| name | tutorial |
| description | Interactive walkthrough of the knowledge system. Learn by doing — creates sample notes, processes them, explores connections. |
| tags | ["onboarding","learning","tutorial"] |
Skill: tutorial
Delegates to: @ars-contexta:knowledge-guide
Trigger
Invoke this skill when the user wants a hands-on introduction to the vault workflow, is new to Ars Contexta, or wants to walk through the core loop with a concrete example.
Behavior
Resume Check
Before starting, check for ops/tutorial-state.yaml. If it exists and records an incomplete step, offer to resume: "You previously completed step {N}. Resume from step {N+1}, or start over?"
Step 1 — Create a Sample Note
Explain the anatomy of an Ars Contexta note. Then create a real sample note in notes/ (use a topic relevant to the user's domain from ops/derivation-manifest.md if available, otherwise use a neutral example).
Demonstrate:
- Prose-as-title: the title is a complete, meaningful sentence, not a label
- Description field: one sentence saying what this note establishes
- Frontmatter:
created, tags, topics, status: seed
- Body: the atomic claim or idea in 2–4 sentences with supporting context
Pause and invite the user to read the note. Explain each element and why it exists.
Step 2 — Process the Note (Reduce)
Walk through the reduce workflow on the sample note:
- Show how to extract atomic claims from a longer source
- Demonstrate splitting: one claim per note
- Show how to write a
description that captures the claim precisely
- Create one additional note derived from the sample to show the split in action
Explain the cognitive purpose: "Reduce forces articulation. You cannot extract what you haven't understood."
Step 3 — Discover Connections (Reflect)
Walk through the reflect workflow on the two notes now in the vault:
- Search for related notes by concept (demonstrate using the vault's semantic or link-based search)
- Add a
[[wiki-link]] between the two notes where a genuine conceptual relationship exists
- Show how to update the relevant MOC to include both notes
Explain the network purpose: "Each link is a retrievable path. The value of a note grows with every connection it has."
Step 4 — Check System Health
Run the health check on the vault:
- Show the health report output
- Explain what each diagnostic means
- Point out that the sample notes pass the kernel primitive checks
Completion
Update ops/tutorial-state.yaml to record all steps complete with a timestamp.
Suggest the natural next step based on vault state: "You're ready to start capturing real notes. Try the reduce workflow on something you're reading or thinking about today."
State File Format
ops/tutorial-state.yaml:
version: 1
started: {ISO datetime}
completed: {ISO datetime or null}
steps:
create-note: {done|pending}
reduce: {done|pending}
reflect: {done|pending}
health: {done|pending}