crystalize

name

crystalize

description

Condense KB - absorb redundant sources into a mature conclusion. Source files move to vicky/sources/.absorbed/ (hidden dotfolder, excluded from queries/dashboard/graph), conclusion records them under derived_from: frontmatter. Crystallization keeps the KB small while preserving provenance. Use /vicky:crystalize when one conclusion is the canonical takeaway and underlying sources no longer need to surface. Always dry-run first.

Vicky Crystalize

Condense the KB. Goal: small, dense knowledge base; one canonical answer per topic; provenance kept on disk but hidden from active surfaces.

Invoke: /vicky:crystalize

Contract

For a target conclusion + list of source slugs, the crystalize MCP tool:

1. Moves each vicky/sources/<slug>.md to vicky/sources/.absorbed/<slug>.md (Obsidian dotfolder, excluded from graph and dashboard).
2. Removes absorbed slugs from the conclusion sources: frontmatter.
3. Appends absorbed slugs to the conclusion derived_from: frontmatter.
4. Leaves conclusion body untouched (manual cleanup if you want to strip body wikilinks).

Run /vicky:learn after to rebuild the graph and set up file monitors for auto-reactions on dependent file changes.

When to crystalize

• Conclusion has matured; underlying sources are redundant detail.
• Multiple sources collapsed into one synthesis with no remaining unique signal in the source bodies.
• Dashboard "Sources awaiting synthesis" surfaces items that are actually already absorbed in some conclusion.

Do NOT crystalize when:

• Sources still differ in detail you might re-derive from later.
• Conclusion may split soon (absorb post-split, not before).
• No written conclusion yet - conclude first.

Workflow

1. Dry run - crystalize conclusion=<slug> absorb=[...] dry_run=true shows proposed moves and new frontmatter.
2. Apply - drop dry_run.
3. Relink - /vicky:learn.

Restoring

Sources are NOT deleted. To restore:

1. Move file from vicky/sources/.absorbed/<slug>.md back to vicky/sources/<slug>.md.
2. Edit conclusion frontmatter: remove slug from derived_from:, add back to sources:.
3. /vicky:learn to relink.

Splitting a conclusion

Not yet automated. Manual today:

1. conclude a second conclusion from the split topic.
2. Move relevant derived_from: entries to the new conclusion.
3. Edit original conclusion body to remove the split content.

Known limitations

• Conclusion body ## Sources markdown block is NOT updated - only frontmatter. Edit body by hand if you want stale wikilinks removed.
• [[slug]] wikilinks in conclusion body to absorbed sources will show as "unresolved" in Obsidian (dotfolder is not indexed by Obsidian). Provenance lives in derived_from: frontmatter for tooling.
• No clustering / auto-suggest yet. Caller picks the absorb set.

State touched

• vicky/sources/<slug>.md -> vicky/sources/.absorbed/<slug>.md
• vicky/conclusions/.../<conc>.md frontmatter: sources: shrunk, derived_from: grown
• vicky/graphs/*.json stale until /vicky:learn runs