Editorial knowledge-ingestion pass. Reads sources the user supplies, declares its pass-mode (topic-page / triage / evidence-only) before extraction, and is held to mode-specific completion semantics. The topic page is the deliverable; the closeout is the audit trail.
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Editorial knowledge-ingestion pass. Reads sources the user supplies, declares its pass-mode (topic-page / triage / evidence-only) before extraction, and is held to mode-specific completion semantics. The topic page is the deliverable; the closeout is the audit trail.
Editorial Ingestion Pass
This skill is the single editorial pass for adding knowledge
to .context/kb/. It reads materials the user supplies, decides
which topic page(s) they belong to, finds-or-creates those pages,
writes synthesized prose section by section, mints EV-### rows
in the structured layer as it cites them, cross-links neighboring
topics, updates the source-coverage ledger, and writes a closeout
file under .context/ingest/closeouts/.
The split between "extract claims" and "write the topic page" is
mechanical, not editorial. A student reading a book does not
extract a glossary first and synthesize later, they read and write
at the same time. This skill matches that model: the user supplies
intent and material; the skill does judgment and typing.
The topic page is the deliverable. The closeout is the audit
trail. The closeout never substitutes for the page. Intermediate
artifacts (EV rows, glossary entries, candidate-source registries,
closeouts) are valuable, but they do not validate topic-page work
by themselves; only the topic page does.
Authoritative background reading lives at
.context/ingest/KB-RULES.md and specs/kb-editorial-pipeline.md.
This skill encodes the workflow contract; the rules file is the
constitution. Hand-edit KB-RULES.md to evolve the contract; do
not paraphrase it here.
When to Use
The user supplies one or more sources (paths, URLs, MCP
resources, inline natural-language descriptions) and wants them
read into the kb.
The user says "ingest the transcripts", "pull this into the
kb", "add evidence from ", "extract claims from this
call", or invokes the explicit slash form with paths.
A prior pass left residue (a topic-page-drafted ledger row,
a Next pass hint in a closeout) and the user is resuming.
When NOT to Use
The user asked a question about the kb (use /ctx-kb-ask).
The user wants a structural audit of the kb (use
/ctx-kb-site-review).
The user wants to re-ground existing kb claims against
external sources (use /ctx-kb-ground).
The user wants to park a quick finding for the next ingest
(use /ctx-kb-note).
No sources were supplied (refuse-on-empty; see §Refuse-on-empty
below).
.context/kb/ does not exist (refuse with the no-pipeline
message in §Pre-write gates).
Authority Boundary (vs Other Skills)
/ctx-kb-ingest: primary editorial pass. Reads materials
(in-tree paths, out-of-tree paths, URLs, MCP resources, inline
references); writes topic pages
(.context/kb/topics/<slug>/index.md, plus optional sibling
sub-pages); mints evidence, glossary, source-map, timeline,
contradictions, outstanding questions; cross-links into existing
kb topology; updates the source-coverage ledger; writes
closeout. Topic-page file creation is performed only by
ctx kb topic new: this skill MAY invoke that CLI as part
of a topic-page pass, but it MUST NOT synthesize or write a
scaffold directly. This preserves the public editorial workflow
(/ctx-kb-ingest) and the actual scaffold authority
(ctx kb topic new) as two separate facts.
/ctx-kb-ask: Q&A grounded in the kb. Read-only on prose;
refuses to web-jump; flags gaps the kb cannot answer.
/ctx-kb-ground: external grounding against
grounding-sources.md; advances ledger rows for sources it
refreshes.
/ctx-kb-note: lightweight capture into
.context/ingest/findings.md; never writes to a topic page or
to evidence-index.md.
This skill writes prose AND evidence rows AND scaffold (via CLI)
AND cross-links AND ledger updates in the same pass; that
combination is unique to ingest.
