git:20260701.665f249 to git:20261007.e522be7

- Searches the Obsidian vault for prior knowledge, past decisions, and accumulated learnings — and

- finds unexpected connections between domains. Make sure to use this skill whenever the user asks

- "do I have notes on", "what do I know about", "what did I write about", "find in my vault", "check

- my notes about", "have I learned about", "what did I decide about", "connect [A] and [B]", "find

- bridges between", or any phrasing that implies consulting personal vault knowledge rather than

- answering from general knowledge. Also fires when user references prior sessions or wants to know

- what they already know about a topic.

- Surface what the user already knows from their vault before answering from training data. The vault

- is the source of truth for personal decisions, accumulated learnings, and prior context.

-

- **Recall is index-first (Karpathy's LLM-wiki principle).** Read the catalog (`index.md`) first to

- find relevant pages, then drill into those pages. qmd is a search accelerator used only when the

- index alone is not enough. This is faithful to the wiki pattern and works better than blind semantic

- retrieval at this scale.

-

- If `$ARGUMENTS` is provided (e.g. `/memory-recall what do I know about useEffect`), that string is

- the topic. Otherwise infer the topic from the conversation.

-

- ## Tool roles (the hybrid)

-

- - **`index.md`** = the curated catalog. Read FIRST. The navigation map: titles, one-line summaries,

- tags, `[[wikilinks]]`.

- - **qmd** = content search across the whole vault. Use as a FALLBACK when the index skim is

- ambiguous or to catch pages whose body matches but whose summary does not.

- - **obsidian CLI** = navigation. Follow `[[backlinks]]`, resolve aliases, read a known page, list a

- folder, read the live vault (no index lag).

-

- ## Recall Flow (Mode A — topic recall)

-

- ### Step 1 — Read the index first (always)

-

- Read the catalog by ABSOLUTE path so this works from any directory, not just the vault:

-

- ```

- Read /Users/kriscard/obsidian-vault-kriscard/index.md

- ```

-

- Skim the `## Concept notes (claude-memory)` section (and `## Articles` / `## Videos` if relevant).

- Pick 3–8 candidate pages whose title, one-line summary, or tags match the topic. This selection is

- reasoning over the catalog, not keyword scoring.

-

- ### Step 2 — qmd only if the index is not enough

-

- If the index skim is ambiguous, returns nothing obvious, or the topic might live in page bodies not

- reflected in summaries, search content:

-

- ```bash

- qmd query "<topic>" --json -n 8 2>/dev/null

- ```

-

- The single-line form auto-expands (qmd generates lex/vec/hyde internally). Escalate for harder

- cases:

-

- - **Ambiguous term** — this vault mixes domains, so "performance" could be React render perf, Hyrox

- fitness, or team health. Add `intent` to steer expansion and reranking toward the sense you mean.

- - **Unknown vocabulary** — add a `hyde:` line: 50–100 words of the answer you expect.

- - **Max recall** — structured `lex:` + `vec:`; put the best guess first (it gets 2x fusion weight).

-

- ```bash

- qmd query $'intent: react render performance, not fitness\nlex: useEffect rerender\nvec: how to avoid unnecessary renders' --json -n 8 2>/dev/null

- ```

-

- Add the qmd hits to the candidate set. Score bands: ≥ 0.7 strong, 0.5–0.7 probable, < 0.5 weak.

-

- qmd gotchas: (1) progress goes to **stderr**, so always append `2>/dev/null` to keep `--json` output

- clean for parsing. (2) In `lex`/`vec`/`hyde` lines a hyphen inside a word like `re-render` is parsed

- as `-negation` and errors; drop the hyphen or rephrase.

- ### Step 3 — Drill into the actual pages (navigation = obsidian CLI)

- Read the candidate pages in full before answering. Use obsidian CLI to read the live page and follow

- the wiki's link structure; use `qmd get "#docid"` for a quick body pull of a qmd hit.

- ```bash

- obsidian read path="3 - Resources/<subfolder>/<page>.md"

- qmd get "#<docid>"

- ```

- Follow `[[backlinks]]` and resolve aliases via obsidian to pull in connected pages the

- catalog/search missed.

- ### Step 4 — Synthesize with citations

- Answer from the pages, citing each with `[[wikilink]]`. Synthesize across pages; do not dump full

- notes unless asked. Be honest about gaps: if no index entry matches AND qmd top score < 0.5, say the

- vault has no coverage and offer a general-knowledge answer.

- ### Step 5 — Offer to file the answer back

- If the synthesis is worth keeping (a new connection, comparison, or decision), offer to file it as a

- wiki page via the save-note skill. Good answers compound into the wiki.

- ## Connection Discovery Mode (Mode B)

- When the user asks to connect two domains ("connect A and B", "bridges between"):

- 1. **Map each domain index-first**: read `index.md`, collect the pages under each domain by

- title/tag; augment with `qmd query "<domain>" --json 2>/dev/null` if the catalog is thin.

- 2. **Pull hubs and follow backlinks** 2–3 hops via obsidian CLI. If one domain has far fewer notes,

- go 3–4 hops deep on the sparse side — that is where surprises are.

- 3. **Find overlaps**: shared references (notes in both backlink chains), shared themes (same concept

- in both, even if unlinked), shared patterns (both stuck on the same problem). A useful qmd trick:

- feed one domain's vocabulary as a `hyde:` query against the other to surface adjacent pages.

- 4. **Synthesize each bridge**:

- ```

- Bridge [#]: [Title]

- In Domain A: [how it appears]

- In Domain B: [how it appears differently]

- The connection: [what links them]

- Depth: Surface / Structural / Foundational

- Implication: [what this suggests for either domain]

- ```

- Surface the strongest bridge and any **missing links** (connections that should exist but have not

- been made). The test: the best output makes you see both domains differently. Do not force

- connections; if the domains genuinely do not connect, say so.

- Completion: each domain has been mapped index-first, candidate pages from both domains were read,

- 2–3 backlink hops were attempted or explicitly skipped as unavailable, and every bridge cites at

- least one source note from each domain. If those criteria cannot be met, report the gap instead of

- forcing a connection.

- ## How to Report Findings

- - **Cite the source** with the file path / `[[wikilink]]` so the user can navigate.

- - **Synthesize, do not dump.** Summarize what the pages collectively say.

- - **Be honest about gaps.** No index match and qmd < 0.5 means say so, then offer general knowledge.

- - **Distinguish note types**: TIL (`3 - Resources/TIL/`) = first-person captures; Resources = wiki

- reference; Projects (`1 - Projects/`) = project-specific context.

- ## What NOT to do

- - Don't skip the index. Index-first is the rule; qmd is the fallback, not the entry point.

- - Don't write or modify notes — recall is strictly read-only (filing back is the save-note skill).

- - Don't answer from snippets alone — read the pages that matter first.

- - Don't hallucinate citations — if you can't find a note, say "no match found".

- - Don't stretch a sub-0.5 match into a confident answer — flag the gap instead.