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Creating a Collection

Design a Collection in the builder — name, icon, color, Properties, defaults.

You can create a Collection two ways: from the chat search (fast, infers a default shape) or from the Collections builder at /collections/new (full control over Properties, defaults, and look).

This article covers the builder. For the chat shortcut, see Logging an entry.

Open the builder

Go to Collections in the sidebar (the Your collections tab), then tap New collection. A blank Collection is created for you on the spot and you land in the editor — no separate save step. Edits autosave as you go, so you can wander away whenever you're done. If you opened the page by accident and haven't touched anything, Kaizendex asks whether to keep the empty draft or delete it when you back out.

The editor has two tabs:

  • Properties — what the Collection captures (one value per Property on every Entry), the built-in Title (the headline on each Entry's card), and a live preview of an Entry of this Collection.
  • Description — a free-form markdown page where you can explain what this Collection is for, when you'd log it, what counts. It's the Collection's own little wiki page.

The name + icon at the top stay visible across both tabs.

Identity

Pick the look first — it's how the Collection will appear everywhere in the app.

  • Icon — visual anchor on every card. Click it to open the picker, then choose an emoji, a clean icon (search the library by name), or your own image — upload a file (or drag one in) or paste an image link on the Upload tab. Use something memorable.
  • Name — short and specific. Prefer "Push-ups" over "Exercise"; prefer "Morning espresso" over "Drink".
  • Color — accent for the card border and dashboard chart.

Examples:

  • 🥤 Water (blue)
  • 💤 Sleep (indigo)
  • 🏃 Run (orange)
  • 📖 Pages read (amber)
  • 🧘 Meditation (green)

Properties

Add the Properties you want to capture every time you log this Collection. For each Property pick:

  • Name — what this Property is called (e.g. reps, weight, note)
  • Kind — the data shape (see below)
  • Default value — optional; if set, one-tap logging fills it in for you

Property kinds

There are 16 Property kinds. The everyday ones:

KindUse forExamples
NumberCounts, weights, ratings, amountsreps, kg, calories, rating
TextShort labels, names, placesnote, title, place
PageLong-form notes in the full block editorjournal entry, session notes
True/falseHabit completions, checkmarkstaken, completed, was productive
Date / Date/timeA calendar day or specific momentwake time, bedtime, due date
StopwatchLive counter (Start / Pause / Stop)Deep work, gardening, meditation
TimerStopwatch with a target25-min Pomodoro, breathing exercise
TagsPick one or several coloured options from a list — scoped to this Collection, or from your shared Global Tags poolmood, symptoms, #project
RelationLink to another Collection's Entrybook, project, workout
FileImage, audio, or documentphoto, voice memo, receipt
URL / Email / PhoneFormatted textlink, contact email

See Properties and the Title for every kind in detail with examples, and Stopwatch and Timer for the two live-tracking kinds.

A Collection can have one Property or many. Most stay small — 1 to 4 Properties is the sweet spot.

The Title row

At the top of the Properties list sits the Title — the headline that leads every Entry card. It reads like a Property row: the first column labels it "Title", and the second column holds the default title for new Entries. Leave it as the Collection's name and every unnamed Entry shows that name as its title — click into it and edit it like any text. Type something else here and new Entries start with that text instead.

Two things to keep straight:

  • The Collection's name is edited in the always-visible field at the top of the page. It's the Collection's identity — the same for every Entry, and what unnamed Entries show as their title.
  • The Title row's default seeds each new Entry's headline (which you then edit per Entry). Editing the default here does not rename the Collection.

You can set how wide the Title is on the card and whether it shows at all, but you can't remove it — every card has a title. To rename one Entry, open it and edit the heading at the top of its page.

Description

Switch to the Description tab to write a free-form note about the Collection itself — what it's for, when you log it, what counts as one entry, how to actually do the thing. It's the same editor as an entry's page, with the same slash commands, headings, lists, and tables — and pasting a YouTube link on its own line turns it into a playable video.

This is the wiki side of Kaizendex. Use it to leave yourself a note your future self will read when they wonder "wait — does this Collection include warm-up reps?"

A few things worth keeping in mind:

  • The Description is per-Collection, not per-Entry. It describes the Collection once; it isn't copied into entries you log.
  • It's distinct from an entry's page. A page is per-entry — the content of one logged moment. The Description is the Collection's "About" page.
  • Once written, it's readable from any card's ⋯ menu as an About option named after the Collection — see Description.
  • It's optional. Leaving it blank is fine.

A worked example

Let's build a Sleep Collection:

  1. Emoji 💤, name Sleep, color indigo.
  2. Properties:
    • hours — Number, default 7.5
    • quality — Number (1–5), default 4
    • note — Text, no default
  3. The Title defaults to Sleep — every entry's headline. Your hours Property's value shows on the card next to it.

That's it — there's no save button. Your edits land as you make them. Now every morning you can tap Sleep in the chat search and a new entry writes with hours=7.5, quality=4, note="". Tap the number cells on the resulting card to correct anything.

Editing a Collection later

Tap the Collection from the Collections board to open /collections/[id]. The page has three tabs:

  • Entries — the database table of everything you've logged for this Collection.
  • Properties — add, rename, reorder, or remove Properties; set defaults, layout width, Timer targets.
  • Description — a wiki-style note attached to the Collection itself.

From the Properties tab you can:

  • Rename the Collection — from the header field at the top of the page, or from the Title row in the list (same value, edit it either place)
  • Change emoji
  • Add new Properties (existing Entries stay valid; the new Property is empty on them)
  • Reorder Properties (the Title stays pinned at the top)
  • Resize the Title or hide it on the card — it can't be removed, though
  • Edit the Title's default — the headline new Entries start with

You can also add, rename, reorder, and delete columns directly from the database table in the Entries tab — the Properties tab is the right place for advanced per-Property settings (defaults, required toggle, layout width).

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