Dendron Skill

This skill helps you read, search, and create Dendron notes using the filesystem or the local

notes.db

sqlite database. Notes are plaintext markdown with dot-delimited filenames. Vaults are folders containing a

dendron.yml

and

notes/

directory.

When to Use

• Navigating or querying existing notes (filesystem or sqlite)
• Creating new notes in the current vault
• Creating report notes when user asks for a report
• Running cross-vault queries only when explicitly requested

Vault Selection

• Default to the vault of the current working directory (the active vault).
• Only run across all workspace vaults if the user explicitly asks.
• Inspect

  dendron.yml

  to see workspace vault list (

  workspace.vaults

  ).

File Conventions

• Notes live under

  <vault>/notes/

  and are named with dot-delimited ids plus

  .md

  .
• Common hierarchies:

  daily.journal.YYYY.MM.DD

  ,

  task.YYYY.MM.DD

  ,

  books.*

  ,

  scratch.*

  .
• Wikilinks use

  [[...]]

  .

Access Methods

• Filesystem: use

  ls

  ,

  rg

  , etc., scoped to the target vault’s

  notes/

  dir.
• SQLite (

  notes.db

  ): schema in

  /Users/kevinlin/code/dendron-lite/prisma/schema.prisma

  (tables:

  Note

  ,

  Vault

  ,

  Heading

  ,

  Link

  ,

  SyncStatus

  ).

SQLite Pointers

• Note.fname

  stores the dot-delimited id,

  raw

  stores markdown (no frontmatter),

  title/desc/tags

  optional,

  vaultId

  links to

  Vault

  .

• Vault

  table has

  name

  and

  fsPath

  ; join to limit queries to the active vault unless cross-vault is requested.
• Use parameterized queries to avoid injection; when using the CLI, properly quote inputs.

Common Workflows

• Find notes by pattern: filesystem

  rg "pattern" <vault>/notes -g "*.md"

  or sqlite

  LIKE

  queries on

  fname

  /

  raw

  .
• List children under a hierarchy: filter filenames starting with

  hierarchy.

  and extract the next segment.
• Create a new note: write a markdown file under

  <vault>/notes/<fname>.md

  ; include frontmatter if needed.

Examples to Support

• “look at daily.* notes created in last week and look for terms matching scout”
  • Identify last 7 days daily files in the active vault (

    daily.journal.YYYY.MM.DD

    ), then search contents for

    scout

    .
• "extract all the 1st level children of pkg.* (should only get the name of the next dot delimited name)"
  • From filenames starting

    pkg.

    , return the segment immediately after

    pkg

    (unique, non-empty).
• "create a report on weekly scout activities"
  • Create a new note at

    <vault>/notes/report.2025.11-weekly-scout-activities.md

    with frontmatter and write the report content analyzing scout activities from recent daily notes.

Safety & Scope

• Do not modify files unless asked to create/update notes.
• Keep searches scoped to active vault unless cross-vault is requested.
• Prefer

  rg

  for content search; avoid expensive full-tree scans when a vault path is known.

Quick Command Patterns

• Active vault path: read

  dendron.yml

  and resolve

  workspace.vaults

  entry whose

  fsPath

  matches CWD (default

  .

  ).
• Search text:

  rg "term" <vault>/notes -g "*.md"

  .
• SQLite daily search (active vault only):

  • sqlite3 notes.db "SELECT fname FROM Note n JOIN Vault v ON n.vaultId=v.id WHERE v.fsPath='.' AND fname LIKE 'daily.journal.%' AND date(n.updated/1000,'unixepoch')>=date('now','-7 day') AND raw LIKE '%scout%';"

• Children of hierarchy via fs:

  find <vault>/notes -name 'pkg.*.md' -maxdepth 1

  then parse next segment.
• Create report note: Generate filename

  report.$(date +%Y).$(date +%m)-{kebab-case-name}.md

  and write to

  <vault>/notes/

  with frontmatter.

Follow these steps when responding:

1. Assume target vault is the default active vault unless user mentions otherwise
2. Choose access method (filesystem/sqlite) appropriate to the query.
3. Execute search or creation.
4. Return concise results; if creating, show path and key fields.