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Creating a Type

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

You can create a Type two ways: from the chat search (fast, infers a default shape) or from the Types builder at /types/new (full control over fields, defaults, and look).

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

Open the builder

Go to Types in the sidebar, then tap New type. A blank Type 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 — the fields the Type captures, the built-in Title (the headline on each Entry's card), and a live preview of an Entry of this Type.
  • Description — a free-form markdown page where you can explain what this Type is for, when you'd log it, what counts. It's the Type'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 Type will appear everywhere in the app.

  • Icon — visual anchor on every card. Click it to open the picker, then choose an emoji or a clean Lucide icon (search the icon library by name). 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 fields you want to capture every time you log this Type. For each Property pick:

  • Name — what the field is (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 17 Property kinds. The everyday ones:

| Kind | Use for | Examples | |------|---------|----------| | Number | Counts, weights, ratings, amounts | reps, kg, calories, rating | | Text | Short labels, names, places | note, title, place | | Markdown | Long-form notes with formatting | journal entry, session notes | | True/false | Habit completions, checkmarks | taken, completed, was productive | | Date / Date/time | A calendar day or specific moment | wake time, bedtime, due date | | Duration | A static time amount you type in | 45 min of cardio (after the fact) | | Stopwatch | Live counter (Start / Pause / Stop) | Deep work, gardening, meditation | | Timer | Stopwatch with a target | 25-min Pomodoro, breathing exercise | | Tag | Pick one coloured option from a list | mood, priority, location | | Multi-tag | Pick several coloured options | symptoms, focus areas, cuisines | | Global tag / Global multi-tag | Pick from your shared Global Tags pool | #project, #area reused across Types | | Relation | Link to another Type's Entry | book, project, workout | | File | Image, audio, or document | photo, voice memo, receipt | | URL / Email / Phone | Formatted text | link, 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 Type 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 new Entries start with. Leave that default as the Type's name to inherit it, or type something else.

Two things to keep straight:

  • The Type's name is edited in the always-visible field at the top of the page. It's the Type's identity — the same for every Entry.
  • The Title row's default seeds each new Entry's headline (which you then rename per Entry). Editing the default here does not rename the Type.

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 Type itself — what it's for, when you log it, what counts as one entry, links to related Types. It's a full markdown editor with the same slash commands, headings, lists, and tables as the entry body.

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 Type include warm-up reps?"

A few things worth keeping in mind:

  • The Description is per-Type, not per-Entry. It describes the Type once; it isn't copied into entries you log.
  • It's distinct from an entry's body. The body is per-entry — the page content of one logged moment. The Description is the Type's "About" page.
  • It's optional. Leaving it blank is fine.

A worked example

Let's build a Sleep Type:

  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 value shows as its own field 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 Type later

Tap the Type from the Types board to open /types/[id]. The page has three tabs:

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

From the Properties tab you can:

  • Rename the Type — 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, new fields are empty for 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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