I Shipped the Solution to Knowledge Collapse in 21 Days

Three weeks ago, I wrote about knowledge collapse - how our best technical insights are dying in private AI chats while Stack Overflow bleeds 78% of its traffic.

Hundreds of developers agreed we need a solution.

So I built one. And it's running in production right now.

Here's the live demo: https://chat-knowledge-api.fpl-test.workers.dev

Here's the source code: https://github.com/dannwaneri/chat-knowledge

Here's the complete build session you're reading from: 107 chunks, 174 messages, imported via HTML

Let me show you how it works.

The Problem (Quick Recap)

Knowledge collapse is happening right now:

• Your best debugging solutions live in private Claude chats
• No attribution, no discovery, no commons
• Stack Overflow traffic down 78% since ChatGPT launched
• We're optimizing ourselves into a knowledge dead-end

We need "Stack Overflow for AI conversations" - but decentralized, privacy-first, and developer-owned.

What I Actually Built

1. HTML Import System

The workflow is dead simple:

1. Have a valuable Claude conversation
2. Press Ctrl+S (save as HTML)
3. Import it: node dist/cli/import-html.js chat.html
4. Done - it's searchable

Tested on this article's build session:

• File size: 4.6MB
• Messages: 136 parsed
• Chunks created: 91
• Time: < 2 seconds

No complex setup. No API keys. Just save and import.

2. Security Scanner (The Critical Feature)

Before any chat goes public, it runs through auto-detection:

🔴 CRITICAL (auto-block):

• API keys, Bearer tokens
• Private URLs (localhost, .internal domains)
• Credentials, passwords

Real results from my build session scan:

Total issues detected: 599
Critical blocks: 3 (2 Bearer tokens, 1 API key)
High severity: Multiple localhost URLs
Safe to share: FALSE ✅ (exactly as designed)

This is the difference between "share everything" and "share safely." One leaked API key costs more than this entire system.

By The Numbers

This Build Session:

• Start: Problem identified (Jan 15)
• Build: 107 conversation chunks
• Messages: 174 total
• File size: 4.6MB HTML
• Parse time: < 2 seconds
• Security scan: 599 issues detected (3 critical auto-blocks)
• Ship date: Feb 8 (24 days from problem to production)

That's faster than most companies decide what to build.

3. Semantic Search

Not keyword matching - actual understanding.

Query: "how to handle vectorize embeddings"

Found: Content about "dimension reduction" and "optimization"

Relevance score: 0.78

The system understood WHAT I meant, not just what I typed.

Tech stack:

• Workers AI (@cf/baai/bge-base-en-v1.5) - generates embeddings
• Vectorize - stores 768-dimension vectors
• D1 - metadata and chat structure
• Cosine similarity search across all imported conversations

4. Federation Protocol (ActivityPub)

This isn't just personal knowledge management. It's designed to federate.

Live endpoints:

• NodeInfo: /api/federation/nodeinfo (200 OK ✅)
• WebFinger: /api/federation/.well-known/webfinger
• Inbox/Outbox: ActivityPub standard

What federation means:

• You run your instance
• I run my instance
• We search across ALL of them
• No single point of control
• No corporate overlord

Exactly like Mastodon, but for developer knowledge.

Technical Architecture (How It Actually Works)

The Stack

Frontend: HTML → Parser → Chunks
Backend: Cloudflare Workers (edge-native)
Database: D1 (SQLite at the edge)
Vector Store: Vectorize (768-dim embeddings)
AI: Workers AI (BGE-base-en-v1.5)
Protocol: ActivityPub (federation standard)

The Flow

1. IMPORT
   HTML file → Parse messages → Chunk content → Generate embeddings

2. SECURITY
   Scan for secrets → Flag risks → Require review → Safe by default

3. STORAGE
   Chunks → D1 (metadata)
   Embeddings → Vectorize (semantic search)

4. SEARCH
   Query → Generate embedding → Cosine similarity → Ranked results

5. FEDERATION (coming)
   Public chats → ActivityPub → Federated timeline → Cross-instance search

What Was Hard

1. HTML Parsing
Claude's HTML export format isn't documented. Had to reverse-engineer:

• Message boundaries
• Code block preservation
• Artifact handling
• Nested content structure

