| name | silica |
| description | Use the Silica vault as persistent memory over MCP — recall before answering, capture after learning. Trigger when the user asks what they know/decided/wrote about a topic ("what do I have on X", "cosa so su", "avevo deciso"), wants something saved for later ("save this to the vault", "salva nel vault", "ricordati che"), references their vault or past notes, or when the session produced a decision or insight worth keeping across sessions. |
Silica — vault memory over MCP
Silica is a deterministic knowledge-graph engine over an Obsidian vault. This
skill is the usage loop; the silica MCP server carries the mechanics
(tools named silica_* — if they are deferred, load them with ToolSearch).
If the tools are missing entirely, say so and give the user the install line:
claude mcp add silica -- uv run --project /path/to/silica-agent --with mcp silica mcp
Recall — search before answering
Any question about accumulated knowledge starts with a search, not with your
own recollection:
- By meaning:
silica_semantic_search {query, k} — "what do I have about X".
- Exact strings (error messages, names, quotes):
silica_search_context {query}.
- Known title:
silica_search {query}, then read it.
- Temporal ("when", "before/after", "most recent"):
silica_timeline {start?, end?, limit?} — chronological index of dated notes; consult it
before free-text recall, then read the linked note.
Never conclude "nothing in the vault" from a single miss — try at least one
semantic and one literal probe. If silica_semantic_search errors with
"No index available", fall back to silica_search / silica_search_context
(grep-based, always work) and tell the user /embed and /cooccur in the
Silica REPL build the missing indexes.
Ground — read before citing
silica_read_note {name} before quoting or acting on a hit; for long notes
silica_outline {name} first, to target the right section.silica_links {name} / silica_props {name} give the note's neighborhood
and frontmatter when you need context around a hit.
Capture — write what deserves to outlive the session
What belongs: decisions and their why, non-obvious constraints, distilled
understanding, hard-won references. What does not: transcripts, code the repo
already holds, anything you could regenerate. Silica's quality gates reject
low-density notes — write like you'd want to re-read.
- Search first (dedup). If a note on the concept exists, extend it:
silica_patch_note {name, heading, snippet, source_basename} —
source_basename is provenance (the file or conversation the snippet
came from).
- New concept →
silica_write_note {path, body, title?, tags?, related?, parent?, template?}. body is markdown only — frontmatter is applied
mechanically from the vault template; never include a YAML block. It
refuses to overwrite by design: an "already exists" error means patch
instead.
- Note shape: one atomic concept per note; YAML frontmatter with tags;
[[wikilinks]] to the related notes your searches surfaced; write in the
vault's language (read one existing note if unsure).
Know the boundary
The MCP surface is the fast path: search, read, single-note writes. Bulk work
— multi-file nucleation with quality gates, dedup sweeps, taxonomy, structural
reports — lives in the Silica REPL (uv run silica: /nucleate, /report,
/curate). When the task is bulk-shaped, say so and point there instead of
simulating the pipeline note by note.
