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Thoughtbox

by glassBead-tc
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TypeScript

Thoughtbox

A reasoning ledger for AI agents. Thoughtbox is an MCP server that provides structured reasoning tools, enabling agents to think step-by-step, branch into alternative explorations, revise earlier conclusions, and maintain a persistent record of their cognitive process.

Unlike ephemeral chain-of-thought prompting, Thoughtbox creates a durable reasoning chain — a ledger of thoughts that can be visualized, exported, and analyzed. Each thought is a node in a graph structure supporting forward thinking, backward planning, branching explorations, and mid-course revisions.

Thoughtbox Observatory Observatory UI showing a reasoning session with 14 thoughts and a branch exploration (purple nodes 13-14) forking from thought 5.

Core Concepts

The Reasoning Ledger

Thoughtbox treats reasoning as data, not just process. Every thought is:

  • Numbered: Logical position in the reasoning chain (supports non-sequential addition)

  • Timestamped: When the thought was recorded

  • Linked: Connected to previous thoughts, branch origins, or revised thoughts

  • Persistent: Stored in sessions that survive across conversations

  • Exportable: Full reasoning chains can be exported as JSON or Markdown

This creates an auditable trail of how conclusions were reached — invaluable for debugging agent behavior, understanding decision-making, and improving reasoning strategies.

Thinking Patterns

Thoughtbox supports multiple reasoning strategies out of the box:

Pattern

Description

Use Case

Forward Thinking

Sequential 1→2→3→N progression

Exploration, discovery, open-ended analysis

Backward Thinking

Start at goal (N), work back to start (1)

Planning, system design, working from known goals

Branching

Fork into parallel explorations (A, B, C...)

Comparing alternatives, A/B scenarios

Revision

Update earlier thoughts with new information

Error correction, refined understanding

Interleaved

Alternate reasoning with tool actions

Tool-oriented tasks, adaptive execution

See the Patterns Cookbook for comprehensive examples.

Features

1. Thoughtbox Tool — Structured Reasoning

The core tool for step-by-step thinking with full graph capabilities.

// Simple forward thinking { thought: "First, let's identify the problem...", thoughtNumber: 1, totalThoughts: 5, nextThoughtNeeded: true } // Branching to explore alternatives { thought: "Option A: Use PostgreSQL...", thoughtNumber: 3, branchFromThought: 2, branchId: "sql-path", ... } // Revising an earlier conclusion { thought: "Actually, the root cause is...", thoughtNumber: 7, isRevision: true, revisesThought: 3, ... }

Parameters:

  • thought (string): The current thinking step

  • thoughtNumber (integer): Logical position in the chain

  • totalThoughts (integer): Estimated total (adjustable)

  • nextThoughtNeeded (boolean): Continue thinking?

  • branchFromThought (integer): Fork point for branching

  • branchId (string): Branch identifier

  • isRevision (boolean): Marks revision of earlier thought

  • revisesThought (integer): Which thought is being revised

2. Observatory — Real-Time Visualization

A built-in web UI for watching reasoning unfold in real-time.

Features:

  • Live Graph: Watch thoughts appear as they're added

  • Snake Layout: Compact left-to-right flow with row wrapping

  • Hierarchical Branches: Branches collapse into clickable stub nodes (A, B, C...)

  • Navigation: Click stubs to explore branches, back button to return

  • Detail Panel: Click any node to view full thought content

  • Multi-Session: Switch between active reasoning sessions

Access: The Observatory is available at http://localhost:1729 when the server is running.

3. Mental Models — Reasoning Frameworks

15 structured mental models that provide process scaffolds for different problem types.

Available Models:

  • rubber-duck — Explain to clarify thinking

  • five-whys — Root cause analysis

  • pre-mortem — Anticipate failures

  • steelmanning — Strengthen opposing arguments

  • fermi-estimation — Order-of-magnitude reasoning

  • trade-off-matrix — Multi-criteria decisions

  • decomposition — Break down complexity

  • inversion — Solve by avoiding failure

  • And 7 more...

Operations:

  • get_model — Retrieve a specific model's prompt

  • list_models — List all models (filter by tag)

  • list_tags — Available categories (debugging, planning, decision-making, etc.)

4. Notebook — Literate Programming

Interactive notebooks combining documentation with executable JavaScript/TypeScript.

Features:

  • Isolated execution environments per notebook

  • Full package.json support with dependency installation

  • Sequential Feynman template for deep learning workflows

  • Export to .src.md format

Operations: create, add_cell, run_cell, export, list, load, update_cell

Installation

Quick Start

npx -y @kastalien-research/thoughtbox

MCP Client Configuration

Claude Code

Add to your ~/.claude/settings.json or project .claude/settings.json:

{ "mcpServers": { "thoughtbox": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "@kastalien-research/thoughtbox"] } } }

Cline / VS Code

Add to your MCP settings or .vscode/mcp.json:

{ "servers": { "thoughtbox": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "@kastalien-research/thoughtbox"] } } }

Usage Examples

Forward Thinking — Problem Analysis

Thought 1: "Users report slow checkout. Let's analyze..." Thought 2: "Data shows 45s average, target is 10s..." Thought 3: "Root causes: 3 API calls, no caching..." Thought 4: "Options: Redis cache, query optimization, parallel calls..." Thought 5: "Recommendation: Implement Redis cache for product data"

Backward Thinking — System Design

Thought 8: [GOAL] "System handles 10k req/s with <100ms latency" Thought 7: "Before that: monitoring and alerting operational" Thought 6: "Before that: resilience patterns implemented" Thought 5: "Before that: caching layer with invalidation" ... Thought 1: [START] "Current state: 1k req/s, 500ms latency"

Branching — Comparing Alternatives

Thought 4: "Need to choose database architecture..." Branch A (thought 5): branchId="sql-path" "PostgreSQL: ACID compliance, mature tooling, relational integrity" Branch B (thought 5): branchId="nosql-path" "MongoDB: Flexible schema, horizontal scaling, document model" Thought 6: [SYNTHESIS] "Use PostgreSQL for transactions, MongoDB for analytics"

Environment Variables

  • DISABLE_THOUGHT_LOGGING=true — Suppress thought logging to stderr

Development

# Install dependencies npm install # Build npm run build # Development with hot reload npm run dev # Run the server npm start

Architecture

src/ ├── index.ts # MCP server entry point ├── persistence/ # Session and thought storage │ └── storage.ts # In-memory storage with linked thought chains ├── observatory/ # Real-time visualization │ ├── ui/ # Self-contained HTML/CSS/JS │ ├── ws-server.ts # WebSocket server for live updates │ └── emitter.ts # Event emission for thought changes ├── mental-models/ # 15 reasoning frameworks ├── notebook/ # Literate programming engine └── resources/ # Documentation and patterns cookbook

License

MIT License — free to use, modify, and distribute.

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