After spending time with Heptabase, I’m now absolutely convinced that a modern PKM system needs a native whiteboard. It’s not just a visual extra — it fundamentally changes how you think and organize.

A whiteboard acts like a “concept-based folder”:

you’re no longer constrained by a single hierarchy, because the same note can appear on multiple boards, each representing a different perspective or line of thought. This lets you explore your knowledge both bottom-up (emerging patterns, connections, clusters) and top-down (intentional structure, frameworks, project views).

The result is a level of clarity and cognitive flow that’s hard to replicate with lists, links, or pages alone.

If a PKM system doesn’t invest in a proper whiteboard experience, it’s inevitably missing a crucial layer of thinking. Notes, links, and tags cover structure and storage — but whiteboards cover sense-making. They enable spatial reasoning, multi-context views, and the ability to see relationships at a glance.

Without this layer, a PKM becomes great at organizing information but limited in helping you understand it. And in the long run, that’s a significant competitive gap.

I want to say that it would be very important for me to have a canvas/whiteboard/mind map. I write a lot in this programme and want to give an example: I am writing a book, and it would be very convenient for me to have a board on which I could visually convey the entire essence of my work, where there would be characters, plot arcs, and their intersections.

Really need this - I need a visual canvas to add to my set of notes in Capacities, a whiteboard style thing would be great!

This is the one feature

Keeping me from

Capacities

I would love this. As someone with a tablet and stylus I dream of replacing my pen & paper journal. I would love to be able to write or draw directly into Capacities.

capacities hands down one of the most useful PKM/Note apps I've tried thus far; I can work around the separation of spaces and the lack of folder management for different objects (for simpler project management)

right now I've literally creates macros and shortcuts in macos to produce a workflow so I will basically copy text and block links from capacities and then import them into X-Mind. The main thing with this workflow, aside from being time-consuming and janky - there is no transclusion.

I've tried to replicate this workflow and simplify / integrate it in Obsidian, but honestly the UX just leaves so much to be desired.

if capacities gets a reliable mind-mapping or whiteboard feature, I'm in for the LONG haul.

We really need this feature eagerly waiting.

A native canvas/whiteboard would let users arrange objects, add text and connectors, and see relationships visually. This would improve studying, research, and project planning. Even a simple integrated version would make Capacities far more powerful and versatile.

A built-in mind map view would let us see connections between notes at a glance and organize ideas visually. This would make revision and knowledge management far more effective.