skills-vault-knowledge

General-purpose Obsidian vault skill — use this whenever the user wants to do anything with their vault or personal notes. Covers reading notes by name, searching vault content, creating new notes, appending to existing ones, checking backlinks, and working with daily notes. Trigger immediately on phrases like: "look up my note on X", "add this to my vault", "what does my note say about Y", "find notes about Z", "log this to my vault", "update my daily note", "create a note for...", "what links to X", "search my vault for...", "show me what I know about...", "check my notes on...", or any time the user mentions Obsidian, their vault, or personal notes. If the user is asking about something they might have written down, reach for this skill first.

Use when asked to audit backlinks or repair the knowledge graph structure, or when /backlinks is invoked. Do NOT use for finding conceptual bridges between ideas — use /connect for that.

Map the branching question space from a topic — sub-questions, adjacent domains, meta-framings. Use when /bloom is invoked or Shane asks "what questions does X open up", "bloom on X". Do NOT use to trace how thinking evolved — that's /trace.

Use when Shane wants to pressure-test a belief, steelman an opposing view, or invoke /challenge. Do NOT use for confirming or validating a position.

Use when asked how knowledge has accumulated or compounded around a topic, or when /compound is invoked. Do NOT use for tracing evolution of thinking over time — use /trace for that.

Surface non-obvious cross-references between vault notes — connecting two concepts that aren't already explicitly linked. Use when /connect is invoked, when the user says "what does X have to do with Y", "is there a thread between these notes", "what connects these ideas", or when reviewing two superficially unrelated topics for shared structure. Do NOT use for direct backlinks (use /backlinks) or for surfacing patterns within a single topic (use /emerge).

Use when asked to find contradictions or inconsistencies in thinking, or when /contradict is invoked. Do NOT use for pressure-testing a single belief — use /challenge for that.

Analyze gaps between stated priorities (OKRs, focus statements) and actual session behavior to surface drift. Use when /drift is invoked, when the user says "am I doing what I said I would", "where am I off-track", "do my actions match my goals", "am I avoiding something", or during weekly retrospectives. Reads accountability.md, patterns.md, and recent daily notes. Do NOT use for surfacing patterns within a topic — use /emerge for that.

Use when asked to surface hidden patterns or implicit ideas in the vault, or when /emerge is invoked. Do NOT use to find connections between two specific concepts — use /connect for that.

Use when asked to expand a stub or sparse note in the Obsidian vault through a targeted interview process. Reads the note, identifies gaps, asks batched questions, then rewrites the note in place with a structured expanded version. Invoke with /expand [note name or path].

Use when a markdown file has nested code fences that break rendering — when a ```markdown, ```bash, or similar block appears inside another ``` block anywhere in a generated or edited markdown file.

Use when you want to answer a question in Shane's voice, when asked to ghost-write as Shane, or when the /ghost command is invoked. Do NOT use for writing in Shane's voice when he is the author — this produces content as Shane, for external use.

Turn a vault insight or pattern into polished written content — blog draft, LinkedIn post, newsletter section. Use when /learned is invoked, when the user says "write this up", "turn this into a post", "I want to publish about X", or when a /weekly-learnings session surfaces a publishable thread. Do NOT use for raw note-taking (use /log) or for ghost-writing in someone else's voice (use /ghost).

Assess current proficiency in a domain and recommend specific growth actions. Use when /level-up is invoked, when the user says "where am I weak in X", "what should I learn next", "level me up on Y", "give me a study plan for Z", or when reviewing a skill area before committing to a learning sprint. Reads vault notes for evidence of current level. Do NOT use for general curriculum advice — this is grounded in the user's existing vault.

Use when asked to audit or map the structure of the knowledge graph, or when /map is invoked. Do NOT use for auditing backlinks on specific notes — use /backlinks for that.

Turn a raw meeting / call / 1:1 transcript or notes into a structured Meetings note with key points and action items. Use when /meeting is invoked, when the user says "process this meeting", "clean up these notes", "extract action items from this", or pastes a raw conversation and asks for a summary. Reads from Obsidian Inbox by default; can take inline content. Do NOT use for general note-taking — use the obsidian skill or /log for that.

Build an outside-observer portrait of Shane from vault evidence — what someone reading only the public artifacts would conclude about who he is, what he cares about, what he's avoiding. Use when /stranger is invoked, when the user says "what would someone think of me from this", "how do I come across", "audit my public self", "stranger view", or before refining a personal-brand bio. Do NOT use for self-described identity work — this is deliberately external.

Map the chronological evolution of an idea across vault notes. Use when /trace is invoked or when Shane asks "how has my thinking on X changed", "when did I first write about X", "trace the evolution of X". Do NOT use to find connections between two separate ideas — that's /connect.

Rebuild the vault-index note from current vault state. Use when /vault-index is invoked, when the morning skill flags "vault-index not found" or a stale delta, when the user asks "what's in my vault" / "give me a vault overview" / "how's my vault organized", or after a large batch of new Concepts has landed. Do NOT use for searching specific notes — use the obsidian skill instead.

Use when /vault-lint is invoked or when Shane wants a weekly vault health check. Scans Concepts/ and the broader vault for contradictions, orphan pages, missing Concept pages, and stale claims.

Use when asked to prepare a weekly reflection or summary of learnings, or when /weekly-learnings is invoked. Do NOT use for accountability or pattern analysis — use /weekly-signals for that.

Use when /weekly-signals is invoked or during weekly review. Reads patterns.md and the week's daily notes, surfaces deferral patterns and flagged items, and outputs a paste-ready Accountability Signals block for the Weekly Review.