distill

name	distill
description	Essence extraction via progressive compression. Chained compressors each halve the previous output while keeping what matters; what each layer drops reveals the priority hierarchy.
scope	universal
ported-from	distill command

Distill: Essence Extraction via Progressive Compression

Run a large artifact through a chain of compression steps, each compressing the previous output by ~50% while preserving the most important information. The key insight: the DROPS at each layer, what each step chose to cut, reveal the priority hierarchy. The waste product IS the signal.

Arguments

[path/to/artifact.md | inline text]

• A path (contains / or a common extension): read the file.
• Inline text: treat the whole argument as the artifact.
• No argument: ask the user what artifact to distill.

Phase 1: Ingest the Artifact

1. Read the file or parse inline text
2. Measure its size (word count, section count)
3. If it is very short (< 500 words), tell the user it is already concise enough, distill works best on substantial artifacts. Offer to proceed anyway if they insist.
4. Present a summary of what will be compressed:
   • Source (file path or "inline text")
   • Word count
   • Number of sections/headers
   • A 2-3 sentence description of the artifact's apparent purpose
5. Confirm with the user before proceeding. Adjust if the user gives feedback.

Phase 2: Run Compression Chain

Run 4 sequential compression agents. Each one:

1. Receives the previous agent's output (or the original artifact for agent 1)
2. Must compress it to roughly 50% of its length
3. Must explicitly list what it DROPPED and why
4. Must preserve the most important information in its judgment

Agent prompt template for each stage:

You are a compression agent. Your job is to compress the following text to roughly 50% of its current length while preserving the most important information.

## Input ({word_count} words)
{previous_output}

## Instructions
1. Read the input carefully
2. Identify what is MOST important (load-bearing claims, decisions, data, actionable items)
3. Identify what is LEAST important (context that can be inferred, repetition, hedging, examples that illustrate already-clear points)
4. Produce a compressed version at roughly {target_word_count} words
5. List EXPLICITLY what you dropped and why

## Output Format

### Compressed ({target_word_count} words target)
[Your compressed version]

### Dropped
| What was cut | Why | Importance (1-5) |
|-------------|-----|-----------------|
| [specific content] | [reason] | [how important was it really] |

### Compression Decisions
- Hardest cut: [what was most painful to remove and why]
- Easiest cut: [what was clearly noise]
- What I'd restore first if given 25% more space: [...]

Run agents SEQUENTIALLY, each depends on the previous output:

• Agent 1: Original -> ~50%
• Agent 2: ~50% -> ~25%
• Agent 3: ~25% -> ~12%
• Agent 4: ~12% -> ~6% (the "elevator pitch")

Track the full drop log from every agent for use in Phase 3.

Phase 3: Analyze the Priority Hierarchy

After all 4 compression stages complete, produce a full analysis with these sections:

1. The Essence The final ~6% compressed version, the irreducible core of the artifact.

2. Priority Hierarchy Classify every piece of content by how many compression rounds it survived:

• Tier 1 (Core): survived all 4 compressions, the absolute essentials
• Tier 2 (Important): survived 3 compressions, important but not irreducible
• Tier 3 (Supporting): survived 2 compressions, adds value but not critical
• Tier 4 (Context): survived 1 compression, background/context
• Tier 5 (Noise): dropped in round 1, likely not load-bearing

3. Compression Difficulty Map What was hardest to cut at each stage. These are the areas where priority is ambiguous or contested, the interesting boundaries.

4. Restoration Order If you could add things back one at a time from the essence outward, what order would you restore? This is the true priority ranking of the artifact's content.

Save the full analysis to distill_{slugified_topic}.md in the working directory.

Phase 4: Present

Show the user:

• The final essence (Tier 1)
• The priority hierarchy (all 5 tiers)
• The hardest cuts (areas of ambiguity)
• The restoration order

Then ask: does this priority ranking match your intuition? Where does it diverge?

Rules

• Sequential by design: each agent must see only the previous agent's output, not the original. Compression judgments at each layer only work with the material at hand.
• Explicit drops: every agent must say what they cut and why. The drops are the point.
• No padding: compressed output should not add new information, hedging, or meta-commentary about the compression process.
• ~50% target is approximate: within 40-60% is fine. Do not pad to hit a word count.
• Preserve structure: when compressing, prefer keeping structure (headers, lists) and cutting content within sections, rather than flattening structure.
• No filtering: include all drop data in the analysis, even when agents disagree about importance. Tension between layers is signal.
• Be honest about ambiguity: if the priority hierarchy has unclear boundaries, say so. The difficulty map exists for this reason.

Pipeline Position

Versatile, works after any phase that produces a large artifact:

/diverge synthesis -> /distill -> priority hierarchy
/converge report  -> /distill -> decision essence
Research notes    -> /distill -> core findings
Design doc        -> /distill -> essential requirements
Meeting notes     -> /distill -> action items and decisions