| name | paper-map |
| description | Maintain the cross-device paper index at {vault}/00-Claude-Context/paper-map.md. Use for "update paper-map", "add this paper to the map", "rebuild paper-map". |
Paper Map (Desktop)
Use this skill to maintain {vault}/00-Claude-Context/paper-map.md. It is the
portable paper index -- a compact summary of the papers an active research
thread is using, kept in the synced continuity folder so the next device can
pick up the bibliographic state.
This is not the full library. The full library lives in 30_Literature/
and is queried by the lit-status skill. paper-map.md is a curated subset:
just the papers the user is actively reasoning about, plus enough metadata for
a fresh device to reorient.
Operating Rules
- Write only to
00-Claude-Context/paper-map.md (and, if a claim shifts,
also open-questions.md / decision-log.md / task-ledger.md per the
schema). Never write outside 00-Claude-Context/.
- Read
30_Literature/{citekey}.md and 00-Claude-Context/paper-map.md to
collect data. Don't fetch papers -- that's paper-capture.
- Keep entries compact and sortable by citekey. Don't delete useful prior
context just because the user asked you to add a new paper.
What an entry looks like
## kim2023ionic
- Path: `30_Literature/kim2023ionic.md`
- Status: read | skimmed | unread | extracted | cited
- Main claim: Ion-gated synaptic transistors achieve memory-retention scaling
proportional to ion residence time.
- Methods/data: WSe2 EDL transistor; pulsed I/V; 1 ns-10 ms regimes.
- Useful for: fading-memory characterization in active project.
- Caveats: Single-device measurements; no statistical population.
- Threads: [[#tau-c-trend]], [[#fading-memory-validation]]
- Tags: ion-gated, edl, memory, wse2
Citekey is the H2 anchor -- stable, never rename. If a paper's role in the
research changes, edit the entry's Status / Useful for / Threads fields,
don't move the heading.
Procedure
- Read the current
paper-map.md. Build an in-memory map of citekey -> entry.
- Determine the operation:
- Add -- user pasted a citekey or DOI; check the entry doesn't exist;
fetch metadata from
30_Literature/{citekey}.md if available.
- Update -- change Status / Useful for / Threads / Caveats based on what
happened in this session.
- Cross-link -- if an entry's Main claim conflicts with another, add a
line to
open-questions.md (or decision-log.md if the conflict is
already resolved).
- Rebuild -- user asked for a fresh build from
30_Literature/. Walk the
directory, build entries for papers tagged with the active project (or
all of them, if user said so), and replace the file body. Don't touch
frontmatter.
- Write the result back. Update frontmatter
last_updated to UTC ISO 8601
and source_device to the active hostname slug.
- Report one line:
paper-map updated: +{n} added, ~{m} updated, total {N}.
When to escalate
- A paper's Main claim contradicts an entry already in
decision-log.md ->
surface to the user before writing.
- The user asks to delete an entry -> confirm explicitly. The continuity layer
is biased toward append-only; deletions are rare and should be deliberate.
30_Literature/{citekey}.md is missing for a paper the user wants in the
map -> suggest paper-capture {DOI} first; mark Status unread if user
insists on adding without capturing.
What this skill does NOT do
- It does NOT replace
lit-status for library-wide queries (counts, gaps,
orphans). That skill reads 30_Literature/ directly.
- It does NOT download papers. That's
paper-capture.
- It does NOT auto-sync -- Obsidian Sync / your sync provider does that. This
skill just writes the file.
