notes-knowledge-base

name	notes-knowledge-base
description	Maintain Stephen's Obsidian notes knowledge base in /Users/stephen/Obsidian/Notes. Use when working with Stephen's personal knowledge base, qmd setup, source pages, or life/work knowledge retrieval.

Notes Knowledge Base

Stephen's personal knowledge base lives at /Users/stephen/Obsidian/Notes.

Model

The vault follows the LLM knowledge-base pattern:

• The vault root is the maintained knowledge-base surface.
• Top-level folders such as Areas/, Sources/, Topics/, Entities/, and Queries/ are the visible map of the knowledge base.
• This is a wiki, not an app, transcript archive, regeneration pipeline, or task manager.
• Sources/ contains canonical source pages only when preserving source text inside the vault is valuable.
• Raw Tuple call exports live outside Obsidian at ~/Documents/Tuple Calls. Read them as evidence; do not import transcripts or call-folder tooling into the vault.
• Source capture is not complete ingest. Promote source evidence into maintained project, account, people/entity, decision, topic, and customer-signal pages.
• Assets/ contains images, PDFs, SVGs, and other attachments that are referenced by notes.
• Index.md is the first navigation file.
• Log.md is the append-only maintenance timeline.
• Keep top-level additions within the allowed surfaces named by the vault-local AGENTS.md; update that contract if a new root surface is genuinely needed.

Workflow

1. Read /Users/stephen/Obsidian/Notes/AGENTS.md.
2. Read Index.md.
3. Search the vault root before broader filesystem search.
4. Prefer maintained pages in Areas/, Topics/, Entities/, and Queries/.
5. Use Sources/**/*.md only when provenance or preserved source text matters.
6. Preserve durable answers by filing them in Queries/ and linking them from Index.md.

Page Grain

• Prefer many small, named pages over massive aggregate docs.
• Folder indexes are navigation pages only. Keep them thin.
• Create one page per durable real-world entity or concept: person, account, organization, project, decision, vocabulary term, or reusable answer.
• Name pages after the thing itself, such as Entities/People/Jack Hannah.md or Entities/Accounts/Rentvine.md, not after source roles such as "participants" or "customers in calls."
• When a maintained page starts mixing unrelated concerns, split it into smaller linked pages and leave an overview or index behind.

Ingest

When adding source material:

1. Read enough of the source to identify durable knowledge.
2. Put temporary captures in Inbox/ only when immediate synthesis is not possible.
3. Create a canonical source page in Sources/ only when the source text belongs inside the vault.
4. Update relevant synthesis pages under the appropriate top-level folder.
5. Add internal links so backlinks and graph views stay useful.
6. Append an entry to Log.md.

For Tuple calls:

1. Work from the external folders under ~/Documents/Tuple Calls.
2. Use events.jsonl for people and metadata.
3. Use call-summary.md when present and transcriptions.jsonl when exact content matters.
4. Classify low-signal tests and empty calls in Topics/Tuple Calls.md instead of importing them.
5. Promote durable knowledge into Areas/Tuple/Projects/, Topics/Tuple Call Decisions.md, Areas/Tuple/Customer Signals.md, Entities/Accounts/, Entities/People/, and concept pages.
6. Cite call evidence by date/time and call ID, not by creating raw transcript pages in Obsidian.
7. Delete temporary helper scripts or reports before finishing.

Search

Prefer qmd if installed:

qmd search "query" -c life-knowledge --json -n 10

Fallback:

rtk rg -n "query" .

Prefer hits in Areas/, Topics/, Entities/, Queries/, and Sources/.

For recent Tuple product, customer, CLI/transcription, or collaboration questions, start with Topics/Tuple Calls.md, Areas/Tuple/Projects/Project Index.md, Topics/Tuple Call Decisions.md, Areas/Tuple/Customer Signals.md, Entities/Accounts/Index.md, and Entities/People/Index.md.

Obsidian CLI

Use the Obsidian CLI when Obsidian semantics matter: backlinks, outgoing links, unresolved links, orphans, tags, properties, templates, opening files, and one-off captures.

Resolve the command from the vault root:

if command -v obsidian >/dev/null; then OBSIDIAN=obsidian; else OBSIDIAN='/Applications/Obsidian.app/Contents/MacOS/obsidian'; fi

Useful checks:

$OBSIDIAN search query="query" path=Areas limit=10 format=json
$OBSIDIAN unresolved total
$OBSIDIAN orphans total
$OBSIDIAN backlinks path="Index.md" counts
$OBSIDIAN tags counts format=json
$OBSIDIAN properties counts format=json

Use filesystem tools for ordinary markdown inspection and scoped edits. Read Operations/Obsidian CLI.md for detailed recipes.

Obsidian Affordances

• Use YAML properties as the machine-readable schema for maintained notes.
• Use nested tags as facets, such as kb/source, kb/synthesis, domain/tuple, domain/personal, status/active, and needs/review.
• Use internal links for semantic relationships so backlinks, local graph, and global graph become useful.
• Use Bases for recurring dashboards over properties when they help the wiki.
• Use Canvas for spatial maps into real notes; prefer file cards over text-only cards.
• Check Operations/Obsidian Affordances.md before changing the schema or adding new Obsidian conventions.

Boundary

The vault-local AGENTS.md (read in step 1) and the global knowledge-base contract define what belongs here. Keep the vault focused on durable knowledge, decisions, context, and evidence; capture real tasks in Fortress, not the vault.