2. Security Scanner
Can't just regex for "API key" - need to understand context:

• Is this a code example or real credential?
• Is localhost URL in docs or actual endpoint?
• Balance: too strict = false positives, too loose = leaks

3. Federation Protocol
ActivityPub is designed for social posts, not Q&A:

• How to represent "question" vs "answer"?
• Vote federation across instances?
• Spam prevention without centralized moderation?

4. Edge-Native Architecture
Cloudflare Workers have constraints:

• 10ms CPU limit per request
• No filesystem
• Async-only database access

Working within constraints = better architecture.

The Security Scanner in Action

// Real security detection from the codebase
const patterns = {
  bearerToken: /Bearer\s+[A-Za-z0-9\-._~+/]+=*/gi,
  apiKey: /['\"]?api[_-]?key['\"]?\s*[:=]\s*['\"]?[A-Za-z0-9-_]{20,}['\"]?/gi,
  localhost: /https?:\/\/(localhost|127\.0\.0\.1|::1)/gi,
  internalDomain: /https?:\/\/[a-z0-9.-]+\.(local|internal|corp|dev)/gi
}

// Scan returns: { safe: boolean, issues: Issue[] }
// Auto-blocks if critical issues found

Database Schema (12 tables)

chats                  -- Core chat storage
chunks                 -- Content chunks for search
pre_share_scans        -- Security scanner results
chunk_redactions       -- Auto-redaction tracking
share_approvals        -- Sharing workflow
federated_instances    -- Federation network
federated_knowledge    -- Cross-instance content
federation_activities  -- ActivityPub events
knowledge_analytics    -- Usage tracking
collections            -- Knowledge curation
collection_items       -- Collection membership

This is production-grade infrastructure, not a proof of concept.

Why I Built This Now

Timing matters.

Stack Overflow traffic is down 78% and still falling. Every day, thousands of valuable debugging sessions happen in private AI chats and disappear forever.

We're not just losing knowledge - we're losing the HABIT of knowledge sharing.

Building this now means:

• Early adopters shape the protocol
• Federation standards emerge organically
• We avoid corporate capture (no VC, no "pivot to paid")
• Developers own the infrastructure from day one

The best time to rebuild the knowledge commons was before Stack Overflow collapsed.

The second-best time is now.

Why This Matters

It Solves Knowledge Collapse

• ✅ Insights stay discoverable - Semantic search finds relevant content
• ✅ Attribution preserved - Source tracking built-in
• ✅ Privacy respected - Security scanner catches leaks
• ✅ No platform risk - Self-hosted, you control your data

It's Actually Decentralized

• ActivityPub = proven federation protocol (powers Mastodon's 10M+ users)
• Developer-owned instances - Run your own, connect with others
• No "rug pull" risk - Open source, MIT licensed

It's Viable at Edge Scale

Cloudflare Workers handles massive scale:

• Edge-native architecture
• D1 database at the edge
• Vectorize for semantic search
• Workers AI for embeddings

The same tech stack I use for production apps serving thousands of users.

From Discussion to Infrastructure

Three weeks ago, Richard Pascoe asked in the comments: "Could Mastodon servers like Fosstodon help foster a knowledge sharing platform?"

I said yes and built it.

This isn't theoretical infrastructure. It's ActivityPub-compatible, meaning it federates with Mastodon, Fosstodon, and the entire Fediverse network.

Richard's question became the bridge between diagnosis and solution.

@richardpascoe - your instance is ready when you are. 🚀

Real Use Cases (What This Enables)

For Individual Developers

• Portfolio of problem-solving - Your best debugging sessions, searchable
• Learning in public - Share solutions, get feedback, build reputation
• Future reference - "I solved this before, where was that chat?"