Usage Examples
/ctx-kb-ingest ./inputs/2026-04-12-call.md "cursor hooks"
/ctx-kb-ingest ./inputs/your-domain/
/ctx-kb-ingest https://cursor.com/docs/hooks
/ctx-kb-ingest ./a.md ./b.md "incident retros"
/ctx-kb-ingest --inline "the four transcripts under inputs/ \
and the pool.go file" "connection pooling"
Input Contract
Sources, supplied as one or more of:
Paths: folder to recurse, single file, list of files.
URLs: primary-source web pages.
MCP resources: named resources from connected MCP servers.
Inline gestures: natural-language naming the materials.
Open invitation: "feel free to search for more". The
skill gets web-search and MCP-discovery authority for this
pass; hard cap of 50 total sources.
Optional second argument, topic name, e.g. "cursor hooks".
When omitted, the skill proposes one at §3 of Process and
confirms with the user before any extraction work. Naming the
topic up front skips that round-trip.
Refuse-on-Empty
The skill writes to the kb; refuse-on-empty is the default. If
the invocation supplied no sources and no inline gesture, return
exactly:
no sources provided; pass a folder, a URL, an MCP resource, or
describe the materials inline.
Stop. Do not prompt for sources interactively, do not invent a
topic, do not propose a triage pass on imagined material. The CLI
enforces this independently via cmd/ingest.
Pre-Write Gates
Three distinct refusals, each leaves zero residue (no
INBOX.md rewrite, no SESSION_LOG.md entry, no claim
extraction, no ledger update, no closeout, no topic-page edits):
.context/ missing entirely → suggest ctx init and stop.
.context/ingest/ missing (project initialised before this
spec shipped) → suggest ctx init --upgrade and stop.
Kb scope undeclared (.context/kb/index.md missing, contains
the TODO: declare what this kb covers placeholder, has no
## Scope H2, or ## Scope lacks substantive
non-placeholder prose):
kb scope is undeclared. Open .context/kb/index.md and
replace the TODO placeholder with a one-paragraph scope
statement that names what is in scope and what is out.
/ctx-kb-ingest refuses to ingest until scope is declared.
Pass-Mode Contract
Every invocation MUST classify itself as exactly one of three
modes before any source extraction begins. The mode commits
the pass to a specific definition of done; the skill is held to
that definition and may not narrate success on residue belonging
to a different mode. Full mode semantics live in
.context/ingest/KB-RULES.md §Pass-mode contract.
Mode
Mints prose?
Mints EV-###?
Touches topic page?
Default?
topic-page
yes
yes
yes (create/extend)
yes
triage
no
no
no
no
evidence-only
no
yes (tagged)
no
no
Mode selection rules. Default is topic-page. triage fires
only when the user supplied multiple disparate sources with no
clear single topic, OR explicitly invoked triage language.
evidence-only fires only on explicit user request matching the
valid-trigger criteria ("just mint EV rows", "backfill
evidence"); the skill MAY NOT infer it from source size,
ambiguity, time pressure, or operator convenience.
Up-front declaration (mandatory). Before extraction begins
(after pre-write gates pass and before topic resolution), emit
a visible pre-work declaration in the response stream:
Pass-mode:<mode>Reason:<one sentence; required when non-default>Definition of done:<mode-specific completion criterion>
The declaration is a contract, not a label. The skill is bound to
it for the rest of the pass.
Mid-pass mode-switching is forbidden. If the work in flight
no longer fits, abort with a partial closeout citing what was
done, and recommend re-invocation under the correct mode. Silent
mode-drift is a hard anti-pattern.
Topic-Page Circuit Breaker
A pass operating in topic-page mode MAY NOT report
topic-page: produced or topic-page: extended unless ALL of
the following are true at completion:
.context/kb/topics/<slug>/index.md (or a sibling sub-page
like .context/kb/topics/<slug>/<sub>.md) exists and was
created or extended in this pass.
The page cites at least one EV-### row that resolves to
evidence-index.md.
ctx kb site build ran clean (or its failure is named in the
closeout's Next pass hint AND the pass reports
topic-page: deferred).
