| name | process-journal-entry |
| description | Process a freewrite or journal entry — reflect back, route insights to living documents and atomic notes. Use when the human says "process my journal", "process today's writing", or feeds a freewrite/journal fragment. |
process-journal-entry
Turns raw writing into structured knowledge. Reads a journal entry, reflects back in reflective friend mode, routes insights to living documents, and creates atomic notes for genuine discoveries.
When to use
- "Process my journal", "process today's writing"
- Human pastes or points to a freewrite, journal fragment, or voice transcript
- After a writing session
Inputs
| Input | Required | Description |
|---|
| entry | yes | The journal text — a file path (e.g. a journal fragment in personal/journal/), pasted text, or "today" (finds today's journal fragments by date prefix) |
Process
STEP 1 — Read and retrieve
- Read the full journal entry.
- Retrieve knowledge neighborhood for every concept, person, project, or emotion mentioned.
- Check [[Reflections log]], [[Learning log]], [[Decisions log]], [[Goals]] for recent entries — continuity matters.
STEP 2 — Reflect back (reflective friend mode)
Respond conversationally. Mirror what the human wrote. Surface:
- Patterns you notice (especially recurring themes across entries)
- Connections to existing knowledge the human may not have seen
- One deepening question — not advice, just a question that opens a door
Do not coach unless explicitly asked.
STEP 3 — Route to living documents
For each insight type found in the entry, append a dated entry:
- Reflection → [[Reflections log]] — what was reflected on, what surfaced, link to source
- Something learned → [[Learning log]] — what, from where, why it matters
- Decision made → [[Decisions log]] — what was decided, reasoning, alternatives considered
- Goal set or updated → [[Goals]] — what changed and why
Each entry: one paragraph, dated, with wiki-links to related notes.
STEP 4 — Create atomic notes (atomic-first)
Extract aggressively — more atoms = richer connection network. Every distinct concept, quote, finding, or claim in the journal entry deserves its own note:
- One concept per note. If the human wrote about three ideas, create three notes. A quote by someone → its own note attributed to that person (
people/ link). A principle or belief → its own evergreen-titled note. A finding or observation → its own note linked to its source context.
- Create each note in the appropriate entity folder (
superpaper/concepts/, superpaper/people/, superpaper/questions/, superpaper/sources/, superpaper/meta/, etc.) using the knowledge note template. Route self-knowledge and alignment insights to meta/.
- Preserve attribution. Every atom traces to where it came from — the journal entry, the person who said it, the source that inspired it. Add
^block-ids to key passages so they're independently embeddable.
- Link to 2+ existing notes. Update 1–3 existing notes to link back.
- Link from the log entry to the new atomic notes.
- If the journal entry produced 3+ atoms, consider creating a lightweight hub note that embeds them with thin connective prose — this becomes the "processed" version of the journal entry.
STEP 5 — Evergreen candidate detection
Scan the journal entry and any new atomic notes for evergreen potential. A note is an evergreen candidate if its title works as a standalone statement (e.g. "Pain is information", "You have no obligation to your former self"). If the human wrote something with that quality, suggest promoting it to type: permanent. Never auto-promote — always confirm with the human. This is how the vault's best ideas get surfaced proactively.
STEP 6 — Agent log update
Append to today's agent log (inbox/log/YYYY-MM-DD):
### Journal processed — HH:MM
- **Reflections:** [1-line summary]
- **Learnings:** N entries added
- **Decisions:** N entries added
- **New notes:** [[note1]], [[note2]]
- **Question to sit with:** [the deepening question from step 2]
Never write to the human's daily note (daily/YYYY-MM-DD) — it's a pure date anchor.
Outputs
- Conversational reflection (in chat)
- Updated living documents with dated entries
- 0+ new atomic knowledge notes
- Agent log summary (
inbox/log/YYYY-MM-DD)
Decision authority
- YOU DECIDE: what to reflect, which insights to route, log entry content
- ESCALATE TO HUMAN: creating notes about sensitive/personal topics, anything that feels like advice rather than reflection
All notes created by this skill must include created-by: ai. The journal entry itself is created-by: human — never modify its body, only update frontmatter properties. New atomic notes, log entries, and connection docs are created-by: ai.