For Teams

• Institutional knowledge - Team's collective debugging history
• Onboarding - New devs search team's past solutions
• Pattern recognition - See recurring problems across conversations

For Communities

• Niche expertise - Rust specialists, Cloudflare devs, etc. share domain knowledge
• Federated discovery - Find experts across instances
• Attribution - Credit flows to who actually solved it

For The Commons

• Stack Overflow alternative - But decentralized and community-owned
• AI training data - High-quality, attributed conversations
• Knowledge archaeology - Insights don't die with platforms

What's Next

Immediate (This Week)

• ✅ Open source on GitHub (MIT license)
• ✅ Documentation for self-hosting
• ✅ Production deployment live

Short-term (Next Month)

• Import 50+ historical Claude chats (build the corpus)
• MCP extension ("share this chat publicly" from Claude Code)
• First federation test with another developer

Long-term (3-6 Months)

• 10+ federated instances
• Collections feature (curate knowledge by topic)
• Analytics (which insights are most valuable)
• Cross-instance search

This Is The Foundation in Action

Two weeks ago, we created @the-foundation to preserve developer knowledge publicly.

Richard Pascoe published our first collaborative post on fundamentals.

This is our second: working infrastructure.

The Foundation isn't just writing about the problem. We're shipping solutions.

Join The Foundation

This isn't a solo project. It's infrastructure.

For Developers

• Clone the repo: https://github.com/dannwaneri/chat-knowledge
• Run your own instance - Full setup guide in README
• Contribute to the protocol - Issues and PRs welcome

For Writers

• Import your best AI conversations - Build your knowledge portfolio
• Share safely - Security scanner protects you
• Get discovered - Federated search makes your insights findable

For The Curious

• Star the repo ⭐ - Show you care about preserving knowledge
• Share this article - Help spread the word
• Join the discussion - Comment below with your thoughts

The knowledge commons doesn't rebuild itself. But we can build it together.

Installation (5 Minutes)

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/dannwaneri/chat-knowledge.git
cd chat-knowledge

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Login to Cloudflare (free tier works)
wrangler login

# Create infrastructure
wrangler d1 create chat-knowledge-db
wrangler vectorize create chat-knowledge-embeddings --dimensions=768 --metric=cosine

# Run migrations
wrangler d1 execute chat-knowledge-db --remote --file=migrations/migration-federation.sql
wrangler d1 execute chat-knowledge-db --remote --file=migrations/migration-sanitizer.sql

# Deploy
npm run deploy

That's it. You now have your own federated knowledge instance.

Try It Right Now

Import a chat:

# Save any Claude conversation as HTML (Ctrl+S)
npm run build
node dist/cli/import-html.js path/to/chat.html "My First Import"

Search it:

curl -X POST https://your-worker.workers.dev/search \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query": "debugging tips", "maxResults": 5}'

Scan for secrets:

node dist/cli/safe-share.js <chat-id>
# Shows what would leak before you share

The Meta Moment

I wrote about the problem three weeks ago.

Now the solution is running in production.

From observation to shipped product in 21 days.

That's the power of:

• Cloudflare Workers (deploy in seconds)
• AI embeddings (semantic search out of the box)
• ActivityPub (proven federation protocol)
• Building in public (accountability + feedback)

Your move, Stack Overflow. 👊

Related Articles

1. My Chrome Tabs Tell a Story - The observation that started it all
2. We're Creating a Knowledge Collapse - The problem statement (12K+ views)
3. Above the API: What Developers Contribute When AI Can Code - What skills actually matter
4. You're here - The solution

Let's Build This Together

GitHub: https://github.com/dannwaneri/chat-knowledge

Live Demo: https://chat-knowledge-api.fpl-test.workers.dev

Twitter: @dannwaneri

If you believe in preserving developer knowledge, star the repo ⭐ and let's make this real.

The foundation is laid. Now we need builders.

Are you in?