The cold-reader orientation rubric records Result: pass
in the closeout's What changed section. All four rubric
items must be yes.
Any failure → topic-page: deferred and the source-coverage
ledger advances to topic-page-drafted (not comprehensive).
This invariant prevents intermediate residue from being treated
as topic-page success. Topic-page validation requires the
topic page.
Source-Coverage Ledger
.context/kb/source-coverage.md is a state machine over every
source the kb has touched. Allowed transitions live in
KB-RULES.md §Source-coverage ledger; do not paraphrase them
here. Every pass updates the ledger before writing the closeout.
Lying to the ledger is a hard anti-pattern. Set the state
honestly even when it means recording incomplete work.
Cold-Reader Orientation Rubric
Four yes/no items recorded in the closeout's What changed
section, in topic-page mode:
Result: pass requires all four yes. Any no →
Result: fail → circuit-breaker fails → topic-page: deferred.
Life-Stage Check
Count .context/kb/topics/*/index.md pages before this pass
begins synthesizing:
< 5 topic pages → bootstrap mode. Skip reconciliation
ceremony; synthesize topic pages aggressively. Exception:
surface a contradiction even in bootstrap if the new material
plainly contradicts existing kb claims.
Document the life-stage call in the closeout's frontmatter
(life-stage:) and What changed section.
Process
Verify pre-write gates. Refuse cleanly with the matching
message from §Pre-write gates if .context/,
.context/ingest/, or kb scope is missing. No residue on
refusal.
Declare pass-mode and surface the up-front declaration.
Determine the mode per §Pass-mode contract. Emit the
three-line declaration block in the response stream before
any further work. Mid-pass mode-switching is forbidden;
abort and re-invoke if the work no longer fits.
Resolve the topic.(Topic-page mode only; skipped in
triage and evidence-only.)
Read .context/kb/source-coverage.md in full first. It
answers "what does this kb already know about which
sources, and at what completeness?": a precondition for
honest topic resolution, not an afterthought.
Topic-adjacency pre-flight (mandatory). Scan the ledger
for rows whose state is not in
{comprehensive, skipped, superseded} AND whose Topic is
plausibly adjacent. Heuristics:
Shared first segment of a slash- or hyphen-separated
slug: cursor/skills is adjacent to cursor/hooks.
Shared product / vendor / surface in the source URL or
description.
Explicit cross-references in the named topic's
existing sub-pages or this pass's source set.
For each adjacent incomplete topic surfaced, this pass MUST:
Acknowledge it in ## Related concepts in this kb on the
topic page being authored.
Surface it in the closeout's Adjacency pre-flight
block.
Surface it in the response contract's Adjacent topics noted field.
Do NOT enumerate EV-### IDs by name in the adjacency
block. Use count + location ("seventeen rows in
evidence-index.md"). Naming an EV row from a
lower-confidence sibling demotes the floor of cited bands.
Silence is not a clean pre-flight; if zero matches, record
"no incomplete adjacent topics surfaced" explicitly.
Named vs unnamed branches. If the user named a topic,
accept it and map to slug (lowercase + kebab-case). If not,
scan the inputs just enough to propose one and confirm:
you haven't named a topic; based on the inputs this looks
like "". Confirm or correct.
One question. Wait for confirmation. If material spans
multiple topics, ask once for the splits. Do not auto-split.
Resolve sources (and discover, if invited).(All modes.)
If the user invited discovery, do bounded web/MCP search.
Hard cap: 50 total sources (supplied + discovered) per
pass. Quality of synthesis collapses past it.
If discovery exceeds 50, keep the 50 highest-judged
sources for this pass; append the overflow to
.context/ingest/candidate-sources.md under a "Pending
(overflow from ingest of <topic-slug>)" heading.
Update the source-coverage ledger: every supplied source
moves from absent → discovered (if newly seen) →
admitted (if scope-conformant) or → skipped (if not).
