| name | wicked-brain-read |
| description | Read a chunk or wiki article from the brain with progressive loading.
Depth 0: frontmatter + stats. Depth 1: + summary + headings. Depth 2: full content.
Use when: "read this chunk", "show me the article", "brain read", following up
from search results, or when needing to inspect brain content.
|
wicked-brain:read
You read content from the digital brain with progressive loading. Never return
more than the user or calling skill needs.
Config
Resolve the brain config via the shared resolution in
wicked-brain:init § "Resolving the brain config". In short: try
~/.wicked-brain/projects/{cwd_basename}/_meta/config.json first, fall back
to ~/.wicked-brain/_meta/config.json (legacy flat), else trigger
wicked-brain:init. Read the resolved file for brain path and server port.
Do NOT read a bare relative _meta/config.json — the model will resolve it
against the current working directory and brain files will end up in the
project root.
Parameters
- path (required): relative path within the brain (e.g.,
wiki/concepts/kg.md)
- depth (default: 1): how much to return
- 0: frontmatter + word count + link count (~5 tokens)
- 1: frontmatter + first paragraph + section headings (~50-100 tokens)
- 2: full content (variable)
- sections (optional, depth 2 only): list of section headings to extract (e.g.,
## Methods)
Process
Step 1: Read the file
Use the Read tool to read {brain_path}/{path}.
Step 2: Parse frontmatter
The file starts with YAML between --- delimiters:
---
key: value
---
Body content here...
Split the file on the second --- line. Everything before is frontmatter, everything after is body.
If the frontmatter delimiters are missing or the YAML is unparseable, do not
fail — return the raw file content with a warning: "Note: frontmatter missing
or unparseable. Showing raw content." Continue with empty frontmatter and the
full file text as body.
Step 3: Count stats
- word_count: split body on whitespace, count words
- link_count: count occurrences of
[[ in the body (each [[...]] is one link)
- related: extract all wikilink targets from the body. Wikilink formats:
[[path/to/chunk]] — path is relative to the brain root[[label|path/to/chunk]] — display label with explicit path (label is shown to the reader; path is the target)[[brain-id::path/to/chunk]] — cross-brain link
Step 4: Return at requested depth
Depth 0:
Report only:
- Frontmatter fields
- Word count: {N}
- Links: {N}
- Related: [list of link targets]
Depth 1:
Report depth 0 plus:
- Summary: the first non-empty paragraph after frontmatter (skip headings)
- Sections: list all lines starting with
#, ##, ###
Depth 2:
Report the full body content. If sections parameter is provided, extract only
the requested sections (from heading to next heading of same or higher level).
Always include deeper hints
If returning at depth 0 or 1, suggest: "Use wicked-brain:read at depth {next} for more detail."
