Fournote

Fournote is a conceptual framework for personal knowledge management and note-taking that emphasizes four core components: facts, tasks, ideas, and references. It treats notes as interconnected nodes in a lightweight graph and promotes explicit linking between items. The aim is to support capture, organization, and synthesis of information across domains while enabling flexible views for research, project planning, and writing.

Origin and development: The Fournote concept arose from discussions about scalable, cross-domain note systems and has appeared in various models since the mid-2010s. It is not tied to a single product but to a family of data structures and workflows sharing the four-component structure. Proponents argue that separating content into the four streams improves traceability and composability.

Data model and structure: In Fournote, each item belongs to one of the four streams (facts, tasks, ideas, references) and carries metadata such as title, timestamps, and tags. Items link to others via explicit relationships (for example, supports, depends on, cites, or summarizes), forming a graph that supports navigation across a knowledge base.

Applications and formats: Fournote data can be stored in JSON or YAML. Several experimental apps provide import/export between Fournote structures and common PKM tools, with options for offline use and collaborative editing. The approach is popular among researchers and writers who need to align evidence, plans, and notes.

Reception and status: As a design pattern, Fournote remains a niche concept rather than a dominant standard. It is valued by practitioners who prefer explicit content typing and graph-based linking, while others favor simpler note formats. The concept has influenced related knowledge-management models and ongoing discussions about interoperability and data ownership.