I installed Donovan Ratefison's brand-new Vakana app1 on my Android device this morning. After following the tutorial, I exported the thread as an Org-mode-compatible package in a ZIP and emailed it to myself in order to transfer it to my desktop.
After opening the Org file that Vakana generated, I exported the entire buffer to HTML. The result is shown below. The only change I wanted to make was to scale the bead of each heading 25%.2
It's fortuitous that Donovan Ratefison released Vakana in a month whose Emacs Carnival theme is "The Search for Knowledge," because Vakana provides a unique way to manage one's knowledge. I'll need to become proficient in it before adding it to my workflow. So my eventual Emacs Carnival submission will be more pedestrian.
1 Learn about Vakana here or download here.
2 The images used for beads are SVG files. However this blogging platform does not support that file type, so I converted them to GIF for this post. This should explain why they don't look awesome.
Your first thread Your first thread
A 90-second tour. Walk it bead by bead, then make it yours — delete it, or reload it anytime from Settings → Pro Tips.Table of Contents
1. The thread
2. Start here · a 90-second tour
Welcome — and if this is all new, that’s perfectly fine. We’ll go gently.Vakana is the Malagasy word for beads — there’s no other word for them in the language, and it’s where this app takes its name. The idea is old and simple: you turn a moment into a small bead — a little coloured token — and beads you keep together form a thread you can walk back along, like beads on a string. (These six notes are already a thread — “Your first thread.”)
That’s the whole shape of it. What a bead means is always yours — the app never decides that for you.
This is a short, hands-on tour: five steps, each one a thing you try yourself.
Next → 1/5 · Tap the bead.
3. 1/5 · Tap the bead
,*Tap the bead* at the top of this note — the composer opens. That’s where you pick a bead’s shape, pattern, mood-colour and a tiny glyph (this one’s is the number 1️⃣).Eight shapes, eight patterns, eight moods — small enough to learn, wide enough for anything. There’s no legend: a circle isn’t “an encounter” unless you decide it is.
How does the user navigate the beads? Now I see "< Prev" and "Next >" so it's obvious.
Next → 2/5 · Open the thread.
4. 2/5 · Open the thread
You’re on a thread right now — a chain of beads strung together on purpose. Open “Your first thread” (tap its chip here, or find it in the Threads view) and you’ll see all six beads in a row you can walk, bead by bead.The app also keeps a quiet thread for every day you write, under Days in the Threads view — built for you, no effort.
Next → 3/5 · Comment.
5. 3/5 · Comment — swipe me right
Some thoughts arrive after the moment. Instead of rewriting a note, leave a comment in its margin.Try it: tap the 💬 at the top of this note — or, back in your list, swipe this row to the right. Either opens the margin, where you can jot a thought or even set it to remind you later.
(The next bead, 4️⃣, already has a comment — spot the 💬 on its row.)
Next → 4/5 · Long-press the bead.
5.1. Comments
5.1.1. Comment —
The tutorial shows an icon for comment as a white-filled rectangular balloon with three dots. However the actual icon is a balloon that's an empty circle
6. 4/5 · Long-press a bead in the list
Beads repeat, and you’ll want to find a bead’s kin. This is a thing you do from your list, not from inside a note — so head back to the list first.There, press and hold any bead: the list instantly filters to every bead like it. (Long-press is the move most people miss.)
Want finer control? Tap the funnel at the top of the list to filter by shape, mood, pattern or glyph, then gather the results into a brand-new thread.
Next → 5/5 · Make it yours.
6.1. Comments
6.1.1. Comment —
I keep coming back to this one — long-pressing a bead is the move most people miss.
6.1.2. Comment —
The alarm clock icon next to the note field is for a reminder, not a timestamp. It puts it on the next business day at 9:00 a.m., perhaps. I pressed it at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday August 9th, and then entered the reminder for the next day at 9:00 a.m..
7. 5/5 · Close it, then make it yours
This thread is closed — notice the clasp. Closing marks a loop that finished; you can reopen it anytime.A finished thread can leave the app: open it and Export to turn it into a web page or a slide deck.
That’s the whole grammar — bead, thread, comment, close, export. Now make it yours:
• Delete this tour — swipe any note left, or remove it in one tap from Settings → Pro Tips → Interactive tutorial. • Want it back later? Reload from the same place.
Now write your first real moment, and bead it however you like.
Created: 2026-08-09 Sun 16:42
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