| name | ask |
| description | Use when the user asks a question about the contents of their own vault, e.g. "what did I conclude about functionalism", "what do my notes say about lag time in MSMs", "which books did I rate above 8", "summarize what I know about Koopman operators". Answers strictly from their notes/readings, cited to the source files. Read-only, never writes. |
Ask (grounded Q&A over the vault)
Answer the user's questions about their own vault, what they've written, read, rated,
concluded. The answer must come from the vault and be cited to the notes/readings it came
from, so they can trust and trace it. This is retrieval, not teaching and not opinion.
Core rule: read-only. Writes nothing.
Read the vault profile (.vault-mind/profile.md) first if you haven't this session (paths +
frontmatter schema; run /vault-mind:init if missing). Below, "notes dir", "resources dirs",
"status/rating keys" refer to the profile's values.
Procedure
1. Find the relevant material
Search broadly before answering, names, tags, wikilinks, frontmatter fields.
rg -l -i 'term' <notes_dir> <resources_dirs>
rg -i 'term' "<notes_dir>/X.md"
rg -l '^<status_key>: <read_value>$' <resources_dirs>
rg -N '^(<rating_key>|<status_key>|tags|genres):' <resources_dirs>/**/*.md
For metadata questions (ratings, status, counts, "what have I read on X"), read
frontmatter across the relevant folder rather than guessing.
2. Answer from the vault, with citations
- Base the answer only on what's in the vault. Quote or paraphrase their notes; cite the
source as a wikilink or path (e.g. "per [[Some Note]]" or its file path).
- If several notes bear on it, synthesize across them and cite each.
- Distinguish clearly between what their notes say and any outside knowledge you add.
If they only want what's in the vault, keep outside knowledge out unless they ask.
- If the vault doesn't answer it, say so: don't pad with general knowledge as if it
were theirs. Offer to widen the search, or note it's a
/vault-mind:gaps candidate
(something they haven't written up) or a /vault-mind:recommend topic (something to read).
- Flag if their notes are thin, stale, or internally inconsistent on the question; that's
useful signal, and a cue they may want to revise (themselves).
3. Stay read-only
Never create or edit files. If answering reveals a gap or error, report it and point to the
right skill (/vault-mind:gaps, :connect, :lint, :feynman); they act on it.
