A sentence or two: "journal: Had a breakthrough on the caching layer today"
A mood expression: "feeling overwhelmed — too many threads open"
A gratitude note: "grateful for Sarah's help debugging that race condition"
A reflection: "reflect: I notice I default to building instead of asking for help"

Workflow

Step 1: Parse the Entry

Extract the journal content from the user's message.

Strip the trigger prefix ("journal:", "reflect:", etc.)
Preserve the user's exact words — do not rewrite, summarize, or polish
If the entry is just a trigger phrase with no content (e.g., "journal:"), ask: "What's on your mind?"

Step 2: Detect Mood

Analyze the entry for mood signals. Assign one primary mood:

Mood	Signals
Energized	excitement, momentum, breakthrough, shipped, crushed it
Focused	deep work, flow state, locked in, making progress
Neutral	status updates, factual observations, no strong emotion
Overwhelmed	too much, scattered, can't focus, drowning, behind
Tired	drained, exhausted, low energy, long day, need a break
Frustrated	stuck, blocked, annoyed, broken, doesn't work, ugh
Grateful	thankful, grateful, appreciate, lucky, helped by

If mood is ambiguous, default to Neutral
Do not ask the user to confirm the mood — just detect it quietly

Step 3: Detect Tags

Assign 1-3 tags based on content:

Tag	Signals
Work	code, meeting, ticket, PR, deploy, team, project
Personal	family, health, hobby, weekend, home, friends
Reflection	I notice, pattern, thinking about, wondering, realized
Gratitude	grateful, thankful, appreciate, helped by
Learning	learned, TIL, figured out, discovery, insight

Step 4: Check for Today's Daily Page

Search {{notes}} for today's daily page.

If it exists, the journal entry will be linked to it
If it doesn't exist, create the entry standalone (don't create a daily page just for a journal entry)

Step 5: Create the Journal Entry

Write the entry to {{notes}} with this structure:

Date: [today's date]
Mood: [detected mood]
Tags: [detected tags]

[User's journal entry, exactly as written]

If today's daily page exists, also add a brief reference to the journal entry in the daily page under a "Journal" section
Keep the reference minimal: just the mood and first line of the entry

Step 6: Confirm

Respond with a single line confirming the save:

Logged — [Mood] [Tags]. [brief acknowledgment]

Examples of confirmations:

"Logged — Energized, Work. Nice breakthrough."
"Logged — Overwhelmed, Work. That's a lot of threads."
"Logged — Grateful, Personal. Noted."

Do NOT:

Offer advice or coaching
Ask follow-up questions (unless entry was empty)
Restate the journal entry back to the user
Add motivational commentary

The confirmation should feel like a nod, not a conversation.

Notes

Journal entries are private by default. Never post them to {{chat}} or any shared space
If the user writes multiple sentences, keep them as one entry — don't split into separate entries
Mood detection is a convenience, not a judgment. Keep it neutral in tone
If the {{notes}} integration is not configured, fall back to writing a local markdown file at ~/.ai-workflow/journal/[date].md

Examples

User: "journal: Had a breakthrough on the caching layer. The problem was stale invalidation keys — once I switched to content-based hashing, everything clicked." Mood: Energized Tags: Work, Learning Response: "Logged — Energized, Work + Learning. Good solve."

User: "feeling overwhelmed — three PRs in review, two meetings back to back, and a production alert I haven't triaged yet" Mood: Overwhelmed Tags: Work Response: "Logged — Overwhelmed, Work. Full plate today."

User: "grateful for Jordan pairing with me on that flaky test. Would've taken me hours solo." Mood: Grateful Tags: Gratitude, Work Response: "Logged — Grateful, Work. Noted."

User: "reflect: I keep volunteering for tasks outside my sprint scope. Need to get better at saying 'not this sprint' without guilt." Mood: Neutral Tags: Reflection, Work Response: "Logged — Reflection, Work."