wiki-query

name	wiki-query
description	Answer a question by reading the Karpathy-style wiki — never from memory. Claude consults wiki/index.md first, then reads the relevant wiki/<type>/*.md files, synthesizes an answer with [[wikilink]] citations, and optionally files the answer back as a `type: synthesis` page so the knowledge compounds. Use this skill whenever the user says 'query the wiki', 'ask the wiki', 'what do I know about X', 'what does my wiki say about Y', 'wiki query', 'search the wiki for Z', or asks any question after setting up a wiki and expects Claude to reason from it. Also trigger when the user asks 'look up X in the wiki', 'check the wiki for X', or asks a question that clearly lives inside their wiki's domain (e.g. they have an AI-safety wiki and ask about CAI) — offer the wiki as the source of truth.
allowed-tools	Read, Write, Glob, Grep, Bash, AskUserQuestion

Wiki Query

Answer a question using only what is written in the wiki. Never draw on model memory. Every claim in the answer must trace to a specific wiki page, which in turn traces to a raw source. After answering, optionally persist the synthesis as a new type: synthesis wiki page so the next query benefits.

Read ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/references/karpathy-pattern.md once at the start of the session to re-anchor on the compounding principle.

When to run

• User asks a question and references "the wiki" or "my notes"
• User asks a question that clearly lives in a wiki's domain (after checking .cogni-wiki/config.json describes that domain)
• User says "wiki query", "ask the wiki", "what do I know about X"
• User is in the middle of another skill and needs to consult existing knowledge

Never run when

• No wiki exists in the current directory or any ancestor — offer wiki-setup
• The question is about a topic the wiki has never ingested a source for — report honestly that the wiki is silent; the user's trust depends on answers being grounded exclusively in wiki content

Parameters

Parameter	Required	Description
--question	Yes	The user's question, as a plain string
--file-back	No	auto (default — ask the user) / yes / no — whether to save the answer as a new wiki page
--max-pages	No	Cap on how many pages to read (default 12). Prevents runaway reads on large wikis.

Workflow

1. Locate the wiki and read the index

Walk upward to find .cogni-wiki/config.json. Read wiki/index.md top to bottom. The index is the map — do not skip it.

2. Select candidate pages

From the index, select pages whose one-line summary is relevant to the question. If fewer than 2 clear matches, also:

• Run grep -l -i over wiki/<type>/ for the question's key nouns
• Cap the total set at --max-pages

If zero candidate pages emerge after both passes, stop and report: "The wiki has no pages on this topic. Run wiki-ingest on a source first, or rephrase the question." Do not answer from memory.

3. Read the selected pages

Read each candidate page fully. Note:

• The claims that directly answer the question
• The sources each claim traces to
• Any contradictions between pages (flag for wiki-lint if you find one)

4. Synthesize the answer

Write a plain-prose answer, inline-citing every factual claim with a [[page-slug]] link. Example:

Constitutional AI replaces human harm labels with AI-generated critiques against a written constitution [[constitutional-ai]]. The method scales with critic-model size [[constitutional-ai]] and was introduced by Bai et al. in 2022 [[anthropic-safety-team]].

Rules:

• Every non-trivial claim links to at least one [[page]]
• If two pages contradict each other, surface the contradiction explicitly ("[[page-a]] claims X, but [[page-b]] claims Y — these should be reconciled via wiki-update or flagged via wiki-lint")
• If the wiki's coverage is thin, say so: "Based on two pages, both summarizing one 2022 paper, the wiki's view is..."

5. Offer to file the answer back

If --file-back auto, ask the user: "File this answer as a new type: synthesis page?" If yes, pass control to the file-back step below. If --file-back yes, do it without asking. If no, stop here after step 4.

6. File-back (optional)

If filing the answer back:

1. Choose a slug derived from the question or the synthesized claim
2. Write a new page at wiki/<type>/{slug}.md with type: synthesis — the page type for LLM-derived answers built from other wiki pages, introduced in cogni-wiki v0.0.23. (Use --type learning only if the user explicitly asks to file the answer as a human-curated takeaway, or --type summary if the result is essentially a near-restatement of one source-derived page.)
3. Frontmatter sources: field lists the wiki pages used, prefixed with wiki:// to distinguish from raw sources:

   sources:
     - wiki://constitutional-ai
     - wiki://anthropic-safety-team
   

   This is explicit: the synthesis is a derived wiki→wiki claim, not a new raw assertion. wiki-lint validates that each wiki://<slug> target exists (broken_wiki_source error) and warns if a type: synthesis page has no wiki:// source (synthesis_no_wiki_source warn).
4. Body is the synthesized answer with the [[citations]] preserved
5. Update wiki/index.md under an appropriate category (typically a new "Syntheses" section, or under the topic the synthesis covers)
6. Append to wiki/log.md:

   ## [YYYY-MM-DD] synthesis | {slug} — {short question}
   

   The synthesis operation prefix (introduced in v0.0.23) distinguishes filed-back query answers from un-filed queries — Step 7 still uses query for the always-on log line. wiki-resume and wiki-dashboard count the two distinctly via synthesis_count_30d and query_count_30d.
7. Increment entries_count in .cogni-wiki/config.json via cogni-wiki/skills/wiki-ingest/scripts/config_bump.py --key entries_count --delta 1 (the locked, atomic helper used by wiki-ingest)
8. (Optional) Run backlink_audit.py from wiki-ingest on the new page to add bidirectional links

7. Always append to the log (even without filing back)

Regardless of file-back decision, append a query log line:

## [YYYY-MM-DD] query | "{short question}" → read {N} pages

The log records every query so the user can see what the wiki has been asked. When the answer was also filed back, both the query line (Step 7) and the synthesis line (Step 6.6) are present — the first is the question, the second is the page that captures the answer.

Output

• An answer with inline [[citations]]
• Optionally: a new wiki/<type>/{slug}.md with type: synthesis
• An appended query line in wiki/log.md (always)
• Optionally: a synthesis line in wiki/log.md, updated index, bumped config, and applied backlinks (if file-back was yes)

Golden rules

1. Answer only from wiki content. The user chose a wiki precisely because they want answers grounded in curated sources, not in training data that may be stale or wrong. If the wiki does not contain a claim, the answer does not contain that claim.
2. Every factual sentence is [[cited]]. Rhetoric and connective text can go uncited; claims cannot.
3. Contradictions are surfaced, not reconciled. Only wiki-update resolves contradictions; wiki-query reports them.
4. Thin coverage is declared. If the wiki has one page on a topic, say so — don't pretend to a consensus.
5. Always log. Every query leaves a trail, filed-back or not.

References

• ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/references/karpathy-pattern.md — the pattern
• ./references/query-patterns.md — read-before-answer worked example, including a synthesis file-back walkthrough