Maple

Maple guide

Sources, rules, and Maintain

Maple turns source material into a local wiki. This guide explains the words you will see in the app, what each action does, and how to stay in control of AI-generated changes.

Workspace

What is a Maple workspace?

A workspace is one local folder for one subject: a course, research topic, project, archive, or skill path. Maple keeps the raw material and the generated wiki in separate places so the wiki can improve without rewriting your original files.

Sources

The original files you import. They are the evidence Maple reads from.

Wiki pages

The readable layer Maple drafts: summaries, concepts, guides, links, and assets.

Rules

The workspace instructions that tell AI how this wiki should be written and maintained.

Reviewable changes

Generated edits are shown as changed files, so you can inspect them before trusting them.

Sources

What are sources?

Sources are the original material you want Maple to learn from. They can be PDFs, slides, notes, transcripts, screenshots, Markdown files, papers, or captured web links. Think of them as the reference shelf, not the notebook.

Sources should stay original

Maple treats source contents as immutable. Build wiki and Maintain may read sources, but they should not rewrite what a PDF, note, or transcript originally said.

Pending source changes

When you add, remove, or replace files under Sources, Maple marks them as pending. Build wiki processes those changes into the wiki.

Source state What it means
New A file was added and has not been built into the wiki yet.
Modified A source changed after the last build. Maple treats this carefully because sources are meant to be stable.
Removed A file that existed during the last build is no longer in Sources.
Unchanged The source already matches the last known built state.

Build wiki

What does Build wiki do?

Build wiki asks AI to read pending source changes and integrate them into the existing wiki. It should not simply dump one summary per file; it should strengthen the knowledge base you will keep using.

Summaries

Digests for substantial sources, such as a lecture, paper, or long note.

Concept pages

Reusable explanations of durable ideas, formulas, entities, comparisons, or processes.

Guides

Learning paths, review paths, onboarding routes, and synthesis pages across multiple topics.

Links and navigation

Wikilinks, index updates, and graph connections that help you move through the material.

Assets

Useful derived visuals from source material, saved separately from the original files.

Log entries

A short history of what operation changed the wiki and why.

Rules

What is schema.md?

schema.md is the local rulebook for a workspace. It tells AI what page types to use, how to cite sources, how links should work, what the wiki is for, and what Maintain should check.

You usually do not need to edit this file directly.

In the app, use Update rules when you want Maple to remember a future preference, such as "make every guide beginner-friendly" or "always include practice questions in study guides."

One-time instruction

"For this build, focus on exam review." Maple uses it for the current operation and does not make it a permanent rule.

Durable rule

"From now on, add source citations to every formula." Maple should save this as a workspace rule for future operations.

Explore and update

Explore Chat is different from Update wiki

Maple separates asking questions from changing the wiki. This keeps normal chat safe and makes permanent edits intentional.

Action Use it when What changes
Explore Chat You want to ask a question, understand a page, or compare ideas. Nothing by default. It is read-only.
Update wiki A chat answer is worth keeping for later. Maple drafts reviewable edits to wiki pages, navigation, or logs.

Maintain

What are the Maintain functions?

Maintain is where you improve an existing workspace after the first build. Use it when the wiki needs cleanup, restructuring, better rules, or source organization.

Wiki healthcheck

A conservative check for broken links, stale index entries, weak pages, missing citations, and similar quality issues.

Use when the wiki feels messy or stale.

Improve wiki

A user-directed improvement pass for creating guides, connecting pages, reshaping structure, or improving explanations.

Use when you know what quality improvement you want.

Organize sources

Moves or renames source files and folders without changing source contents. For example, group slides and transcripts by lecture.

Use when the source tree is hard to navigate.

Update rules

Saves durable preferences for future wiki work. This is the app action behind updating the workspace rulebook.

Use when you want Maple to remember a convention.

Review and undo

How do reviewable changes work?

AI output is treated as a draft. After Build wiki, Update wiki, or a Maintain operation, Maple marks generated files so you can inspect what changed before moving on.

  1. 1

    Open changed files

    Review the generated summaries, concepts, guides, index updates, or rule changes.

  2. 2

    Finish review

    Mark the generated changes as reviewed when they look useful enough to keep.

  3. 3

    Undo last operation

    If the operation went in the wrong direction, restore the previous workspace state.