PARA Classifier

Reference skill for inbox classification - Provides decision trees, emoji mappings, and PARA philosophy guidance for triage and distill skills.

This is not a user-facing skill. Other skills load these references to make consistent classification decisions.

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What This Skill Provides

1. PARA Philosophy - Tiago Forte's core principles for organizing knowledge
2. Classification Decision Tree - Flowchart for inbox → PARA routing
3. Emoji Mapping - source_format to emoji conversion
4. Type Disambiguation - Clarify resources vs records vs archives
5. Real-World Examples - Concrete classification scenarios

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When to Load This Skill

Load these references when you need to:

• Classify inbox items - Is this a resource, meeting, booking, or archive?
• Choose emojis - What emoji matches this source_format?
• Resolve ambiguity - Is this knowledge to distill or a transaction record?
• Apply PARA principles - What would Tiago Forte do?

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Reference Files

File	Purpose
para-philosophy.md	Core PARA concepts and the "Future You" test
classification-decision-tree.md	Flowchart for classification decisions
emoji-mapping.md	source_format → emoji lookup table
type-disambiguation.md	Resources vs records clarification
examples.md	Real-world classification scenarios

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Usage Pattern

In other skills:

Load PARA classification guidance when needed:

For classification decisions, see:
- @../para-classifier/references/classification-decision-tree.md
- @../para-classifier/references/emoji-mapping.md

For PARA philosophy, see:
- @../para-classifier/references/para-philosophy.md

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Key Principles

1. Resources are for learning - Knowledge to distill for future use
2. Records are for reference - Transactions, events, dates
3. Archives are cold storage - Completed or no longer relevant
4. Emojis enhance discoverability - Visual cues for content type
5. Future You is the customer - Design for scanability

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Quick Reference

Resource indicators:

• Knowledge to extract/learn
• No specific date/transaction
• Distillable content (article, video, book)

Record indicators:

• Has date/time
• Transaction or event
• Meeting notes, bookings, invoices

Archive indicators:

• Completed projects
• Outdated information
• No future relevance

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External Resources

• Building a Second Brain - Tiago Forte's book
• PARA Method - Official explanation
• Progressive Summarization - Distillation technique