What is the Context Lake?
The Context Lake is the heart of Chelle. It's a structured collection of markdown files that serves as both your knowledge storage and Chelle's memory.
More Than Storage
Unlike a simple file system, the Context Lake is a knowledge model. Every file is an entity with meaning, relationships, and context.
When you tell Chelle about "the project" or "that task from yesterday," she understands because she knows your Context Lake. Your knowledge isn't just stored - it's connected.
Key Principles
- Everything is markdown - Universal, portable, readable. You can open any file in any text editor.
- Schema on read - Files can have any structure. Chelle interprets them based on frontmatter and conventions.
- Convention over configuration - Standard entity types (tasks, projects, etc.) work out of the box.
- Your data - Export everything anytime. No lock-in.
What Lives in the Lake
Your Context Lake typically contains:
- Entities - Structured knowledge: tasks, projects, companies, journal entries
- Documents - Freeform markdown files: notes, docs, plans
- Roles - Personas that shape how Chelle approaches tasks
- Skills - Custom capabilities you can invoke
The Lake Directory
By convention, entities live in the lake/ directory,
organized by type:
workspace/
├── README.md
├── lake/
│ ├── tasks/
│ │ ├── 000001-setup-project.md
│ │ └── 000002-review-docs.md
│ ├── projects/
│ │ └── website-redesign.md
│ └── journal/
│ └── 2024-01-15.md
└── roles/
└── researcher.mdNext: Learn about entity types