Discovered sources kept for this pass also land at
admitted; overflow stays at discovered with a pointer.
Survey kb topology and determine life-stage.(All
modes.)
List .context/kb/topics/*/index.md; glance for sibling
sub-pages so the cross-link palette includes them.
Read .context/kb/index.md for the canonical scope.
Skim recent sections of evidence-index.md, glossary.md,
outstanding-questions.md, contradictions.md,
timeline.md for prior claims relevant to this pass.
Life-stage check: count kb/topics/*/index.md. < 5
is bootstrap; >= 5 is maintenance. Document the call in
the closeout's frontmatter (life-stage:).
Find or create the topic page.(Topic-page mode only.)
Topic pages are folder-shaped from day one:
.context/kb/topics/<slug>/index.md, with optional sibling
sub-pages.
If .context/kb/topics/<slug>/index.md exists, read it
AND enumerate any sibling sub-pages. The pass extends
the topic: append/extend prose; reuse existing EV-###
rows where possible; preserve human edits; do not reformat
to match a newer template. Choose the right file:
Lede / "What it is" overview → edit index.md.
Existing sibling sub-page material → edit that sub-page.
Sub-page split is lazy. Do NOT pre-emptively split.
Only split when index.md has grown to fail the
cold-reader "boundaries clear?" check; at which point,
propose the split (one question, wait for confirmation;
sub-page topology affects long-term shape).
If .context/kb/topics/<slug>/ does not exist, scaffold
by invoking ctx kb topic new "<concept name>". The CLI is
the sole writer of the scaffold; do not synthesize it by
hand. The CLI creates the folder, writes index.md, AND
registers the new slug in .context/kb/index.md's
CTX:KB:TOPICS managed block.
After revising the page's H1 or Confidence band in §10, run
ctx kb reindex so the managed block refreshes.
Synthesise. Body depends on declared mode.
topic-page mode
For each template section (Status block, lede, "What it is",
"Why this kb cares", "Sources and further reading", optional
sections):
Read the source(s) carefully: full pass, not skim.
Write paraphrased prose that captures the understanding,
not a transcription.
For each claim needing citation, mint or reuse EV-###:
Re-read evidence-index.md immediately before writing to
find the highest existing EV-NNN; append the next
integer. Pad to three digits (EV-012, not EV-12).
Duplicate IDs are a hard refusal: abort and re-read.
If the claim is already pinned by an existing row,
reuse the ID verbatim. If the existing claim no longer
matches, treat as a contradiction (§8).
If the existing row carries the evidence-only tag,
treat as review-required: re-read the source, confirm the
claim, then promote onto the page. Leave the tag in
place; it is audit trail.
Append the row to evidence-index.md per its schema
(claim, source short name + locator, optional sha: for
in-repo citations, confidence band, tags, extracted
date).
If the source is new, append a row to source-map.md.
Cite EV-### inline in the prose.
Cross-link to existing kb topics, DECISIONS.md,
LEARNINGS.md, and docs/ entries when applicable.
Mandatory ## Related concepts in this kb entries for
adjacent incomplete topics surfaced by §3's pre-flight. The
acknowledgement must read as a forward pointer (state +
count + location), not as trivia.
Mark unbacked claims with TBD-cite and open
outstanding-questions.md entries for each.
Update glossary.md for net-new terms.
Update timeline.md if the pass surfaces a dateable
event.
Never invent citations.Never promote a claim above
speculative without an evidence-index.md row backing it.
triage mode
For each admitted source, judge admission/skip against the
scope paragraph and propose topic routing in the closeout. Do
NOT write to any topic page. Do NOT mint EV-### rows. Do
NOT touch evidence-index.md, glossary.md, or
timeline.md.
Triage is routing and admission, not extraction. If the user
asks to "triage and grab obvious facts as you go," abort
with a partial closeout and recommend re-invocation under
either topic-page or evidence-only mode. Triage MAY update
source-coverage.md and candidate-sources.md. That is the
full write surface for triage.
evidence-only mode
For each admitted source, mint EV-### rows + source-map.md
rows + glossary.md entries for terms encountered. Do not
touch any topic page. Do not write prose synthesis.
