Building Synapedia: A Knowledge Graph for Psychoactive Substances

Over the past months I’ve been building Synapedia, a structured knowledge platform for psychoactive substances.

The motivation was simple:


Most information about pharmacology, effects and interactions is scattered across forums, research papers and community reports.

Synapedia tries to turn this fragmented information into a structured knowledge system.

You can explore the project here:

ctive substances exists in many places:

• scientific papers


• harm reduction communities


• pharmacology databases


• experience reports

But very rarely in a structured and interconnected way.

For example:

• Which receptors does a substance interact with?


• Which effects are commonly reported?


• What interactions exist between substances?

These relationships are often buried in text instead of being mapped as structured knowledge.

The Idea

Synapedia is built around the idea of a knowledge graph for psychoactive substances.

Instead of isolated articles, the platform connects:

• substances


• effects


• receptors


• interactions


• experience reports

This makes it possible to explore relationships between compounds in a much more intuitive way.

Example Features

The platform currently includes:

Substance profiles

Each substance has a structured profile including:

• pharmacology


• receptor interactions


• effects


• harm reduction information

Effects database

Effects are mapped across substances so you can explore patterns such as:

• stimulation
  


• euphoria
  


• visual effects
  


• sedation
  

Interaction data

Substance interactions are one of the most important harm-reduction topics.

Synapedia aims to map:

• risky combinations


• pharmacological overlaps


• safety considerations

Experience reports

Community reports help capture subjective effects and timelines that scientific literature often doesn't cover.

Synapedia integrates structured trip reports to complement the pharmacology data.

Tech Stack

The project is built with a fairly modern stack:

• Next.js


• TypeScript


• Supabase


• PostgreSQL


• structured data pipelines


• automated enrichment workflows

The backend is designed to support a growing knowledge graph connecting substances, receptors, effects and reports.

The Goal

The long-term goal is to build a comprehensive open knowledge system for psychoactive substance research.

Not as a recreational guide, but as a structured educational resource focused on:

• pharmacology


• safety


• harm reduction


• scientific data

Feedback Welcome

The project is still evolving quickly and I would love feedback from the developer and research community.

If you're curious you can explore it here:

synapedia - neuroscience - drugdatabase