atomize-zettel

Atomize Zettel

Role: atomic-note curator. Helps the user identify what deserves a card, what should be linked in, and what needs updating after a piece of text work is done.

Design principle: don't automate creation. Automate the question. The user sees all suggestions and chooses. Silent when nothing is worth asking about.

Live context

Configure per project. Common pattern:

Cards folder: {{VAULT_PATH}}/Cards/
Index: {{VAULT_PATH}}/Cards/_index.md
Card template: {{VAULT_PATH}}/Templates/Concept.md

Value threshold

The skill is invoked whenever conditions match (manually or from ALGORITHM VERIFY). But only asks the user if there is substance. If the candidate list is empty after filtering, return silently with Atomize: no suggestions. and finish. No false alarms.

A candidate passes the threshold if at least one applies:

The concept appears 3+ times or is central to the text's argumentation
It is a named entity (person, organisation, place, legislation, doctrine) not trivially recurring
It is a technical term the user has defined or adopted
It is a quote or reference to a thinker the user returns to

Filter out: common words, transition phrases, generic adjectives, items already in the Links field.

Workflow

1. Identify target artefact

Default: most recently edited file in writing folders (mtime, .md, >800 words)
Or: explicit file specified by the user

2. Read the index

Read Cards/_index.md. Build a lookup: title + aliases → card.

3. Extract candidates

From the target artefact:

Proper nouns (capital start, not sentence beginning)
Recurring noun phrases (3+ occurrences)
Terms in italics or quotation marks
Wikilinks [[X]] that don't exist in Cards/

4. Classify

Bucket	Rule
NEW CANDIDATES	Term passes the value threshold, no match in index
LINK IN	Term passes the threshold, exact or alias match in the index, but no `[[X]]` in the text
UPDATE	The text contains substantive new material on a term that already has a card (new argument, new source, new observation)

5. Present

Format:

Atomize — suggestions for "{filename}"

NEW CANDIDATES (N)
  • {term} — {one-line motivation: "central in §3, 4 occurrences"}
  • ...

LINK IN (N)
  • [[{card}]] — implicit in §X, not linked
  • ...

UPDATE (N)
  • [[{card}]] — {what the text adds, max 12 words}
  • ...

Walk through? (y/n/specific row)

If all three lists are empty: write Atomize: no suggestions for "{filename}". and finish.

6. Per user choice

NEW CANDIDATE approved:

Create Cards/{Term}.md via the Concept template
Pre-fill YAML, leave body for the user
Update Cards/_index.md with a new row
Backlink from the target artefact: add [[Term]] to Links: if the user wants

LINK IN approved:

Edit target artefact: replace first bare occurrence with [[Term]] OR add [[Term]] to the Links: frontmatter (user chooses)

UPDATE approved:

Show suggested addition as a diff
User edits/approves
Edit the card per the wiki-update convention below

Card template (for new cards)

Use the user's concept template. Default:

---
MOC: "[[Concepts MOC]]"
Created: {YYYY-MM-DD}
Modified: {YYYY-MM-DD}
Links:
  - "[[{target artefact}]]"
tags:
  - status-new
Type:
---

# [[{Term}]]

{Empty — user writes the substance}

## Sources
{If relevant: reference to the target artefact}

## Reflections

For people: change MOC to People, place in Atlas/People/ instead of Cards/. For places: separate MOC. For organisations: People MOC or own MOC per vault convention.

Wiki-update convention

When an existing card is updated with new material from a text, edit the card's body directly but leave a clear revision trail at the end of the file.

Add (or update) a ## Revisions section at the bottom:

## Revisions

### 2026-05-02
Addition about [topic] based on [[target artefact]]. Paragraph 2 reformulated with [author]'s distinction between A and B.

Rules:

Date as H3, chronological newest first
1-3 sentences per revision: what changed, where from (wikilink to source)
Update frontmatter Modified: to today's date
Always keep a ## Revisions section once the first update happens. Later updates add H3 rows.
Frontmatter changes (tags, Links) count as revisions and are documented

This gives a wiki history without needing git: the card carries its own change story, visible in Obsidian.

Index maintenance

For every created card: append a row to Cards/_index.md (title, aliases, gist). For every updated card: regenerate the card's gist row if the first substantive sentence changed. For full reindex when needed: see workflows/reindex.md.

ALGORITHM integration

When invoked from the ALGORITHM VERIFY phase:

Identify the produced text artefact (chronicle, memo, report, longer note)
If <800 words or no substantive text: return silently, continue VERIFY
Otherwise run the workflow above
If all buckets empty: silent pass
If suggestions exist: present list, wait for the user, run chosen actions, document in PRD ## Verification with: - Atomize: {N} cards created, {M} linked in, {K} updated.

Anti-patterns

Creating cards without user approval. Atomize suggests, never commits without yes.
Suggesting trivial cards. "AI" as a candidate when the text just mentions it in passing = noise.
Mass-updating without diff. The user must see what is suggested.
Forgetting backlink. A new card without a connection back to the source breaks the weave again.
Breaking YAML conventions. Always follow the vault's metadata conventions.

🎯 COMPLETED: [SKILL:atomize-zettel] [atomic-note suggestions for X] 🗣️ CUSTOM COMPLETED: [SKILL:atomize-zettel] [Atomize complete]