triage-notes

Triage Notes

Process one note out of the inbox. The inbox (00-notes/) is the user's -- this skill assists their triage, it does not auto-promote. Nothing moves without explicit approval at the checkpoint (Step 4). One note per run by design; run it again to take the next.

Step 1: Locate the Inbox and Resolve the Target

1. Find the vault root: scan the home directory for a folder containing .obsidian/; first match wins. If none, warn and stop.
2. Find the inbox: the vault's fleeting-capture folder, conventionally 00-notes/. Scan for it; never hardcode. If absent, ask the user where fleeting notes live.
3. Resolve the target:
   • Path given in $ARGUMENTS -- triage that note.
   • No path -- list *.md in the inbox, exclude README.md and any index files, pick one at random, and announce which one you drew.

Done when: you have exactly one note file to triage.

Step 2: Read and Analyse

1. Read the full note.
2. Resolve any links it leans on via /look-up so the value judgement is based on real content, not a dangling reference.
3. Characterise it -- answer in one line each:
   • What is it? durable knowledge, a how-to, a term/concept, an actionable task, a half-formed thought, or noise.
   • Is it still true / still wanted? stale captures get archived, not promoted.
   • What's the single most valuable thing in it? if the note is mostly dross around one good nugget, the nugget is what gets promoted -- the rest goes.

Done when: you can state what the note is and what (if anything) is worth keeping.

Step 3: Decide the Disposition

Pick exactly one. Routing is by what the note is:

Disposition	When	Where it lands
Promote -- stable note	Durable knowledge worth consulting later	best-fit folder (Step 5)
Promote -- task	An action the user needs to do	a journal file or a project board
Archive	Stale, superseded, or no lasting value	98-archive/
Leave	Genuinely not ready to triage yet	stays in the inbox, untouched

For promote -- stable note, prefer delegating to the scribe skill that fits, so the content lands formatted to that home's conventions:

Note is...	Delegate to	Typical home
A repeatable how-to / solved chore	/add-procedure	*reference/
Prose worth keeping as an article	/edit-article (after the move)	*research/, *work/
Terminology around a concept	/define-concept or /define-term	a CONTEXT.md

If nothing fits, extract the most valuable information and do a plain move to the best-fit folder (Step 5). Folders, by intent (match against the vault's actual numbered folders, don't hardcode names):

• learning / tutorial / course capture -> *research/
• distilled lookup or runbook -> *reference/
• work scratch or living work doc -> *work/
• structured course material -> *lessons/{course}/
• TTRPG / campaign content -> *omen/{campaign}/
• project-specific -> *projects/{project}/

Done when: you have one disposition and a concrete destination.

Step 4: Checkpoint (hard gate)

Present, tersely:

Note: <filename> It is: {one-line characterisation} Disposition: {promote-note | promote-task | archive | leave} -> <destination> Via: {delegated skill, or "plain move", or "extract: "} Why: {one line}

Wait for the user. They approve, redirect (different disposition/destination), or skip. Do not proceed without an explicit go.

Done when: the user has approved a disposition (or told you to leave/skip it).

Step 5: Execute

On approval, carry out the move. Standardise frontmatter every time -- on whichever artifact survives (the moved note, or the file it lands in). See FRONTMATTER.md.

• Promote via delegated skill -- invoke it (/add-procedure, /edit-article, /define-concept, /define-term) with the note's content, then delete the inbox note once the content has safely landed.
• Promote via plain move -- move the file (or just the extracted nugget) to the destination folder. Standardise its frontmatter to the destination's convention: drop the #raw inbox tag, set real tags, keep/repair created, add updated: {today}. Respect folders that already carry solid frontmatter (e.g. journal files) -- don't flatten them.
• Promote -- task -- append the action to the relevant journal backlog or project board, matching that file's exact existing format (read it first), then delete the inbox note. These files are normally human-owned; the user's approval at Step 4 is what authorises the write.
• Archive -- move the file to *archive/, add archived: {today} to its frontmatter.
• Leave -- do nothing.

Move, don't copy: a triaged note leaves the inbox (unless Leave). Never commit -- the vault's git is the user's to manage.

Done when: the note is in its new home (or deliberately left) and frontmatter is standardised.

Step 6: Confirm

Report:

Triaged <filename> -> {destination} ({how}) {one-line recap; note count remaining in inbox if you counted in Step 1}

Done when: the user has seen what moved where.

Principles

• Assist, don't auto-triage. The inbox is the user's. Step 4 is a hard gate.
• One note, one run. No batch sweeps -- keeps each decision deliberate and cheap.
• Salvage the nugget. A bad note with one good fact is a promote of that fact, not the note.
• Standardise frontmatter on every triage, respecting the destination's conventions.
• Straight quotes only; em dashes and emojis fine (vault rule).