The Secret-Cabin-et
A local web application for research into the novel. Runs AI-powered salon conversations between historical esotericists, scientists, other thinkers in a room outside of time, for the purposes of uncovering new work/frictions/intersections/questions and general drama, to make online research as sparkly as it is in the meatspace.
(An MVP of a proposal from my DH grad program: what if the archives were "playable"?)
A document is read aloud. The lodge responds.
The Lodge
The founding eight — cast per session like everyone else, not permanently seated (see below):
| Member | Register |
|---|
| Aleister Crowley | Associatively scrambled, solipsistic, seductive through confusion |
| Arthur Edward Waite | Pedantic, architecturally elaborate, spiritually tragic |
| Pamela Colman Smith | Quick, imagistic, visual talker |
| W.B. Yeats | Bardic, aestheticizes everything, has thoughts about some of his Golden Dawn alums |
| Helena Petrovna Blavatsky | Imperious, genuinely funny, synthesis holds even when sources don't |
| Éliphas Lévi | Epigrammatic, Frenchified, always building toward the one clarifying sentence |
| Teresa of Ávila | Went in directly without a system; depth for centuries |
| Ibn Arabi | Radical clarity, few words, holds receipts and deploys once at the right moment |
Every member is cast per session, and the roster has grown from this initial eight. See docs/MANIFEST.md for the current full list.
The room exists outside linear time.
Architecture
server.js — Express server, and the only application file at the repo root. Proxies all Anthropic API calls server-side. A session is a continuous stream of passages separated by lulls — no preordained round count — each passage building on the last (genuine cross-talk, not parallel independent responses).src/ — Everything server.js requires: the salon engine (pipeline.js), roster/library/citation/graph logic, auth, and session persistence.src/routes/ — One module per route group (convene, session, library, member, export, graph, upload). Each exports a single register<X>Routes(app, deps) and takes its dependencies as an explicit parameter rather than reaching for module-level singletons.src/dayone.js — MCP client that spawns /usr/local/bin/dayone mcp via stdio. Handles journal fetch and transcript export.prompts/lodge-context.md — The shared system prompt foundation: the conceit of the room, the terms of being there, the voice parameters.prompts/members/ — One file per lodge member. Each character is built on top of the lodge context.public/ — Frontend served statically. index.html and lodge.html sit at the top, scripts live in public/js/ (each an IIFE assigning one window.X, loaded as plain <script> tags), styles in public/css/, and portraits/archival images in their own folders.sessions/ — Session JSON persisted locally. Not committed.
Sibling relationship
This app is the main individual project of many collision room efforts - a full breakdown is available at dossier-placard (including the meta-cabinet / Journal Cabin'ét). They share no files, no state, and no characters at this time - duplicate personas (such as Crowley) notwithstanding.
Setup
git clone https://github.com/msdixon/secret-cabinet
cd secret-cabinet
npm install
cp .env.example .env # add your Anthropic API key
npm run dev
Open http://localhost:3132.
Requirements:
- Node.js 18+
- Day One CLI installed at
/usr/local/bin/dayone (for journal integration)
- Anthropic API key
Day One Integration
Connected to the PreSeedings of the Secret Cabinet journal only.
- Fetch — Select "fetch from Day One" in the source dropdown to pull the latest entry directly into the document field.
- Export — After a session, the export panel saves the full transcript back to the same journal, tagged
secret-cabinets, meeting-notes, generated.
/secret-lodge skill
From any Claude Code session:
/secret-lodge
Fetches the latest DayOne entry in a specialized journal, and runs the full lodge conversation inline, passage by passage until the room reaches a lull. /secret-lodge 2 uses the second most recent entry. The server must be running.
Usage
- Start the server:
npm run dev
- Open
http://localhost:3132
- Paste a research note, ask a question, or fetch the latest Day One entry
- Adjust which members are present for this session
- Convene the Lodge — the room speaks in passages until it reaches a lull, then waits: Continue, or let it end
- Participate during the session as a "player",getting a prompt to respond in real time. Alternately, ask a question of the room once they have concluded.
- Stir the room again — after a meeting ends, you can replay it or redo it it from the side-panel
- Export the transcript to Day One, Ulysses, or Obsidian — or download as
.txt
- Gather bibliographic information from any texts listed in the conversation, validated by source (WorldCat, Archive.org etc)
- Check out how each member of the lodge is linked (virtually and historically) and review their texts from the lodge members page.
Environment
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=your-key-here
PORT=3132
The .env file is never committed. On a fresh clone, create it manually or copy from a secure location.
Running multiple worktrees at once: every worktree shares the same root .env, so they all default to PORT=3132. Either run PORT=3200 npm run dev in a given worktree to pick your own port, or just start it with no override — if 3132 is taken, the server scans upward (3133, 3134, ...) and logs whichever port it actually bound.
The fire is lit. The document waits.
