bind

name	bind
description	Use when the user asks for a weekly review, reflection, or deep pass — updates concept and entity pages with material inscribed since the last bind, creates hubs when warranted, runs the batched Shelves cross-check, and flags synthesis candidates for the user to draft with divine.

bind — Stage 2 deep pass

Rewritten from real run (2026-04-15): reconciliation pass over 5 pre-split sources. Promoted Hertzmann entity, batched Shelves cross-check (no new hits), rejected 4 candidates with rationale, flagged 1 synthesis candidate, archived log.

Bind is where the wiki's graph deepens. Inscribe only creates source pages and flags overlaps — it never touches concept or entity pages. Bind does ALL of that: reading concept pages, updating them with new material, creating hubs, promoting entities. Synthesis drafting is NOT part of bind — it lives in divine.

Reconciliation mode

If the last log entries are pre-split ingests (labeled "ingest" rather than "inscribe") that already updated concept pages, this bind is a reconciliation, not a fresh build. Focus on the "Candidates for Reflect" (or "Potential overlaps") list at the bottom of those entries rather than re-reading all sources and redoing concept work.

Steps

1. Scan the log

Read scrolls/log.md from the last bind entry forward. Identify:

• Every source inscribed since then (check for both "inscribe" and older "ingest" labels).
• Every Potential overlaps / Candidates for Reflect list — these are the pointers inscribe left.
• Any Shelves: neighborhood lines queued for the batched cross-check.

2. Read the new material

Read every source page created since the last bind. Read the concept/entity pages flagged in the overlap lists. This is where the reading happens that inscribe deliberately skips.

3. Propose scope to the user

Before doing work, propose a budget: "N sources to process, N concept pages to update, N entity promotions to consider, N rejections." Get alignment. This prevents runaway sessions.

In the real run, the proposal was: "1 entity promotion (Hertzmann, 2 sources — threshold met), 1 batched Shelves cross-check, 4 rejections (Casey Reas, Art Blocks, two concept hubs — thresholds not met)." User said "sure, whatever is needed."

4. Execute the work

Four categories, roughly in order of weight:

• Concept/entity page updates. Add sources to frontmatter, write new body sections, add See Also links. Add a description: field to frontmatter if missing (one sentence, ~120 chars, summarizing what the page is about — enables cheap filtering by consult). In the real run: added [[aaron-hertzmann]] to See Also on 3 concept pages (autonomous-ai-artists, technology-disruption-in-art, generative-art).
• Entity promotions. Multi-source threshold (2+ substantive sources citing the same figure). Include description: in frontmatter when creating new entity pages. In the real run: created scrolls/entities/aaron-hertzmann.md — two sources (Gotlieb Lecture + Le Random interview).
• Concept hub candidates. 4+ recent sources touching the same theme without a concept page. Create the page. Propose first for substantial new pages.
• Orphans and non-obvious connections. Pages linked from nothing; cross-refs that inscribe missed.

5. Batched Shelves cross-check

Walk the queued Shelves neighborhood flags and any newly created/updated pages.

Tier choice: Check file sizes first, then pick the smallest tier that answers the question:

• shelves/CONTEXT_OVERVIEW.md — confirm/deny a neighborhood call
• shelves/CONTEXT_COMPACT.md — workhorse tier
• shelves/CONTEXT.md — full synopses; grep once for the whole batch

In the real run: checked COMPACT size (475 lines), then grepped full CONTEXT.md for a batch of 10 entity/author names. Result: no new biographical hits beyond the topical cluster already cited on relevant pages. Conclusion recorded in the log entry.

For each hit: add or update ## In the library on the Scrolls page with relative-path links (../../shelves/wiki/books/<slug>.md). Match depth to hit count.

Scope: entity and concept pages by default. Skip source pages. Direction: Scrolls reads Shelves; never write to Shelves.

6. Record rejections

Explicitly log candidates considered and rejected, with one-line reasons. This prevents re-evaluating the same candidates next bind. In the real run: 4 rejections (Casey Reas — two thin mentions; Art Blocks — single source; two concept hubs — single source each).

7. Update scrolls/index.md

Add any new pages to the appropriate category sections.

Prepend new pages and substantial body updates to the Recently added & updated section at the top (newest first). Format: - YYYY-MM-DD · <kind> · [[page-slug]] — <one-line summary>. Use these kind tags:

• entity (promoted) — new entity page from a multi-source promotion
• concept (new hub) — new concept page
• concept (body update) — substantial new section added to existing concept page
• entity (body update) — substantial new section added to existing entity page

Keep the section capped at ~12 entries — drop the oldest as new ones come in. Be selective about body updates: only surface ones where a meaningful new section was added, not every frontmatter touch. Update the updated: date in frontmatter.

7a. Update Home.md — the vault landing page

Home.md is the Obsidian front door and should reflect the unified state after this bind. Refresh these sections:

• Last bind (under "What's new this cycle"): set to today's date + a one-sentence summary (counts + top promotions).
• Concepts and entities updated this cycle (under "What's new this cycle"): rewrite this list (5–8 items) as the concept/entity pages most-updated this cycle, with a short note on what changed.
• Cross-layer clusters: add/update entries for any scrolls page that now meets a dense shelves neighborhood — format [[scrolls-page]] ↔ <neighborhood description> (N titles). Remove entries that no longer apply.
• Open synthesis candidates: copy this bind's synthesis-candidates section (trimmed to the rationale's first sentence + related-pages line).
• Open work: refresh with outstanding re-clips, illuminate pending, catalog-triage items, etc. Carry forward anything still open; drop anything resolved.

Leave the Recently inscribed sources sub-section alone — that's inscribe's responsibility. Leave Last divine alone — that's divine's responsibility. Bump the updated: date in frontmatter. If Home.md doesn't exist, copy Home.example.md to Home.md and populate.

8. Append a bind entry to scrolls/log.md

Canonical header format:

## YYYY-MM-DD bind — <brief description>

Body sections:

• Promoted: what was created/updated
• Shelves cross-check: method, results, conclusion
• Rejected: candidates not acted on, with reasons
• Still open: items punted (e.g., re-clip needed)
• Synthesis candidates (sub-section): cross-cutting patterns noticed during the pass. Format:

### Synthesis candidates

- **<working title>** — <2-3 sentence rationale>. Related pages: [[concept-a]], [[entity-b]], [[source-c]].

Aim for under 40 lines total.

9. Archive old log entries

If scrolls/log.md exceeds ~200 lines after appending, move everything older than this bind entry to scrolls/log-archive.md (create if needed, append at top with frontmatter). The working log should only contain the most recent bind and any inscribes since.