obsidian ; now with debounce more control over the update process to limit updates while editing notes
Ghost Publish plugin for Obsidian ; more powerful UI to publish Obsidian notes directly to a Ghost CMS
Graph Explorer Base View plugin for Obsidian ; UI improvements
I also updated the Obsidian Plugin Template (Bun)

AI Skills

I continue to build/improve AI Skills, as those provide tremendous value. I've created one that is able to convert a book to a set of notes on autopilot (quite fun to see, especially when combined with the LLM Wiki skills I built a few weeks back), and another to convert a book to a set of AI skills. Now more than ever, we can go from knowledge gems in a book to actionable wisdom!

I've also built a variant of the Last30Days AI skill for myself. Cfr 2026-06-09 last30days - An Agent Skill That Searches People, Not Editors

Random Bits

During the few days where Claude Fable 5 was available, I had a bit of fun and used it to build a game I had in mind for a long time: Orbital Tetris

It didn't take long for Fable to make it all work like I wanted. Quite impressive, and can't wait to get my hands on even stronger AI models!

Source code:

Orbital Tetris

I also added more concepts to the Concepts Website. We're getting very close to 4K:

I finally took some time to ask Claude to help improve my PS1 prompt on Arch Linux / Omarchy, then also applied it into my WSL Zsh (Z Shell) shell.

I like having my PS1 spread over two lines. Counterintuitive, but very stable visually (which I love!):

I've also built a small app to help me visualize ADMX files (corporate policies) and export the configuration. System administrators who read this will understand ;-)

That's the beauty of AI. Things we would have never built before now cost "nothing". A few prompts, a background terminal, and it's right there for you to use!

We've clearly entered the "ephemeral software" era.

🧠 Knowii Community Highlights

One of the best parts of running a community is discovering the people doing interesting work inside it. This month I want to highlight Daniel Prindii and his newsletter, Miscellanea (https://miscellanea.danielprindii.com/).

Daniel is a content strategist and Art Historian focused on Information Architecture, Design, and the knowledge economy. He's contributed to solid projects (the Omnivore read-it-later app, the book-tracking app Hardcover, and others) and brings genuine curiosity to systems, spaces, and connection. Miscellanea sits right at the intersection of content strategy, tech, and culture, and how each one shapes the others.

His latest edition is about third spaces and why they matter. Third spaces (the places that are neither home nor work, like coffee shops, libraries, parks, and community centers) are where culture actually happens. Daniel digs into what makes them work, why we need them, and how they shape the way communities form. In a world where we keep collapsing into a few silos (home, work, a screen, repeat), the case for third spaces feels more urgent than ever.

If you think at all about community, connection, or building the spaces where people genuinely want to gather, go read it.

📰 Cool Finds & Articles

I've published a few pieces lately...

A curated list of things I found interesting over the past weeks:

Claude Fable 5; it was awesome; then it was taken away from us: 2026-06-17 The US Government Banned Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5
GLM-5.2 ; Zhipu AI's frontier model. Super impressive open weights model!
Agentic Resource Discovery Specification (ARD); how agents discover available resources. To me this one is HUGE!
OpenSandbox ; a protocol and runtime for safely executing AI-generated code
Vercel Open Agents ; agent deployment and management tied into Vercel's ecosystem
Docker MCP Toolkit ; Docker meets MCP; agents can spin up containers natively
MCP Gateway Registry ; infrastructure for MCP gateways and service discovery
Claude Opus 4.8 and Dynamic Workflows; cfr Claude Dynamic Workflows
2026-05-18 Claude Code Agent View - One Screen for Background Sessions; cfr Claude Code Agent View
Claude Code Security Review
OpenChamber built on top of OpenCode for engineering with AI agents
Ponytail (AI); Nerds be back!
Cloudflare Sandbox SDK — managed container runtime for executing untrusted AI-generated code
Vercel Eve; build, run & scale agents (public preview)
Vercel AI CLI; another LLM CLI alternative
LM Studio Mobile App — LM Studio released a mobile app!
2026-06-09 mq - jq for Markdown — cfr mq (CLI)
GitHub Copilot App — Microsoft finally hopped on the desktop app train
Intelligent Terminal — A new Terminal app for Windows. Curious about this one!
CocoIndex & CocoIndexCode; yet another option for indexing content for AI
Open Code Review (Alibaba); I'm eager to try this on a project at work
Odysseus (AI); PewPewDie's alternative to OpenClaw and Hermes. What could go wrong? :D
Mastra Agents ; a TypeScript full-stack agent platform with workflows, memory, RAG, evals, observability, and a studio UI
Strands Agents; a full-featured agent framework (hooks, state, context management, agent loop) all built in
Plannotator — visual plan + diff review layer for AI coding agents
Etcher — dead-simple, cross-platform tool to flash OS images onto SD cards and USB drives; winget install -e --id Balena.Etcher on Windows.

And so much more... Check out the news section on my Website if you want more frequent updates about the things I'm exploring:

💡 Business Updates

A few things on the DeveloPassion side:

Sales momentum sustained post-v4; strong, steady interest carrying into June
OSK sales copy refreshed; clearer positioning and benefits, updated to cover v4 key features

I'm happy that Obsidian Starter Kit sales have kept going up after the price increase. I think the new price better reflects the value provided and all the work that went into it over the years!

Although, my business "recipe" is still so broken. It's been so long, and I still can't afford to pay myself anything. I really wonder how many people would keep on working & building in my situation. I'm not complaining because I have a day job and it pays me well. But it's crazy to think about the YEARS I've been at this, and how little revenue I actually manage to generate. Anyways... Back to work ^^

🧠 Tip of the Week

A principle worth repeating:

Good systems compound. Bad ones just break.

The difference is patience upfront. Good systems take thought and a bit of documentation before they pay off. Bad systems move fast, then they fail in the edge cases, demand constant maintenance, and force every new person to relearn them from scratch. The cognitive load never goes down.

🧠 Quote of the Week

Your normal day is someone else's dream

Until Next Time

Thanks for reading. Reply to this email if something resonated, something annoyed you, or you just want to say hi. I read everything.

That's it for today! ✨

Talk to you again soon ❤️

— Sébastien

About Sébastien

I'm Sébastien Dubois, and I'm on a mission to help knowledge workers escape information overload. After 20+ years in IT and seeing too many brilliant minds drowning in digital chaos, I've decided to help people build systems that actually work. Through the Knowii Community, my courses, products & services and my Website/Newsletter, I share practical and battle-tested systems.

I write about Knowledge Work, Personal Knowledge Management, Note-taking, Lifelong Learning, Personal Organization, Productivity, and more. I also craft lovely digital products and tools.

If you want to follow my work, then become a member and join our community.

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