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AI · August 14, 2026

Napkinbook, a smart canvas for discovering, and sharing insights

Napkinbook is a smart canvas for collaboration, sharing, and discovering insights. I think of it as a more computational version of Excalidraw or Miro: a flexible canvas where you can think, build, present, and collaborate without constantly moving between different tools. Since my first Show HN, I’ve added: * Much better mobile support * AI-assisted brainstorming * Presentation decks with animations * Shareable reports * Live collaboration * Actual Git history The goal is to make the canvas itself the workspace, rather than treating whiteboarding, presenting, reporting, and version history…

What it does

A computational whiteboard that closes the gap between data and decisions. Cloud-first, collaborative, and built for durable work.

NapkinBook is a digital and computational whiteboard for people who make data driven decisions. Start from the evidance, and update with your beliefs over time. The board does recomputes as you work. Wire in real evidence, then share it so sharper people can try to break it. Circles hold values, squares do the math, wires carry the numbers between them. Nudge any input, and everything downstream, including your final number, recomputes the moment you let go. Send one link and someone sharper picks up your board with every number still live: same canvas, live cursors, live ink, no accounts to create. The link doubles as the key, so boards stay end-to-end encrypted and the server never sees…from desk.napkinbook.com

In the maker’s words, at launch

Napkinbook is a smart canvas for collaboration, sharing, and discovering insights. I think of it as a more computational version of Excalidraw or Miro: a flexible canvas where you can think, build, present, and collaborate without constantly moving between different tools. Since my first Show HN, I’ve added: * Much better mobile support * AI-assisted brainstorming * Presentation decks with animations * Shareable reports * Live collaboration * Actual Git history The goal is to make the canvas itself the workspace, rather than treating whiteboarding, presenting, reporting, and version history as separate products. I’d love feedback, especially on the interaction model and where this feels meaningfully different from existing canvas tools.

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