econ-reading-writing-kb

name

econ-reading-writing-kb

description

Maintain a Karpathy-style LLM Wiki for economics and management reading, academic writing, research taste, and top-journal research training. Use when Codex is asked to ingest readings or papers, organize the user's economics knowledge base, update project docs after a study session, assess learning progress, build reading/writing templates, develop research questions, or help the user prepare to discuss economics or management research with scholars.

Economics Reading and Writing KB

Core Stance

Treat the user's economics learning folder as a compounding research system, not a pile of notes. Follow the Karpathy LLM Wiki pattern: raw sources stay immutable, the LLM maintains a linked markdown wiki, and a project schema tells future AI sessions how to continue.

Default project root: the current workspace or the nearest folder containing AGENTS.md. If the user names another root, use that root instead.

First Moves

1. Read the project root AGENTS.md, README.md, PROJECT_LOG.md, 02_wiki/index.md, 02_wiki/log.md, and 01_sources/registry.md if they exist.
2. Inspect current files with rg --files and avoid assuming the folder is unchanged.
3. Identify the current task type: ingest, query, writing, assessment, research design, wiki lint, or project maintenance.
4. Keep every substantive answer source-grounded. Mark unsupported claims as needs_source instead of making them sound settled.

For full local conventions, read references/wiki-operations.md when creating or restructuring wiki pages, templates, assessments, or project docs.

If the project has no structure yet, initialize from assets/templates/project-skeleton/ or create the same structure manually.

Workflows

Ingest a Source

Use this when the user adds a PDF, book chapter, paper, web article, syllabus, dataset note, lecture note, or conversation transcript.

1. Register the source in 01_sources/registry.md with path or URL, date added, type, status, and planned outputs.
2. Extract only the amount needed for the current session. For PDFs, inspect metadata and sample text before judging OCR quality.
3. Create or update one source note under 02_wiki/source-notes/.
4. Update relevant concept, field, method, people, or literature pages.
5. Update 02_wiki/index.md, append to 02_wiki/log.md, and add a compact entry to PROJECT_LOG.md.
6. If the source changes the user's learning plan, update README.md or the roadmap.

Prefer one-source-at-a-time ingestion for books and difficult papers unless the user requests a batch pass.

Answer a Question

1. Read 02_wiki/index.md first, then relevant pages.
2. Search raw sources only when wiki pages are missing, disputed, stale, or too shallow.
3. Answer with citations to wiki/source locations when possible.
4. If the answer is reusable, offer or directly file it as a new wiki page when that matches the user's intent.

Guide Reading

Train the user to extract the paper's question, contribution, model or identification logic, evidence, limitations, and next questions. Convert each reading session into durable notes: a paper card, claim ledger, question log, and links to concepts or methods.

Guide Writing

Use McCloskey-style clarity, economics-first argument, and top-journal discipline. Push for a clear question, explicit contribution, precise mechanism, credible evidence, and restrained claims before polishing prose.

Assess Progress

Use the local rubric to evaluate reading ability, question quality, theory-to-evidence reasoning, writing clarity, literature mapping, research design, scholar dialogue readiness, and reproducibility habits. Base assessment on artifacts, not vibes.

Lint the Wiki

Periodically check for orphan pages, stale claims, unsupported claims, missing backlinks, duplicate concepts, source notes without registry entries, registry entries without notes, and high-value questions lacking next actions.

Guardrails

• Never delete or overwrite raw sources without explicit user permission.
• Do not move files if doing so would break a path already referenced in the registry, unless you update every reference.
• Do not fabricate bibliographic metadata, page numbers, journal ranks, or quotations.
• Do not quote long copyrighted passages. Summarize and cite instead.
• Keep markdown readable in Obsidian: use YAML frontmatter, stable filenames, [[wikilinks]], and source IDs.
• After nontrivial work, leave the project handoff-ready.

Useful Local Resources

• references/wiki-operations.md: detailed wiki architecture, page schema, and maintenance contract.
• assets/templates/project-skeleton/: starter files for a new economics reading and writing knowledge base.