genesis

Initialize or reconfigure the cortex memory vault. Run once per machine, or again after switching machines to rebuild local state.

Steps

1. Check the cortex-vec CLI

Run command -v cortex-vec. If it is not on PATH, tell the user the vault's indexing and search need the CLI, and offer to install it now:

# Recommended: isolated tool install via uv
uv tool install cortex-vec

# Or with pip
pip install cortex-vec

If they decline, continue anyway — recording and the skills degrade gracefully — but note that semantic indexing and cortex-vec search stay unavailable until it is installed.

2. Check for existing config

Read ~/.cortex/config.json. If it exists, show current config and ask if the user wants to reconfigure or abort.

3. Ask for vault path

If the user provided an argument, use that as the vault path. Otherwise, ask: "Where is the cortex vault? (e.g. /srv/cortex, ~/cortex)"

If the path exists and contains Notes/ or Weekly/ or Raw/, recognize it as an existing vault. If the path doesn't exist, ask if they want to create it.

4. Ask for author info

Ask for:

• Author name (for git commits)
• Author email (for git commits)

5. Write config

Create ~/.cortex/ directory if needed, then write ~/.cortex/config.json:

{
  "vault_path": "<user's answer>",
  "author": "<name>",
  "author_email": "<email>",
  "git": {
    "auto_commit": true,
    "auto_push": false
  }
}

6. Initialize vault structure

Ensure these directories exist in the vault:

• Raw/
• Notes/
• Projects/
• Weekly/

Ensure log.md exists at the vault root. If missing, create it with:

---
created: <today>
---

# Cortex Log

Append-only record of vault operations (distill, evolve).

---

The file is append-only; do not overwrite if it exists.

7. Initialize git

If the vault is not a git repo, run git init and create an initial commit.

8. Rebuild _index.md

Scan every page under Notes/<topic>/ and Projects/<repo>/, skipping any path containing _archive. For each page extract the title, the tags from frontmatter, and a one-line summary.