| name | cross-domain-link |
| description | Scan vault files across People, Places, Restaurants, Events, and coach folders to find missing wikilinks between related files, and propose adding them. Triggered on user request "find links", "cross-link vault", "what connects to X?", or periodically after inbox-triage runs. |
Skill: cross-domain-link
The value of the vault compounds when notes reference each other. A person file that links to the restaurants you've been to together, the events they attended, the places they frequent — that's richer than three disconnected files. This skill scans for obvious missing links and proposes adding them.
When to invoke
- User says: "find links", "cross-link the vault", "what connects to X?", "link things up"
- After
inbox-triage runs and created several new files
- When user adds a new person/place/restaurant and wants to backfill links
- Periodically (e.g., monthly via
vault-maintain) to catch accumulation
What it scans
-
Name mentions — scan all files in People/, Places/, Restaurants/, Events/, and coach folders for plain-text mentions of names that correspond to vault files. If People/alex-smith.md exists and Restaurants/sf/nopa.md mentions "Alex" or "Alex Smith", both should link to each other.
-
Shared events — if Events/2026-05-04-dinner.md mentions a person and a restaurant, all three should cross-link.
-
Coach folder mentions — if People/alex-smith.md mentions "pole" or "climbing gym", check if a relevant coach folder exists and if the person should be linked there (e.g., a training partner, an instructor).
-
Orphan files — files in People/, Places/, Restaurants/, Events/ that have no incoming wikilinks from any other vault file. These aren't necessarily wrong, but they're worth surfacing.
Algorithm
-
Build a name-to-filepath index:
- People/ → each file's title = person name, also note the first-name shorthand
- Places/ → each file's title
- Restaurants/ → each file's title (and city subfolder)
- Events/ → each file's title
-
For each file in the scanned directories:
- Search content for mentions of indexed names (case-insensitive; partial match on first name if unambiguous)
- Check if the mention is already a
[[wikilink]]
- If not: record as a missing link candidate
-
Filter candidates:
- Skip very short mentions that could be coincidental (e.g., "Alex" is a common name — only flag if context clearly refers to the person)
- Skip self-references
- Skip mentions in the Associated notes section already
-
Compose a link proposal report
Link proposal report format
## Cross-domain Link Report (2026-05-04) — 6 proposals
### People ↔ Restaurants (2)
1. [[People/alex-smith]] — mentions "Nopa" in log entry 2026-04-20. Add [[Restaurants/sf/nopa]] to associated notes?
2. [[Restaurants/sf/shizen]] — log entry mentions "came with Jordan for Jordan's birthday". Add [[People/jordan-lee]]?
### People ↔ Events (2)
3. [[People/alex-smith]] — "strategy offsite" in log. Matching [[Events/2026-04-28-strategy-offsite]] exists. Cross-link?
4. [[Events/2026-04-28-strategy-offsite]] — mentions "Alex" in attendees. Add [[People/alex-smith]] to "who was there"?
### Orphan files (1)
5. [[Places/home-office]] — no incoming links from any other vault file. Still useful? Or add a link from a coach folder?
### Coach ↔ People (1)
6. [[People/sarah-instructor]] — log says "pole instructor at SF Pole & Dance". Add context linking to [[Coaches/GetBetterAtPole]]?
---
Reply with numbers to apply (e.g., "1, 2, 4"), "all", or "skip".
Applying
For each confirmed link:
- Add to the file's "Associated notes" section (if it exists) or create that section
- Write the wikilink in both directions: if A links to B, also add B → A (unless the reverse is already there)
- Never overwrite existing content — append to the section
Scope options
By default: scan the whole vault. The user can scope it:
"cross-link People/alex-smith" — only find links for that specific file"cross-link People/" — only scan the People folder"cross-link Events/ to Restaurants/" — only look for that specific pairing
Scoped runs are faster and less noisy when the user knows what they want.
Don't
- Don't add wikilinks in running prose — only add them in "Associated notes" sections. Prose links clutter the reading experience.
- Don't flag ambiguous first-name mentions as missing links unless context clearly identifies the person (e.g., "talked to Alex at the offsite" where the event file references Alex Smith)
- Don't create files — only add links to existing files
- Don't link across coach folder content (e.g., don't scan
Coaches/GetBetterAtPole/sessions.md for all person mentions — that's too noisy)
- Don't apply without confirmation — always show the report first
- Don't run on vault root files (Inbox.md, Daily/, Ideas/) — those are capture surfaces, not reference nodes
Why this matters
Isolated notes don't surface intelligence. When your vault knows that Alex Smith, Shizen restaurant, and the May 2026 birthday dinner are all connected, a question like "who have I had meaningful meals with this year?" becomes answerable by reading a person file instead of searching across scattered notes. Cross-domain linking is what turns a note collection into a knowledge graph.
