capture

name	capture
description	Process today's drop zone — route screenshots, Slack messages, links, and notes to the right places.
context	fork

Purpose

Process items from today's drop zone document. The drop zone is a shared workspace in Obsidian where the user dumps screenshots, Slack messages, links, and quick notes throughout the day. This skill reads new entries and intelligently routes them to person pages, projects, tasks, or meetings.

Usage

• /capture — Process today's drop zone
• "check my drop zone" — Same behavior

Batch limit: Process at most 20 items per invocation. If more are pending, process the 20 most recent and note the remainder.

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Tone Calibration

Before executing, read System/user-profile.yaml → communication section and adapt tone accordingly (see CLAUDE.md → "Communication Adaptation").

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Demo Mode Check

Before executing, check if demo mode is active:

1. Read System/user-profile.yaml and check demo_mode
2. If demo_mode: true:
   • Display: "Demo Mode Active — Using sample data"
   • Use System/Demo/ paths instead of root paths
3. If demo_mode: false: Use normal vault paths

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Step 1: Locate Today's Drop Zone

1. Determine today's date in YYYY-MM-DD format
2. Look for 00-Inbox/Drop_Zone/YYYY-MM-DD - Drop Zone.md
   • Also check for legacy 00-Inbox/Drop_Zone/YYYY-MM-DD-Drop-Zone.md if the new format is not found

If it does NOT exist:

Create the file with the template:

# Drop Zone — YYYY-MM-DD

Paste screenshots, Slack messages, links, quick notes here.
Run `/capture` to have Amp process and route these items.

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Then open it in Obsidian:

open "obsidian://open?vault=amp&file=00-Inbox%2FDrop_Zone%2FYYYY-MM-DD%20-%20Drop%20Zone"

Tell the user:

"📋 Created today's drop zone and opened it in Obsidian. Paste your items there, then run /capture again when you're ready for me to process them."

Stop here. Do not continue to processing.

If it DOES exist:

Read the file and proceed to Step 2.

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Step 2: Identify New Entries

Parse the drop zone content. Entries are separated by blank lines or --- dividers below the header section.

Processed entries are marked with ✅ Processed at the end of the entry block. Skip these entirely.

New entries are any content blocks that do NOT have ✅ Processed.

If there are no new entries:

"📋 Drop zone is clean. Nothing new to process."

Stop here.

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Step 3: Classify and Route Each Entry

For each new entry, analyze the content and determine the best route. Check in this priority order:

3.1 Load Context for Routing

Before processing entries, gather routing context:

1. People index: Call lookup_person from Work MCP or scan 05-Areas/People/ for known names
2. Projects: Scan 04-Projects/ for active project names
3. Week Priorities: Read 02-Week_Priorities/Week_Priorities.md for current focus
4. Pillars: Read System/pillars.yaml for keyword matching

3.2 Route Each Entry

For each unprocessed entry, classify using these rules:

Signal	Route	Action
Mentions a known person by name	Person page	Append to ## Notes or ## Context section on their page in 05-Areas/People/
Mentions an active project	Project	Append as a note or update in the project folder 04-Projects/
Contains action items (- [ ], "need to", "should", "TODO", "follow up", "remind me")	Task	Create task via Work MCP create_task or append to 03-Tasks/Tasks.md
Looks like meeting notes (attendees, agenda, decisions, action items from a conversation)	Meeting notes	Create or append to 00-Inbox/Meetings/YYYY-MM-DD - [Topic].md
Contains a URL/link with context	Relevant destination	Route based on surrounding context (person, project, or resource)
Screenshot or image reference	Relevant destination	Route based on any text context around it; if ambiguous, leave in drop zone
None of the above	Leave in drop zone	Keep as reference, do not mark as processed unless user confirms

3.3 Routing Rules

• Person pages: Find the correct page in 05-Areas/People/Internal/ or 05-Areas/People/External/. Append under a dated section: ### YYYY-MM-DD — Drop Zone Note followed by the content.
• Projects: Append to the project's main file or a relevant sub-document in 04-Projects/[Project_Name]/.
• Tasks: Use Work MCP create_task with smart pillar inference (see CLAUDE.md → "Task Creation"). Include source context: "From drop zone YYYY-MM-DD".
• Meeting notes: If a meeting file for today exists with a matching topic, append. Otherwise create a new one.
• Multiple routes: If an entry mentions both a person and a project, route to both (add context to person page AND project).

3.4 Semantic Matching (if QMD available)

Check if QMD MCP tools are available by calling qmd_status. If available:

For entries with no obvious keyword match, run:

qmd_search(query="[entry content first 100 words]", limit=3)

Use semantic results to find related projects, people, or goals that share meaning but not keywords.

If QMD is not available: Use keyword matching only. Skip silently.

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Step 4: Mark Processed Entries

After successfully routing an entry, append ✅ Processed on a new line at the end of that entry block in the drop zone file.

For entries that were routed to multiple destinations, still mark once with: ✅ Processed — routed to [destination 1], [destination 2]

For entries left in the drop zone (no clear route), do NOT mark as processed. Leave them for the user to review or provide more context.

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Step 5: Report Results

Provide a concise summary:

📋 Drop Zone — Processed [X] of [Y] items:

- [N] tasks created
- [N] routed to person pages ([names])
- [N] routed to projects ([project names])
- [N] saved as meeting notes
- [N] items left in drop zone (no clear route — review manually)

If items were left unrouted, briefly explain why:

"Left 2 items: a screenshot with no context and a link without description. Add a note next to them and run /capture again."

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Step 6: Track Usage (Silent)

Update System/usage_log.md to mark capture as used.

Analytics (Silent):

Call track_event with event_name capture_completed and properties:

• items_processed: number of items routed
• items_skipped: number left in drop zone
• tasks_created: number of tasks created
• person_routes: number routed to person pages
• project_routes: number routed to projects

This only fires if the user has opted into analytics. No action needed if it returns "analytics_disabled".

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Graceful Degradation

No Work MCP

• Tasks cannot be created via MCP. Fall back to appending directly to 03-Tasks/Tasks.md.
• Person lookup falls back to scanning 05-Areas/People/ directory.

Fresh Vault

• If no person pages or projects exist yet, most items will stay in the drop zone.
• Suggest: "Your vault is new. As you add person pages and projects, /capture will route more intelligently."

Empty Drop Zone

• If the file exists but has no content below the header, say: "Drop zone is empty. Paste some items and run /capture again."

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MCP Dependencies

Integration	MCP Server	Tools Used
Work	work-mcp	create_task, lookup_person, build_people_index
Semantic Search	qmd-mcp	qmd_search, qmd_status (optional)
Improvements	amp-improvements-mcp	track_event (optional)