inscribe

name	inscribe
description	Use when the user asks to process the desk, ingest material, or words to that effect — classifies each item in desk/ and dispatches to the Shelves pipeline (catalog items) or the Scrolls pipeline (everything else). The only inbox entry point in Grimoire.

Inscribe — the router

Rewritten from real run (2026-04-15): 3 items — 2 scroll-sources (Salvaggio full body, Yuk Hui metadata-only clip) + 1 already-processed asset (AMI screenshot promoted to raw/assets/).

One desk, two pipelines. Inscribe classifies each item dropped into desk/ and sends it where it belongs.

When to invoke

Any of: "inscribe", "process the desk", "ingest this", "what's in my inbox", "run ingest". Also proactively if the user mentions dropping something new and desk/ has contents.

Classification rules

Look at each file in desk/ (excluding .gitkeep) and classify:

1. Shelves-image — a photograph of a bookshelf spine, a record stack, a DVD case, or similar physical media. File extensions .jpg, .jpeg, .heic, .png are candidates. Confirm by looking at the image — not all PNGs are shelf photos. In the real run, a .png turned out to be a screenshot of an awards table, not physical media.
2. Shelves-list — a plain text or markdown file that is primarily a list of media titles (books, films, albums).
3. Scroll-source — everything else. Articles, clipped web pages, personal notes, essays, transcripts, research memos.
4. Already-processed asset — an image or file that belongs to an existing source page (e.g., a screenshot that was already transcribed into a source). Not a new source — promote to raw/assets/ with a meaningful filename and update the existing source page's reference.

When uncertain between shelves-list and scroll-source, ask the user once.

Dispatch

For each shelves-image:

• Move to shelves/photos/inbox/
• Report: "image moved to shelves inbox, ready for extraction"
• Do NOT run extraction automatically.

For each shelves-list:

• Leave in place, tell user which script: python3 shelves/scripts/import_text.py desk/<filename> (books) or python3 shelves/scripts/import_media.py desk/<filename> (films/music). Let the user decide.

For each scroll-source:

• Create a source page at scrolls/sources/<kebab-slug>.md with YAML frontmatter + markdown body.
• Move the original from desk/ to raw/processed/.
• Flag overlaps with existing concept/entity pages but do NOT edit them — that's bind's job.

For each already-processed asset:

• Move to raw/assets/<descriptive-name>.<ext> (use the related source page's slug).
• Update the existing source page's asset reference.
• Do NOT create a new source page.

Source page structure

From the real run, a full-body source page includes:

---
title: "<Title — Author (Year)>"
type: source
description: "<One-sentence summary (~120 chars) useful for filtering without reading the full page>"
created: YYYY-MM-DD
updated: YYYY-MM-DD
sources:
  - "<original filename in desk>"
tags:
  - <topic tags>
---

# <Title — Author (Year)>

**Author:** ...
**Venue/Publication:** ...
**Source:** [url](url)

## Summary
<2-4 paragraph summary of the argument>

## <Core sections>
<Key claims, frameworks, or findings — use ### subheads>

## Where this lands in the wiki
<How it connects to existing concept/entity pages. Use [[wikilinks]]>

## Potential overlaps flagged for bind
<Entity/concept candidates, hub candidates, stance groupings>

## See also
<[[wikilinks]] to related pages>

Metadata-only clips

When the web-clipper captures only title/URL/description (no body text), still create a source page but:

• Note prominently that body text is missing ("Note: metadata + footnotes only — needs re-clip")
• Infer what you can from available metadata/citations
• Flag for re-clip in the log entry

In the real run, the Yuk Hui piece arrived with footnotes but no essay body. The footnote apparatus was enough to sketch the argument's territory and flag useful connections.

Boundary

Inscribe does NOT:

• Update concept/entity pages (that's bind)
• Draft synthesis (that's divine)
• Download remote images (that's illuminate)
• Run integrity checks (that's audit)

After a run

Update scrolls/index.md:

• Add each new source entry to the appropriate category section.
• Prepend each new source to the Recently added & updated section at the top (newest first). Format: - YYYY-MM-DD · source · [[page-slug]] — <one-line summary>. Keep the section capped at ~12 entries — drop the oldest as new ones come in.
• Bump the updated: date in frontmatter.

Update Home.md — the vault landing page:

• Prepend each new scroll-source to the Recently inscribed sources sub-section under "What's new this cycle" (newest at top). Keep capped at 8 entries. Format: - [[source-slug]] — <one-line, ~100 char description>.
• Bump the updated: date in frontmatter.
• If Home.md doesn't exist, copy Home.example.md to Home.md and populate.

Append one row per dispatched item to scrolls/provenance.md:

| YYYY-MM-DD | <original filename> | desk | <type> | <disposition> | [[page-slug]] or path |

Types: scroll-source, shelves-image, shelves-list, asset. Dispositions: created, promoted, moved.

Append an entry to scrolls/log.md:

## YYYY-MM-DD inscribe — <summary>

The log entry should capture:

• Count + breakdown by classification
• Source pages created (with one-line descriptions)
• Asset promotions (what, where, why)
• Overlaps flagged for bind (bulleted list of concept/entity connections)
• Entity candidates held (with source count and hold rationale)
• Shelves neighborhood flags (deferred to bind)
• Files moved (desk → raw/processed, desk → raw/assets)