daystart

name	daystart
description	Bootstrap a new day in Lifewiki by creating today's daily note if needed, summarizing tasks and reading, and writing a short startup summary into the note. Use when the user asks to start the day or create today's note and tell them what to do.
user-invocable	true

Daystart

Bootstrap the current day in $LIFEWIKI_VAULT and write a short authored summary into today's daily note.

When to use

Use this skill when the user wants to:

• create today's daily note if it does not exist yet
• get a short startup summary for the day
• see what tasks are ready to do, what to read, and whether Kongfu should be practiced today

Vault contract

• Vault root: $LIFEWIKI_VAULT
• Daily note template: $LIFEWIKI_VAULT/5-Templates/Daily-Notes.md
• Daily note path: $LIFEWIKI_VAULT/-Daily-Notes/YYYY-MM-DD.md
• Read-it-later queue: $LIFEWIKI_VAULT/Read It Later.md
• Authored note section: ## Notes 📝
• Query-driven sections that must not be edited directly:
  • ## Today 🔆
  • ## Dashboard 🗺️
  • ## Logs 🪵

Non-goals

• do not depend on Obsidian runtime APIs or plugin-rendered output
• do not rewrite or re-group the query-driven sections in the daily note
• do not implement the full Obsidian Tasks query engine
• do not reorganize tasks or articles during bootstrap
• do not modify yesterday's note or any other historical note

Design principles

• work before today's note exists
• stay Markdown-first, like the other Lifewiki skills
• keep file reads and writes deterministic
• preserve the existing daily-note template structure
• keep the authored summary short and readable

Workflow

1. Resolve today's and yesterday's dates from the local clock.
2. Confirm $LIFEWIKI_VAULT is set and readable. If it is not, stop and report it.
3. Resolve today's note path at $LIFEWIKI_VAULT/-Daily-Notes/YYYY-MM-DD.md.
4. If today's note is missing:
   • read $LIFEWIKI_VAULT/5-Templates/Daily-Notes.md
   • materialize the template for today's actual date
   • write the result to today's note path
   • preserve the template's headings and query blocks
   • do not create the note if the required substitutions are unclear
5. Read the vault directly for task-bearing Markdown files and build a short startup task snapshot.
6. Read $LIFEWIKI_VAULT/Read It Later.md and build a short unread-reading snapshot.
7. Read yesterday's daily note and inspect its Kongfu:: field.
8. Write a short authored summary block into today's note under ## Notes 📝.
9. Return the same summary in chat and state whether today's note was created during the run or already existed.

Daily note creation

When creating today's note from the template:

• replace date placeholders with today's actual date values
• keep the existing daily-note structure intact
• preserve query-driven sections exactly as authored in the template
• do not partially synthesize a note from an ambiguous template

Task summary model

Because the daily note's task query blocks may not have rendered yet, derive the summary from raw Markdown files instead of Obsidian output.

Task source scope:

• scan Markdown files under $LIFEWIKI_VAULT, but exclude $LIFEWIKI_VAULT/5-Templates/, $LIFEWIKI_VAULT/-Daily-Notes/, $LIFEWIKI_VAULT/_Sources/, and $LIFEWIKI_VAULT/Read It Later.md
• treat task-bearing files as any remaining Markdown file that contains open tasks or explicit in-progress task state in raw Markdown
• treat project notes and area notes as in scope when they contain raw Markdown checkbox tasks, including files under Projects/, 1-Projects/, Areas/, and 2-Areas/
• prefer concrete task lines from project notes when both a project note and a higher-level tracking note mention the same work
• do not inspect attachments, rendered output, or non-Markdown files

Primary task set:

• open tasks whose explicit task metadata says they happen on or before today
• tasks already in progress when that state is visible in raw Markdown
• project notes with concrete tasks take precedence over rollup notes that only link to the project or name it as a single checklist item

Fallback task set:

• if no primary tasks match, include a small list of open unscheduled tasks
• include plain open checkbox tasks from project notes even when they have no explicit date metadata
• do not treat project index links as a substitute when the linked project note contains concrete open tasks
• keep the fallback intentionally short

Read-it-later summary model

Summarize unread items from Read It Later.md:

• prefer unread items over completed or archived items
• keep the summary short
• preserve note links exactly as written in the queue file
• do not change queue state during daystart
• use only $LIFEWIKI_VAULT/Read It Later.md as the reading source during bootstrap

Kongfu reminder

Inspect yesterday's daily note for Kongfu::.

• If yesterday's note is missing, or Kongfu:: is missing, empty, or 0, include a reminder to practice Kongfu today.
• If Kongfu:: has a non-zero value, omit the reminder.

Writeback rules

Write an authored summary block under ## Notes 📝.

• use a short heading such as ### Daystart
• if a ### Daystart block already exists in ## Notes 📝, replace that block in place; otherwise append a new ### Daystart block at the end of ## Notes 📝
• include the task snapshot
• include the unread reading snapshot
• include the Kongfu reminder when triggered
• preserve surrounding Markdown and all other sections
• do not write into query-driven sections or alter their code blocks

Failure handling

• If $LIFEWIKI_VAULT is unset or unreadable, stop and report it.
• If the daily-note template is missing when today's note must be created, stop and report the expected template path.
• If Read It Later.md is missing, stop and report the expected path.
• If yesterday's note is missing, treat that as a reminder condition rather than a hard failure.
• If ## Notes 📝 is missing from today's note after creation or load, stop and report the required heading.
• If task parsing is incomplete or uncertain, prefer a smaller trustworthy summary over a broad speculative list.

Formatting rules

• Keep the startup summary concise and readable.
• Preserve Markdown links and file references.
• Do not reorganize tasks, articles, or historical notes.
• Do not depend on Obsidian runtime APIs or plugin-rendered output.