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vault-synthesis skill

/skills/vault-synthesis

This skill synthesizes notes across the vault to create cohesive histories, frontmatter summaries, and topic hubs while preserving links.

npx playbooks add skill nweii/agent-stuff --skill vault-synthesis

Review the files below or copy the command above to add this skill to your agents.

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SKILL.md
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---
name: vault-synthesis
description: "Synthesize information across vault notes: history rollups, frontmatter summaries, periodic rollups, and topic note creation. Use when aggregating, summarizing, or organizing content across multiple notes."
metadata:
  author: nweii
  version: "1.0.1"
  internal: true
---

# Vault Synthesis

Operations that synthesize, aggregate, or organize information across multiple notes in the Brain vault. This skill provides a unified framework for various synthesis patterns.

## When to Use

Use this skill when you need to:

- Compile periodic note mentions into a History note
- Generate or update `description` frontmatter for notes
- Roll up child note summaries into parent periodic notes
- Create topic hub notes that group related content

## Core Principles

All synthesis operations share these principles:

1. **Preserve source links**: Always maintain wikilinks back to source notes for traceability
2. **Respect hierarchy**: Understand the relationship between daily → weekly → quarterly notes
3. **Minimal overhead**: Synthesis should reduce cognitive load, not add organizational complexity
4. **Token efficiency**: Use description frontmatter and hierarchical summaries to enable efficient navigation

## Synthesis Operations

### History Rollup

Compile periodic note mentions of a project/domain into a consolidated [[Histories]] note.

**Triggers**: "Roll up history for [[Project]]", "Compile mentions of [[Topic]]"

See [references/history-rollup.md](references/history-rollup.md) for detailed workflow.

---

### Summarize to Frontmatter

Generate a `description` property for a note's YAML frontmatter based on content analysis.

**Triggers**: "Summarize this note", "Generate description for [[Note]]", "Add frontmatter summary"

See [references/summarize-frontmatter.md](references/summarize-frontmatter.md) for mode selection and guidelines.

---

### Periodic Rollup

Synthesize child note descriptions into a parent periodic note's description (e.g., weekly from dailies, quarterly from weeklies).

**Triggers**: "Roll up my weekly summary", "Summarize this quarter from weeks"

See [references/periodic-rollup.md](references/periodic-rollup.md) for the hierarchical synthesis process.

---

### Topic Note Creation

Create a Commentary topic note that groups related notes under a common theme, with automatic backlinking.

**Triggers**: "Group these under a topic about X", "Create topic note for [[A]], [[B]], [[C]]"

See [references/topic-note.md](references/topic-note.md) for the creation workflow.

---

## General Synthesis Guidance

If you encounter a synthesis need not covered by the specific workflows above, apply these general principles:

1. **Identify the scope**: What notes are being synthesized? What's the output format?
2. **Preserve provenance**: Link back to sources so the synthesis is traceable
3. **Level of abstraction**: Match the abstraction level to the purpose (detailed for working notes, high-level for indexes)
4. **Update related metadata**: If the synthesis creates new relationships, update `related` properties bidirectionally
5. **Use existing conventions**: Follow the vault's metadata system (categories, types, tags) when creating new notes

Overview

This skill synthesizes and organizes content across a vault of notes, producing history rollups, frontmatter summaries, periodic rollups, and topic hub notes. It streamlines cross-note aggregation so you can find high-value insights without manual copying or scattered context loss.

How this skill works

The skill scans selected notes and extracts salient lines, metadata, and timestamps, preserving wikilinks back to original sources for provenance. It then generates targeted outputs: a consolidated history note, a concise YAML frontmatter description, a parent periodic-summary from child descriptions, or a topic note that groups related items with backlinks. Outputs respect vault hierarchy and metadata conventions to remain navigable and token-efficient.

When to use it

  • Compile mentions of a project or domain into a single History note
  • Generate or update the `description` frontmatter for an individual note
  • Roll up daily note summaries into weekly or quarterly parent notes
  • Create a focused topic hub that groups related notes and backlinks
  • Any time you need traceable, low-overhead aggregation across many notes

Best practices

  • Always keep wikilinks to source notes in the synthesized output for traceability
  • Choose an abstraction level appropriate to the destination note (detailed for working notes, high-level for indexes)
  • Prefer frontmatter `description` fields for short navigational summaries to save tokens
  • Respect existing metadata (tags, categories, types) and update related properties bidirectionally
  • Run periodic rollups on a cadence (weekly/quarterly) to avoid large one-off syntheses

Example use cases

  • Roll up daily standup notes into a weekly summary that links to each day
  • Auto-generate a note's `description` frontmatter after significant edits
  • Aggregate mentions of a client across months into a single project history
  • Create a Topic note that groups all research notes on a given method with backlinks
  • Synthesize quarterly progress from weekly summaries for reporting

FAQ

Will synthesized notes keep links to original notes?

Yes. Every synthesis preserves wikilinks back to source notes so provenance is clear.

How does the skill decide abstraction level for rollups?

It matches the target: periodic rollups prioritize concise summaries of child descriptions, while history notes retain more context and representative excerpts.