answer

Answer — Query + Cite

Purpose

Answer user questions using only the wiki/ subtree as the source of truth. Compose answers with [[wikilink]] citations. For non-trivial questions, save synthesis to wiki/synthesis/<topic>.md.

Used by wiki-advisor only.

Trigger phrases

• "what do we know about X"
• "what did we decide about Y"
• "answer from the wiki"
• "find in vault"
• "summarize what's filed under Z"

Inputs

• User question (free text)

Outputs

• Inline answer with [[wikilink]] cites
• Optionally: wiki/synthesis/<slug>.md (if non-trivial: ≥3 source pages OR new framing)

Hard contract

• READ ONLY from wiki/, NEVER from raw/
• DO NOT use WebFetch / WebSearch
• DO NOT fabricate — if knowledge absent, flag "wiki-researcher should be invoked"
• DO NOT edit pages outside wiki/synthesis/

Workflow

1. Parse intent:

   • Factual ("what is X") → retrieve concept + cite
   • Comparative ("X vs Y") → retrieve comparison page or build synthesis
   • Decision-needed ("which should I use") → retrieve decision pages, surface trade-offs

2. Hub-route:

   • Start at wiki/index.md
   • Identify domain hub (wiki/<cluster>.md)
   • Drill to relevant concepts/decisions

3. Multi-stage retrieval with claim-level granularity:

   • ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/wiki-search.sh --vault $VAULT_PATH --query "<query>"
   • For each candidate page, read key_claims first
   • Read full body only if claims insufficient

4. Compose answer:

   • State conclusion concisely
   • Each non-trivial claim followed by [[wikilink]]
   • Hedge with confidence: "according to [[X]] (confidence: medium)..."
   • Surface contradictions explicitly: "but [[Y]] disagrees on..."
   • Surface open questions: "open question — see [[Z]]"

5. If non-trivial (≥3 source pages OR new cross-page synthesis):

   • Write wiki/synthesis/<slug>.md with filed_from_query: <YYYY-MM-DD> and key_claims
   • Add to hot.md: update-hot.sh --section operation --content "wiki-advisor: filed synthesis on <topic>"

6. If knowledge absent:

   • Say so explicitly
   • Flag: "wiki-researcher should be invoked for [topic]"
   • Do NOT pad with general knowledge

Quality gate

• Every non-trivial claim has [[wikilink]]
• Open questions surfaced when relevant
• Synthesis pages have filed_from_query and key_claims
• Confidence stated explicitly when claims are uncertain

Anti-patterns

• DO NOT read raw/ (three-layer invariant)
• DO NOT go to web (researcher's job)
• DO NOT fabricate — flag instead
• DO NOT edit non-synthesis wiki pages
• DO NOT write synthesis for trivial questions (one-shot answer suffices)

Scripts used

• ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/wiki-search.sh
• ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/page-context.sh
• ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/section-browse.sh
• ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/create-page.sh (for synthesis)
• ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/update-hot.sh