Try a note in ten minutes

Open the website Playground; no installation or account is needed. You can also keep the source in a file such as inquiry.cog.md. Experimental Obsidian and Logseq adapters use Core/format 0.5.0; compatibility with 0.6 notes is unverified. Use the website for this 0.6 tutorial; see the adapter limits before working in a host.

Start with ordinary writing

- The new deployment has produced intermittent timeouts.
  We are checking the cause before changing the database.
  - We have logs from two servers, but no comparison from last week.

Unmarked writing stays in Reading without adding Points or Bearings to the map. A line without a new bullet continues the same block; indent it to where the text after - begins. Start a new bullet for a separate item.

Mark the part you want to examine

- The new deployment has produced intermittent timeouts.
  - [Q] What explains the failures?
    - [C] The connection pool may be exhausted.
      - [G] Logs show connection acquisition failures.
      - [O] An upstream service may be slow.
  - Check the traces before making changes.

Q presents a Question and C a Claim or possible answer. G gives a reason for the nearest enclosing Point; O objects to it. The Ground and Objection here connect to the Claim.

The Question organizes the discussion. Nesting a Claim beneath it does not automatically record an answer or settle the question. Use a neutral [.] when you want a Point without choosing a role. See Points when you need the other marks or an explicit answer relation.

Keep qualifications such as “may” in the Point’s wording. Its complete block is its content, including continuation lines; the first line is not a separate title.

Name something when you need to refer to it

Give the Claim a name, @cause, then connect a distant Objection using ->:

- [C @cause] The connection pool may be exhausted.
  - [G] Logs show connection acquisition failures.
- A separate check of the timeline:
  - [O -> @cause] Some timeouts started before this deployment.

Names let you refer to the same item from elsewhere. The anonymous Ground and Objection are still complete Points. An explicit target keeps this Objection connected to @cause even if you move it.

Read the connections

Switch between Read, Map and Strands in the Playground. Read retains the context and wording; Map makes the selected connections easier to follow; Strands follows the paths that support or answer a chosen Point, with challenges placed where they bear. Select a Point or a Bearing to inspect what it connects.

For the next step, Bearings distinguishes three common structures: separate reasons for one conclusion (Convergent), reasons used together (Linked), and one conclusion supporting another (Serial). They describe how Points connect, rather than three kinds of Point.

Writing and reconstruction

When developing your own explanation, keep tentative wording where it belongs. When reconstructing someone else’s argument, identify whose claim and reasoning you are recording:

- The report's explanation:
  - [C @cause] Pool exhaustion caused the timeouts.
    - [G] Logs show connection acquisition failures.
- My question about the report:
  - [Q] Did the report rule out a network fault?

The Claim and Ground preserve the report’s argument even if you disagree. The Question belongs to your examination; its position in the note does not attribute it to the report. Preserve the source’s qualifications and say when a premise or connection is your reconstruction.

Keep editing and rereading. The compiler checks the marked structure and references; it does not establish that the argument is faithful, true or sufficient. Continue with writing style for notes that others can follow, or graph inspection to work with files and the CLI.