| name | DgNotes |
| description | Knowledge note management for Alternef Digital Garden. USE WHEN note creation, domain classification, frontmatter, wikilinks, index management, note quality review. |
Customization
Before executing, check for user customizations at:
~/.claude/PAI/USER/SKILLCUSTOMIZATIONS/DgNotes/
If this directory exists, load and apply any PREFERENCES.md, configurations, or resources found there. These override default behavior. If the directory does not exist, proceed with skill defaults.
🚨 MANDATORY: Voice Notification (REQUIRED BEFORE ANY ACTION)
You MUST send this notification BEFORE doing anything else when this skill is invoked.
-
Send voice notification:
curl -s -X POST http://localhost:8888/notify \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"message": "Loading DgNotes skill for knowledge note management"}' \
> /dev/null 2>&1 &
-
Output text notification:
Loading **DgNotes** skill for knowledge note management...
This is not optional. Execute this curl command immediately upon skill invocation.
Digital Garden Knowledge Notes
Persistent knowledge layer for the Alternef Digital Garden's 7-domain taxonomy. Provides classification heuristics, frontmatter conventions, content structure patterns, and linking rules.
Workflow Routing
| Trigger | Command |
|---|
| Create new knowledge note | /dg:create |
| Organize or restructure notes | /dg:organize |
| Improve note quality | /dg:improve |
| Quick frontmatter-only fix | /dg:improve --quick |
| Add or audit links between notes | /dg:improve --focus links |
| Find and fix broken wikilinks | Workflows/FindBrokenLinks.md |
| Iterative multi-round garden health | /dg:health-loop |
| Explore domain stats and gaps | /dg:explore |
| Explore unresolved links list | /dg:explore unresolved |
| Explore orphaned notes | /dg:explore orphans |
| Validate frontmatter + link health | /dg:explore validate --domain X |
| Publish draft to correct domain | /dg:publish |
| Validate frontmatter and links | Add --validate flag to any command |
| Verify note dates against git history | --verify-dates flag or "verify dates" trigger → Workflows/VerifyDates.md |
Context files: DomainTaxonomy.md · ContentQualityRubric.md · KnowledgeNoteTemplate.md · DomainIndexTemplate.md · CategoryIndexTemplate.md
Garden MCP Tools — MANDATORY FIRST
BLOCKING RULE: For any read or query operation on garden content, a garden MCP tool MUST be called before any Glob/Grep/Bash read. Exception: use Read directly only for immediate post-write verification (within ~2s of writing a file).
| Operation | Primary Tool | Fallback (only if MCP unavailable or stale) |
|---|
| Find notes by topic/keyword | mcp__garden__garden_search | Grep |
| Note body + all links + backlinks + tag siblings | mcp__garden__garden_context | Read + Grep |
| Notes that link TO a given note | mcp__garden__garden_backlinks | Grep for [[filename]] |
| Outgoing wikilinks from a note | mcp__garden__garden_links | Read note |
| Domain tree with note counts | mcp__garden__garden_files | Glob |
| Garden health and stats | mcp__garden__garden_status | Manual counting |
| Broken links list (actionable) | mcp__garden__garden_unresolved_links | Python script (see FindBrokenLinks.md) |
| Notes with zero backlinks | mcp__garden__garden_orphans | Grep + backlinks per-note |
| Frontmatter + link validation | mcp__garden__garden_validate | ValidateNotes.sh |
| Alias coverage audit | mcp__garden__garden_alias_map | Grep for aliases: in frontmatter |
Write → Index → MCP protocol:
The garden index lags writes by ~1s per file. After writing content:
- Single file: use
Read for immediate verification, then switch to MCP after 2s.
- Bulk operations (10+ files): call
mcp__garden__garden_status and compare last_indexed against your last write timestamp. If the index is still processing, wait and re-call. Do NOT use MCP search/backlinks until the index is confirmed fresh.
- After any
/dg:validate --fix run: always call mcp__garden__garden_status to verify the index rebuilt before the next MCP query.
- Index not recovering? If
last_indexed stays stale after waiting, run /dg:index sync to force a full rebuild.
Domain Taxonomy
| Domain | Directory | Color | Core Topics |
|---|
| Land & Nature | land-and-nature-stewardship/ | #2ecc71 | Ecology, permaculture, regenerative agriculture, biodiversity |
| Built Environment | built-environment/ | #3498db | Architecture, urban planning, infrastructure, geodesic domes |
| Tools & Technology | tools-and-technology/ | #9b59b6 | Software, hardware, programming, AI, blockchain, web dev |
| Culture & Education | culture-and-education/ | #f39c12 | Learning, philosophy, liberal arts, metacognition, ikigai |
| Health & Wellbeing | health-and-wellbeing/ | #e74c3c | Physical/mental health, nutrition, fitness, qi gong |
| Finance & Economics | finance-and-economics/ | #1abc9c | Economics, crypto, REA accounting, sustainable economy |
| Governance & Community | governance-and-community/ | #34495e | Governance models, digital fabrics, sociocracy, OVNs |
See DomainTaxonomy.md for the complete taxonomy with all subdirectories and tag lists.
Classification Heuristics
When a note could fit multiple domains, use these decision rules:
- Primary function test: What is the note primarily about? A note on "blockchain governance" goes in governance-and-community if it focuses on decision-making, or tools-and-technology if it focuses on the protocol.
- Audience test: Who would look for this? Developers → tools-and-technology. Community organizers → governance-and-community.
- Cross-domain linking: When a note bridges domains, place it in its primary domain and use wikilinks to connect to the related domain's index.
