Wiki Capture — Conversation to Wiki Note

You are preserving knowledge from the current conversation as a permanent wiki note. The goal is to extract the substance — the knowledge itself — not a summary of what was said.

Before You Start

1. Read

   ~/.obsidian-wiki/config

   (preferred) or

   .env

   (fallback) to get

   OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH

2. Read

   $OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH/index.md

   to understand existing wiki content (avoid duplicates)
3. Read

   $OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH/hot.md

   if it exists — it gives context on recent activity

Step 1: Identify What's Worth Preserving

Scan the conversation. Ask: what knowledge emerged here that would be valuable in 3 months with no memory of this chat?

Worth preserving:

• Decisions made and why they were made
• Analysis, frameworks, mental models developed
• Technical findings, patterns, or procedures
• Synthesized understanding of a topic
• Clear explanations of a concept that took effort to arrive at
• Key facts from an external source discussed in the conversation

Skip:

• Logistics, scheduling, pleasantries
• Exploratory back-and-forth where no conclusion was reached
• Content that's already in the wiki

If nothing material emerged, tell the user and stop.

Step 2: Classify the Content Type

Assign one of five types — this determines the target folder and tone:

synthesis

synthesis/

concept

concepts/

source

references/

decision

synthesis/

session

journal/

If the content clearly belongs to a specific project (detected from context or user mention), place it under

projects/<project-name>/<category>/

Step 3: Rewrite as Declarative Knowledge

Do not write a summary of the conversation. Write the knowledge itself, in declarative present tense:

• Not: "The user asked about X and Claude explained that..."
• Yes: "X works by..."
• Not: "We decided to use Y because..."
• Yes: "Y is preferred over Z because [reason]. [^[inferred] if the rationale was implied, not stated explicitly]"

Apply provenance markers per

llm-wiki

• Extracted — explicitly stated in the conversation (no marker)
• Inferred — generalized or synthesized from the conversation →

  ^[inferred]

• Ambiguous — disputed, uncertain, or contradictory →

  ^[ambiguous]

Step 4: Generate a Slug and Title

Derive a clear, descriptive title from the content. Slugify it:

• Lowercase, words separated by hyphens
• Max 50 characters
• Avoid dates in the slug (the frontmatter has

  created

  )

Step 5: Write the Wiki Note

Create the file at the target path with required frontmatter:

---
title: >-
  <Title>
category: <synthesis|concepts|references|journal|skills>
tags: [<2-5 domain tags from taxonomy>]
sources:
  - conversation:<ISO-date>
created: <ISO-8601 timestamp>
updated: <ISO-8601 timestamp>
summary: >-
  <1-2 sentences, ≤200 chars, answering "what knowledge does this page hold?">
provenance:
  extracted: 0.X
  inferred: 0.X
  ambiguous: 0.X
---

Body structure by type:

synthesis / decision:

# Title

## Context
<What prompted this — the problem or question being addressed>

## Finding / Decision
<The core knowledge or conclusion>

## Reasoning
<Why this is the case or why this choice was made>

## Implications
<What follows from this — what to watch for, next steps, trade-offs>

## Related
<[[wikilinks]] to connected pages>

concept:

# Title

<Definition in one clear sentence.>

## What It Is
<Explanation of the concept>

## How It Works
<Mechanism or structure>

## When to Use
<Applicability, conditions, trade-offs>

## Related
<[[wikilinks]]>

source:

# Title

> Source: <title or URL>

## What It Covers
<What the source is about>

## Key Points
<Bulleted claims with provenance markers>

## Open Questions
<What it raises but doesn't answer — omit if none>

## Related
<[[wikilinks]]>

session:

# Title

*Session captured: <date>*

## Topics Covered
<Brief list>

## Key Takeaways
<The 3-5 most important things that emerged>

## Decisions Made
<Any explicit decisions, with rationale>

## Open Questions
<What remains unresolved>

## Related
<[[wikilinks]]>

Every note must link to at least 2 existing wiki pages. Search

index.md

Step 6: Update Tracking Files

index.md

log.md

- [TIMESTAMP] CAPTURE type=<type> page="<path>" title="<title>"

hot.md

updated

Step 7: Confirm to User

Report the saved path and title:

Saved to: projects/<name>/synthesis/<slug>.md
Title: <Title>
Type: synthesis

Quality Checklist

• Content rewritten as declarative knowledge (not a chat transcript)
• Type classified correctly; target path is in the right folder
• Frontmatter complete with title, category, tags, sources, summary, provenance
• At least 2 wikilinks to existing pages

• index.md

  ,

  log.md

  , and

  hot.md

  updated
• Confirmed save path to user