Show HN: I built a non-linear UI for ChatGPT

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Overall reception & use cases

  • Many commenters find the non-linear, canvas-based UI “exactly what I was looking for,” especially for research, learning, code work, and organizing snippets.
  • Several see it as a better fit for how brainstorming and “riffing” with AI actually work, rather than strict linear chats.
  • Others say their own use of LLMs is now brief/one-off, so a complex UI feels unnecessary.

Graph / tree interaction model

  • Strong interest in branching conversations: forking from earlier messages, exploring alternative prompts, and avoiding “orphaned” conversation branches.
  • Some want features like merging branches, creating children from children, and auto-organization of the graph via AI.
  • A few users don’t fully “get” the utility of drawing connections if there’s no explicit data flow; the author frames it as a visual organization tool first, node graph second.

UX: canvas, search, and input modes

  • Fans praise the canvas, drag-and-drop, and connectors, especially for visual thinkers and mind-mapping-like workflows.
  • Concerns include potential fatigue from dragging nodes, difficulty on mobile, heavy mouse dependence, and desire for comprehensive keyboard shortcuts and search (which exists via ‘/’).
  • One user flags a specific CSS blur filter as causing major performance issues.

Pricing, licensing, and business model

  • One-time license and BYO API key are widely praised; “subscription fatigue” is a recurring theme.
  • Some think the price is high; others see it as fair, especially compared to subscriptions.
  • Self-hosting and desktop are available/coming; extended licenses offer multiple seats but no source code and no modification rights.

Privacy, self-hosting, and open source

  • Multiple users will not entrust API keys or AI workflows to closed, third-party web apps; they want self-hosted or offline use, and ideally open source to verify no telemetry.
  • The app can run fully offline with local models (e.g., via Ollama), but remains closed-source; this is a deal-breaker for some.

Alternatives and related tools

  • Several point to Obsidian Canvas plus various LLM plugins, Emacs/Org-based workflows, and other canvas/graph AI projects as free or open alternatives offering similar “tree of chats” behavior.