Prodigus
beta!

Keep the idea.
Find the connection.

Read, handwrite, and connect what you’re learning. Prodigus brings your books, PDFs, and Markdown notes together in one study workspace.

For iPad and Apple silicon Mac. In beta.

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Gus the hamster holding a pen

how it works

Explore the study steps

Bring in what you're studying.

Gus is teaching himself how learning works. He adds a research paper (PDF), a hamster scientist's blog post (HTML) and the Hamster Learning Reader (EPUB), and they open straight from his vault.

The Recent shelf of Gus's vault: the research paper “Spatial memory and object recognition in Siberian hamsters” (PDF), the Hamster scientist blog (HTML) and the Hamster Learning Reader (EPUB), each shown by its cover.

Mark the sentence that matters.

He opens the first paper. On page 1, one sentence stops him: hamsters without a daily rhythm struggled to remember. He highlights it, and the highlight becomes a note of its own, Circadian memory.

Page 1 of the paper open in the reader, with one sentence of the abstract highlighted in yellow: “These arrhythmic animals have deficits in spatial working memory and in long-term object recognition memory.” The sidebar's Marks list names it Circadian memory, page 1.

Put it side by side.

He opens his reading notebook beside the paper, and each scrolls on its own. His Circadian memory card links back to the highlight on page 1, a note on the T-maze links to its heading on page 2, and every mark he writes keeps the page it was written beside.

The paper open beside Gus's reading notebook. A line runs from the highlighted sentence in the paper's abstract to the Circadian memory card on the notebook's first page, under his handwritten title “A clock in the burrow” and “Maybe it's less ‘how smart?’ and more ‘what time is it?’” Below the card: “Two things to untangle: Learning it ≠ Remembering it” and, in red, “Don't collapse them into one score!”

Line up a second paper.

His board has room for more than one paper. The first docks beside the canvas, its highlight still running to the Circadian memory card. He brings in a second paper, on scheduled feeding, and notes what it found: regular meals brought the memory back.

The paper docked beside the board. A line runs from its highlighted sentence to the Circadian memory card. Beside it, the second paper, “Scheduled feeding restores memory”, feeds a card reading “Fed at the same hour every day, they got their maze memory back.” Both cards point up to Gus's handwritten question: “Did I learn the turn, or was I just more awake?”

Work it out by hand.

With the paper closed, the board is where he thinks. Both findings point to one handwritten question: did I learn the turn, or was I just more awake? Around it, his maze tries and a reminder: breakfast at 7.

The whole board: both papers, their two note cards, the handwritten question above them, and Gus's handwriting around it: “Maze: 4, 3, 2 tries. Same hour tomorrow.”, “Breakfast at 7. Every day.” and “Name the task first.”

Write down what you now know.

He writes it up in Markdown: A steady clock keeps memories usable, linking Circadian memory and Regular meals. Then he marks up his own note like any page: a highlight, an underline, a thought in the margin.

Gus's Markdown note “A steady clock keeps memories usable”, linking Circadian memory, Regular meals can restore memory and Hamster learns a maze. He has highlighted “both the maze and the new-object test”, underlined “can also be rebuilt” and written in the margin “Breakfast at 7, every day.” Below the text: “Same hour, same maze. Does the turn stick?” beside a small clock.

Papers: Ruby et al. (2013), PLOS ONE 8(8): e72433, and Ruby et al. (2017), Scientific Reports 7: 6755, adapted under CC BY 4.0.

why Prodigus

A notes app designed for learning, not just storing notes.

I wanted to read a book, take notes as I went, and have those notes become part of something I could keep building on. I kept running into gaps: a document format an app couldn’t open, or reading and notes that lived in separate places.

I’m building Prodigus to bring those pieces together: the book you’re reading, the explanation you write, the sketch that helps it click, and the connection to something you already know.

It’s early. I want to build it alongside people who care about how they learn.

— Max, and Gus

private beta

Bring what you’re learning.

We’re building Prodigus around the books, papers, and courses you’re working through, for iPad and Apple silicon Mac.

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Gus the hamster holding an acornone acorn at a timeone acorn at a time