Zettelbranch

Explore your thoughts and side quests without getting lost: branch claude.ai conversations into a tree of chats (sky/1, sky/1a).

When we think, we open parentheses: a side question, an alternative, a detail worth chasing. In a long conversation, every parenthesis lands in the same thread, and soon nobody remembers where it was opened. Zettelbranch opens the parenthesis in a new chat instead: branch from any message, and the main thread stays where you left it. How it works: 1. Click the Zettelbranch button on claude.ai and choose where the branch starts: after one of Claude's replies, or instead of one of your messages. 2. Zettelbranch opens a new chat holding the conversation so far, with a short header. Type your question and press Send yourself; it never sends anything for you. 3. Claude sums up where the conversation stood, answers, and suggests a name. 4. The chat is named with its address, like sky/1a · Why sunsets are red and orange. Your chats form a tree, shown in the panel with links, and readable in the sidebar on every device. The name: Zettelkasten (German, "box of index cards") + branch, after the card boxes of Niklas Luhmann, where every card has an address. Privacy and trust: - No permissions. It runs only on claude.ai, in your own page. - It reads a conversation only when you open its panel or click, through claude.ai's own interface, and sends it nowhere but back to claude.ai, into the new chat you open. - It stores nothing, never reads your login, and never sends a message or deletes anything. - The code is short and open (MIT), with an audit guide: github.com/pthom/zettelbranch An early version: claude.ai changes often, and Zettelbranch relies on its web interface. When something breaks, please open an issue on GitHub. Zettelbranch is an independent project, not made or endorsed by Anthropic. Claude and claude.ai are Anthropic's.