Every minted EV-### row MUST include the literal tag
evidence-only in its tags column. The tag is additive;
it does not replace topical tags.
Apply life-stage reconciliation discipline.(All modes;
behavior depends on life-stage.)
Bootstrap (< 5 topic pages): skip except for the
contradiction exception in §5. Append a SESSION_LOG.md line
with status=skipped-bootstrap.
Maintenance (>= 5 topic pages): for each EV row minted
in §7:
Reinforces an existing claim → promote per the
laddering rules in KB-RULES.md §Confidence bands
(speculative → low → medium → high); cross-link the new
row to the prior one.
Contradicts an existing claim → add a row to
contradictions.md; demote the older claim per the
demotion policy in KB-RULES.md §Demotion policy; open an
outstanding-questions.md entry naming both sides and what
evidence would resolve.
Set the topic page's Confidence floor.(Topic-page mode
only.) Inspect every EV-### cited on the page; the page's
Status-block Confidence is the lowest of those cited
bands. Refuse to set Confidence above the floor. Refuse to
set above speculative while any TBD-cite remains.
Update the topic page's Status block.(Topic-page mode
only.) Substitute Subject:, Last verified:, Author:
(agent-ingested if untouched by a human in this pass;
mixed if a human revised prose; neverhand-authored), and Confidence: per §9.
Update the source-coverage ledger.(All modes.) For
every source touched, advance its row in
.context/kb/source-coverage.md per the state machine.
Update EV coverage, Residue, Next action, Updated
columns honestly. Lying to the ledger is a hard
anti-pattern.
Topic-page circuit breaker check.(Topic-page mode
only.) Verify all four invariants from §Topic-page circuit
breaker. Any failure → topic-page: deferred and ledger to
topic-page-drafted (NOT comprehensive).
Write the closeout.(All modes; mode-aware body.)
Create
.context/ingest/closeouts/<TIMESTAMP>-ingest-closeout.md
with required frontmatter:
Body sections (mode-aware): Inputs, Pass-mode (block
repeated from §2 declaration so reviewers can compare promise
vs. result), Topic(s) touched, What changed
(including the Cold-reader rubric in topic-page mode),
New questions, New contradictions, Confidence
drift, Source-coverage updates, Overflow,
Adjacency pre-flight, Next pass hint.
Record in closeout's Next pass hint AND the topic page's "Open questions"; advance the ledger row to skipped with the failure reason. Do not invent claims.
All sources skipped during admission
Write a short closeout with empty Topic(s) touched and What changed; Next pass hint lists every skipped source with scope-citation.
Material spans 3+ topics and user can't decide
Ask once in §3; if still unresolved, abort with a partial closeout recommending re-invocation under triage.
Discovery turns up zero additional sources
Note in closeout's Inputs section. Not a failure.
Stale Status block on existing page
Flag in closeout's Next pass hint; do not silently overwrite the verification cursor unless the source was actually re-verified.
Multiple sessions filling the same page
Read existing prose first; do not overwrite human edits; append/extend rather than replace.
Page scaffolded long ago with older template
Fill what's there; do not reformat to match a newer template. Open a task if drift is significant.
ctx kb topic new fails or refuses (slug exists, kb missing)
Resolve the underlying condition and retry; do not hand-write a scaffold.
ctx kb site build fails during §12
Report topic-page: deferred; name the build failure in Next pass hint; ledger to topic-page-drafted (NOT comprehensive).
Cold-reader rubric returns Result: fail
Report topic-page: deferred AND validation: deferred (cold-reader orientation failed); name failed items in Next pass hint; ledger to topic-page-drafted.
Adjacency pre-flight surfaces zero matches
Record "no incomplete adjacent topics surfaced" explicitly in closeout's Adjacency pre-flight; response contract reads none surfaced. Silence is not allowed.
