wiki-narrate

name	wiki-narrate
description	Turn a wiki topic into a cited Markdown briefing, plain-language explanation, or progressive lecture. Use this skill for topic-based briefing, explanation, and lecture requests that must stay within the evidence compiled in an Obsidian vault.

Wiki Narrate — Cited Narrative Readouts

Use this skill only for a topic-based Markdown readout. Do not add tag or page-list selection, prior-query input, voice aliases, HTML, PDF, slides, renderer handoffs, or new compiled knowledge pages.

Command Contract

/wiki-narrate <topic> [--voice briefing|plain-language|lecturer] [--save]

• Require a non-empty <topic>.
• The default voice is briefing.
• Voice names are canonical and case-sensitive. Unsupported values must return an error listing briefing, plain-language, and lecturer without searching or writing.
• --save is the only persistence switch.
• For a missing topic, malformed option, or unsupported voice, return a short usage or validation error and do not search, write, append a log event, or change hot.md.

Retrieval

1. Resolve configuration with the Config Resolution Protocol, including an inline @name vault override, then read the target vault's AGENTS.md when it exists. Load OBSIDIAN_LINK_FORMAT before drafting citations.
2. Read hot.md and index.md first. Select candidates by frontmatter and summary before reading bodies.
3. When configured, use QMD before rg; if QMD is absent, unconfigured, or fails, continue with the index and rg path. Treat QMD output as candidate guidance, not evidence: establish each claim from the allowed vault page itself.
4. Honor filtered-mode phrases such as "public only", "user-facing", "no internal content", "as a user would see it", and "exclude internal". Skip pages tagged visibility/internal or visibility/pii in that mode: never read, cite, or expose them.
5. Exclude _readouts/, _raw/, _archives/, _meta/, index.md, log.md, hot.md, and _insights.md from candidates.
6. Read matching sections before full pages, and read full pages only when a factual claim cannot otherwise be established. Preserve relevant lifecycle and freshness annotations; do not upgrade a page's trust.

Claim Ledger and Citation Audit

Draft a ledger before prose. Each item contains a claim, supporting [[vault page]] links, and one status: supported fact, inferred connection, or ambiguous conflict. When OBSIDIAN_LINK_FORMAT=markdown, render the same supporting page as a standard Markdown link; otherwise use the vault's [[wikilink]] form.

Ensure every factual sentence has adjacent supporting citations. Mark inferred connections ^[inferred]; mark unresolved conflicts ^[ambiguous]. Never use web knowledge, model memory, or invented examples to close a gap. Omit unsupported claims and name the gap in Coverage. An inference or ambiguity marker supplements, rather than replaces, adjacent citations.

Drafting and Output

Read references/voices.md and use exactly the requested voice skeleton. The selected voice may change prose and ordering, but cannot change the ledger's factual boundary. Return Markdown only, structured as:

1. A title naming the topic and selected voice.
2. The selected voice's sections, in its documented order.
3. Adjacent citations for each factual sentence, rendered with OBSIDIAN_LINK_FORMAT.
4. A ## Coverage footer listing cited pages, the count of inferred statements, and known evidence gaps.

If evidence is weak or contradictory, produce only the supported portion. Mark each unresolved conflict ^[ambiguous] with citations to all conflicting pages, and list the remaining gaps in ## Coverage.

Persistence

Present the result by default. For --save, create _readouts/ if necessary and write _readouts/<slug>.md with title, topic, voice, sources, created, and updated frontmatter. Use a deterministic, filesystem-safe <slug> derived from the topic. Save the same completed Markdown readout that was returned in conversation.

A readout is derived output: exclude _readouts/ from retrieval and must not update index.md or .manifest.json. Do not create _readouts/ or a readout file without a successful --save result.

Logging and Hot Cache

After a narration attempt that reaches retrieval, append one WIKI_NARRATE event to log.md:

- [TIMESTAMP] WIKI_NARRATE topic="<topic>" voice=<voice> result_pages=N mode=normal|filtered saved=true|false outcome=success|no_match|write_failed

• Without --save, append the event with saved=false after returning the readout; do not create a readout or change hot.md.
• After a successful --save write, append the event with saved=true, then refresh hot.md with the topic, voice, cited pages, inference count, evidence gaps, and saved readout path. hot.md changes only after a successful save.
• If the readout write fails after drafting, return the completed readout in conversation, report that saving failed, append a WIKI_NARRATE event with saved=false outcome=write_failed when log.md remains writable, and do not update hot.md.
• If appending log.md fails, preserve the readout result and report the logging failure separately. Never represent a failed log or save as successful.

Safe Failure Behavior

• No matching pages: explain that the vault lacks material for the topic. Create no readout file even if --save was requested, do not change hot.md, and record a WIKI_NARRATE event with outcome=no_match when log.md is writable.
• Weak evidence or source conflict: do not resolve it with outside knowledge. Return only supported claims, label ambiguity where applicable, and make the gap explicit in ## Coverage; saving remains available for that successful partial readout.
• QMD unavailable or unconfigured: state the fallback briefly in the working update and continue safely through index.md and rg; do not fail the narration merely because QMD is unavailable.
• Write failure: never leave a partial readout presented as saved, never update hot.md, and never update index.md or .manifest.json.