Introduction
Welcome to Synap - a Personal Data Operating System with revolutionary capabilities.
What is Synap?
Synap is a Personal Data Operating System.
It creates a private, intelligent kernel for your digital life where you are the root user. Instead of scattering your life across dozens of SaaS silos, Synap brings your data into a single, sovereign "Data Pod" that you own, control, and can extend indefinitely.
The "Workspace as a Service" Paradigm
Synap treats your workspace not as a static file folder, but as a live service:
- 🕐 Time-Travel: Every keystroke is an event. Replay history, fork conversations, and audit everything.
- 🧠 Contagious Intelligence: AI isn't a bolt-on; it's a layer. Add an AI capability once, and it propagates to every note, task, and file instantly.
- 🌳 Branching Workflows: Just like code, your thoughts can branch. Explore different ideas in parallel without messing up your main thread.
- 🔒 Sovereign by Design: You don't "log in" to Synap; you host it (or we host a private instance for you). Your data never leaves your pod unless you explicitly authorize it via the Hub Protocol.
Why It Matters
| The SaaS Model (Old) | The Synap Model (Personal OS) |
|---|---|
| App owns the data | You own the data |
| Intelligence is trapped in the app | Intelligence works across your whole life |
| "Features" are gatekept by pricing | Features are just plugins you install |
| Linear history (Ctrl+Z) | Event Sourcing (Infinite Time Travel) |
Learn more: Workspace as a Service - Deep dive into the philosophy
Architecture Overview
Synap follows an event-driven architecture where all state changes flow through events:
UI or Automation (Agents) → Events → Workers → Data Layer
┌─────────────┐ ┌──────────────┐
│ Client │────────▶│ Data Pod │
│ (Frontend) │ │ (Core OS) │
└─────────────┘ └──────────────┘
│
│ Events
▼
┌──────────────┐
│ Inngest │
│ Event Bus │
└──────────────┘
│
│ Dispatches
▼
┌──────────────┐
│ Workers │
└──────────────┘
│
┌─────────┴─────────┐
▼ ▼
┌──────────────┐ ┌──────────────┐
│ PostgreSQL │ │ R2/MinIO │
│ + pgvector │ │ Storage │
└──────────────┘ └──────────────┘
For a complete architecture overview, see Architecture Overview.
How It Works:
- Event Sourcing - Never lose data, infinite undo
- Knowledge Graph - Automatic connections
- Branching - Parallel AI work
- Multi-Agent System - Specialized AI team
Key Features
- ✅ Event-Driven Architecture - Built on Inngest event bus
- ✅ PostgreSQL with TimescaleDB - Time-series data and vector search
- ✅ Multi-User Support - Row-Level Security (RLS) for data isolation
- ✅ Ory Authentication - Enterprise-grade identity management
- ✅ tRPC APIs - Type-safe, end-to-end APIs
- ✅ Vector Search - pgvector for semantic search
- ✅ Storage Abstraction - R2 (production) or MinIO (dev)
Next Steps
- Quickstart - Get your first note and chat working in 5 minutes
- Core Concepts - Understand what makes Synap different
- Architecture Overview - Technical deep dive
Ready to get started? Let's begin with Quickstart!