- Subdirectory depth: tools-and-technology has deep nesting (up to 5+ levels). Other domains are mostly flat (1-2 levels). Match existing depth patterns.
Frontmatter Conventions
Knowledge Note (standard)
---
title: "Note Title"
description: "One-sentence description of the topic"
aliases:
- "Alternative Name"
- "Abbreviation"
tags:
- domain-tag
- specific-tag1
- specific-tag2
date: YYYY-MM-DD
updated: YYYY-MM-DD
draft: false
---
Required fields
title: Descriptive, title casetags: Array, lowercase kebab-case. Include at least one domain-level tagdate: ISO date (YYYY-MM-DD) — publication/creation date
Optional fields
description: One-sentence summary (used in search results and meta)aliases: Alternative names for wikilink resolutionupdated: ISO date, last modification date — add or update when editing an existing notedraft: Set true to exclude from build
Date management rules
date is the creation date — set once when creating the note, never change it afterward.updated is the modification date — add or update it every time you meaningfully change an existing note's content.- When creating a new note: set
date only. Do not include updated.
- When modifying an existing note: add
updated: YYYY-MM-DD (today's date) or update it if already present.
- If a note has no
updated field and you are modifying it, always add one.
Date field aliases (Quartz internals)
Quartz's frontmatter transformer (quartz/plugins/transformers/frontmatter.ts) accepts multiple aliases for dates:
- created:
date, created
- modified:
updated, modified, lastmod, last-modified
- published:
date, published, publishDate
Prefer date and updated for consistency with the project CLAUDE.md conventions.
Tag rules
⚠️ MANDATORY: Load DgTags before touching any tag field.
Tag rules, vocabulary, and format standards live in the DgTags Skill (TagVocabulary.md). If you modify, add, or suggest tags without loading DgTags first, you risk introducing near-duplicates, singletons, or wrong-format tags. This is non-negotiable.
Load DgTags when working with tags. After drafting a note, run the SuggestTags workflow from DgTags to get validated tag suggestions.
Summary: lowercase kebab-case, domain tag first, 3-7 tags, YAML array format tags: ["tag1", "tag2"].
Content Structure
No H1 title in body
Rule: Never start a note with # Title. The title frontmatter field is the canonical title — Quartz renders it as the page H1. Adding # Title in the body duplicates the heading.
Standard note body
Brief description of the topic (1-2 paragraphs).
## Key Concepts
Core ideas explained clearly.
## [Topic-specific sections]
Deeper exploration organized logically.
## Related Topics
- [[related-note-1|Display Name]]
- [[related-note-2|Display Name]]
## References
- [External Source](https://example.com)
Index pages
Index files (_index.md or index.md) serve as landing pages for directories. They use a distinct pattern — see templates.
Wikilink Rules
- Always use pipe syntax:
[[file-name|Display Name]] not [[file-name]]
- Case sensitive: Target must match actual filename exactly
- Index files ALWAYS require full absolute paths starting from
knowledge/ — this is the most common mistake:
- WRONG:
[[health-and-wellbeing/index|Health and Wellbeing]]
- WRONG:
[[yoga/index|Yoga Traditions]]
- CORRECT:
[[knowledge/health-and-wellbeing/index|Health and Wellbeing]]
- CORRECT:
[[knowledge/health-and-wellbeing/yoga/index|Yoga Traditions]]
- Never use relative paths (
../) for index links — they break in Quartz
- Section links:
[[file-name#Section Heading|Topic Section]]
- Embeds:
![[image.png]] or ![[image.png | 100x145]]
Index Page Management
Every directory with 2+ notes should have an index.md with:
- Title and description in frontmatter
- Overview paragraph
- "Key Focus Areas" sections linking to child notes
- Guiding Principles section
- Links use absolute paths from content root
When adding a note to a directory, check if the parent index needs updating.
Quality Rubric
See ContentQualityRubric.md for the scoring system used to evaluate note quality across structure, clarity, completeness, and connections.
Validation Utility
Tools/ValidateNotes.sh — Shell script for batch validation of notes in a domain directory. Used internally by the --validate flag across /dg:create, /dg:improve, /dg:organize, and /dg:build.
Tools/CheckDates.sh — Detects date anomalies by comparing frontmatter dates against git history: year mismatches, future dates, inverted dates, and wrong field names (created/modified instead of date/updated). Results cached in STATE/. See Workflows/VerifyDates.md for the full workflow.
Run directly for quick batch checks:
bash .claude/skills/DgNotes/Tools/ValidateNotes.sh content/knowledge/tools-and-technology/
Checks: frontmatter completeness (title, tags, date), kebab-case filenames, no emdash characters.
Examples
Example 1: Create a knowledge note
User: "Write a knowledge note about permaculture"
→ Loads DgNotes skill
→ Classifies in land-and-nature-stewardship/ domain via DomainTaxonomy.md
→ Creates note with correct frontmatter (title, tags, date)
→ Adds index link using full absolute path: [[knowledge/land-and-nature-stewardship/index|...]]
→ Updates parent index.md to include the new note
Example 2: Fix wikilinks in a note
User: "Check if all index links in yoga-des-pharaons.md are correct"
→ Loads DgNotes skill
→ Reads Wikilink Rules: index files require full absolute paths from knowledge/
→ Finds any [[health-and-wellbeing/index]] → corrects to [[knowledge/health-and-wellbeing/index]]
→ Verifies all links follow [[knowledge/domain/.../index|Name]] pattern
Example 3: Classify note in the right domain
User: "Where should a note about shadow work go?"
→ Loads DgNotes skill
→ Applies Classification Heuristics: primary function = mental/emotional health
→ Routes to health-and-wellbeing/ domain
→ Suggests tags from domain tag list
