Why "Khiip"?

The Inca khipu (or quipu) was a knotted-cord recording system used from roughly 2500 BCE to the 17th century to encode numerical, narrative, and relational information. Each cord type, knot placement, and color encoded a different category of data. The khipukamayuq was the trained specialist who could read and create the records — essentially the human “agent” interacting with the structured substrate.

Khiip is the digital equivalent: a substrate that captures information from anywhere on the internet and stores it in a structured, typed, queryable form — for AI agents (the modern khipukamayuq) to read and create.

The “ii” spelling distinguishes Khiip from the homophonous “keep” while preserving the Khipu etymological root. Pronounced /kiːp/ — same as “keep.”

Verb usage: to khiip — “I want to khiip this article” / “khiip that thread for later.” Plural: khiips — the captured artifacts in your vault.

On the name and the tradition

Khiip is named after the khipu tradition, not from it. We chose the figure-8 knot because in khipu tradition it represents the value 1 — one capture, Khiip’s atomic unit. The project acknowledges the living Quechua and Andean communities who preserve this tradition today, and institutional sources such as the Khipu Database Project at Harvard.