Mid-pass mode-switching tempted
Forbidden. Abort, write a partial closeout citing the mismatch, recommend re-invocation under the correct mode. Never silent-switch.
evidence-only pass discovers a contradiction
Still mint the contradiction row (truth surface always wins); flag in Next pass hint that a topic-page pass is needed to resolve.
Inferring evidence-only from source size / time pressure
Hard anti-pattern. Refuse to set evidence-only without explicit user trigger.
Hard Anti-Patterns
Treating closeout existence as topic-page validation.
Skipping the topic-page circuit breaker in topic-page mode.
Inferring evidence-only from source size, complexity,
ambiguity, time pressure, or operator convenience.
Mid-pass mode-switching (abort and re-invoke instead).
Hiding incomplete coverage under a comprehensive-looking
closeout (lying to the ledger).
Skipping the topic-adjacency pre-flight, or running it but
failing to acknowledge surfaced incomplete adjacent topics.
Claiming topic-page: produced when the cold-reader
orientation result is missing.
Asking the human mid-pass beyond the §3 naming gate, unless
continuing would change durable kb topology, evidence
confidence, source admission, or scope.
Inventing claims beyond what the source backs.
Inventing EV-### citations to make a page look complete.
Promoting claims above speculative without an
evidence-index.md row.
Promoting a topic page above its weakest cited band.
Setting Confidence above speculative while any
TBD-cite remains.
Setting Author: hand-authored on agent-ingested prose.
Re-extracting from a source that already has EV-### rows
instead of reusing the IDs.
Citing an evidence-only-tagged row in a topic page without
re-reading the source first.
Renumbering or deleting EV-### rows when reconciling.
Skipping the closeout once the pass clears pre-write gates.
Bypassing ctx kb topic new when scaffolding a page.
Running maintenance discipline against a bootstrap-stage kb.
Hand-editing INBOX.md.
Output Contract
For pre-write refusals, return only the specified refusal text
and stop. No closeout, no residue.
For passes that clear pre-write gates, emit the up-front
declaration first (between §1 and §3):
Pass-mode:<mode>Reason:<one sentence; required when non-default>Definition of done:<mode-specific criterion>
Then proceed. At completion, end with this structured summary:
Pass-mode: as declared, with reason if non-default.
Topic-page: produced [<slug>], extended [<slug>],
deferred (<reason>), or not-applicable (triage /
evidence-only).
Validation: passed, not-attempted, or
deferred (<reason>).
Coverage: current state(s) from source-coverage.md for
sources touched.
Life-stage: bootstrap or maintenance, with the
topic-page count it was based on.
Closeout: filename on its own line.
Adjacent topics noted(topic-page mode only; mandatory):
either none surfaced or a slug-list with states. Free prose
fails validation; the doctor advisory parses this field.
Next-recommended-action: explicit invocation that would
resume incomplete work. Adjacent topics surfaced by the
pre-flight MUST appear here too (deliberate redundancy).
Review-required: true for evidence-only passes;
otherwise omit.
The structured summary, the closeout's body, and the
source-coverage ledger MUST agree. Discrepancies between the
three are a hard anti-pattern; the doctor advisory detects them
and surfaces a non-fatal warning on next ctx doctor run.
Quality Checklist
Before reporting completion, verify:
Pre-write gates passed (or the matching refusal was
returned with zero residue).
Pass-mode declaration was emitted in the response stream
before any extraction.
Source-coverage ledger advanced honestly for every source
touched.
Topic-adjacency pre-flight ran in topic-page mode and its
result is in the closeout AND the page AND the response
contract.
Cold-reader rubric is recorded in topic-page mode.
Circuit-breaker check ran in topic-page mode; failure
→ topic-page: deferred, NOT produced.
Closeout written with all required frontmatter fields
(sha, branch, mode, pass-mode, life-stage,
generated-at).
Structured response summary matches the closeout body and
the ledger.
