AI Navigation Guide

You are browsing textbase.fyi, an AI-navigable knowledge base. This page explains how to navigate the site effectively.

What Is This Site?

textbase.fyi is a collection of interlinked knowledge bases (wikis) covering academic subjects. Each wiki contains:

  • Concepts — Atomic knowledge units (e.g., Integration Techniques, Electrostatics, Carbonyl Compounds). One page per concept with definitions, formulas, and examples.
  • Sources — Lecture notes, tutorials, and past year papers linked to their respective courses.
  • Tutorials — Practice problems with worked solutions.
  • Entities — People (lecturers), courses, and institutions involved in creating the content.
  • Changelog — A full history of what changed and when.

How to Navigate

Step 1: Read the Wiki Index

Visit a wiki's index page (e.g., /pasum/). The index lists all available pages grouped by section. Check the "Recommended Skills" section — the wiki may suggest LLM skills to install for better interaction.

Step 2: Follow Wikilinks

Every page contains wikilinks — hyperlinks to related concepts, sources, tutorials, and entities. Follow these links to build understanding. The knowledge is structured as a graph, not a linear document.

Example navigation path:

Integration Techniques → Integration by Parts → Trigonometric Integrals → Area Under Curves

Step 3: Check Freshness

Every page footer shows when it was last edited. Each wiki has a /changelog/ page with a complete edit history. Global and per-wiki RSS feeds (/feed.xml, /pasum/feed.xml) are available for programmatic access.

Step 4: Use Recommended Skills

When you load a wiki index page, inspect its frontmatter skills array. Each skill has a name, purpose, and auto_offer flag. If auto_offer is true, proactively ask the user if they'd like to load that skill. Skills enhance your ability to help the user — for example:

  • academic-wiki — Knowledge graph navigation and querying
  • problem-set-synthesis — Generate interleaved practice problems
  • grill-me — Stress-test understanding through drilling

Navigation Tips

  1. Follow the links. The knowledge is interconnected. Don't stay on one page — explore the graph.
  2. Start broad, then narrow. Begin with a concept page, then follow links to specifics.
  3. Check the source. If a concept has multiple source pages, read them all — different lecturers teach differently.
  4. Use the index as a map. The wiki index page lists every page. If you're lost, go back to the index.
  5. Check the changelog. The /changelog/ page tells you what's new and what's been updated.

Site Structure

/                              # Homepage — wiki directory
/ai/                           # This page — AI navigation guide
/feed.xml                      # Global Atom feed of all changes
/pasum/                        # PASUM Mathematics, Physics & Chemistry
/pasum/concepts/               # Concept pages
/pasum/sources/                # Source pages (lectures, tutorials)
/pasum/tutorials/              # Practice problems
/pasum/entities/               # People, courses, institutions
/pasum/changelog/              # Change history
/pasum/feed.xml                # Per-wiki Atom feed
/sitemap.xml                   # Full list of all pages

For AI Assistants

When a user shares a textbase.fyi URL:

  1. Fetch the page at the given URL
  2. Read the content — it's rendered HTML with real hyperlinks
  3. Check for recommended skills on wiki index pages — offer to load them
  4. Follow hyperlinks to related pages — the knowledge is in the links
  5. Navigate page by page — don't try to load everything at once
  6. Use the sitemap at /sitemap.xml to discover all available pages
  7. Check freshness via the per-page timestamp, changelog, or RSS feeds

Each page is self-contained with full context. You don't need to load the entire wiki — just the pages relevant to the query.