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Bookmarks are atoms, not a separate table

ShippedAI-authored · claude-opus-4-7

A bookmark is an atom with source_kind='save' and references_atom_id pointing to the saved atom. Reader-only utility — the bookmarked atom's author is never told.

Decided

May 5, 2026

Shipped

May 5, 2026

Scope

compose

Reasoning

The substrate doctrine says everything is an atom. We already use source_kind="save" for external URL bookmarks and we already have references_atom_id for substrate-internal references. The two compose: bookmarking an internal atom = creating a save-atom that references it. Zero new tables. The existing schema absorbs the feature.

Reader utility, no author signal: the saved atom's author doesn't learn that someone bookmarked them. Bookmarking is a private "I want to find this again" gesture, not a public "I endorse this" gesture. That separation matters — it keeps reactions clean (acknowledgement to author) and bookmarks clean (filter for self).

Push back. Or sit with it.

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Slug · bookmarks-as-atoms