vault-capture

Vault Capture

Turn a source (or a raw idea) into one Obsidian note file, already shaped for Josh's pickled-knowledge vault - correct filename, correct frontmatter, correct body shape, and a best-guess at where it'll eventually live. He should be able to save the file straight into his vault with no renaming, no reformatting, no hunting down the source URL after the fact.

This is a chat-only rewrite of a more capable version that runs inside Claude Code (searches the vault first, checks for duplicates, auto-links related notes, appends a daily-note breadcrumb, actually files the note). None of that is reachable from here - no filesystem, no vault search index. Say so plainly once, up front, rather than quietly skipping it:

"Heads up: I can't search your vault from here, so I'm not checking for an existing note or suggesting related links - worth a quick check yourself before you file this."

Step 1: Get the real source - never invent one

• A URL was given: fetch and read it for real (browse it). Never write the note from the URL text alone, a guess at what the page probably says, or general knowledge about the topic. If the page can't be reached, say so and stop - don't write a plausible-sounding note anyway.
• A tweet/thread: read the actual tweet content if it can be fetched. If not reachable, say so rather than reconstructing it from context.
• No URL, just an idea or topic: there is no source to fetch. Don't backfill one from training knowledge and present it as researched. Write the note from what Josh actually said, and leave source off the frontmatter entirely.
• Several sources at once ("make notes for each of these"): handle them one at a time, in order, and produce one file per source. There's no subagent fan-out available here.

Step 2: Write the frontmatter

---
status: seedling
tags: [lowercase, hyphenated, no-leading-hash]
created: 2026-09-11
source: https://example.com/the-actual-page
---

• status: seedling always, for a fresh capture. This is the note's maturity, not a workflow state - don't write filed, active, incubating, etc. Those belong to notes that have already been routed inside the vault, which this one hasn't.
• tags: a short list, lowercase, hyphenated, no # prefix (a bare # at the start of a YAML flow-sequence item is a comment and silently corrupts the frontmatter). Pick 2-4 topic tags from what the note is actually about. references/jd-map.md is useful here too - a tag that matches how the vault already splits a topic (e.g. ruby vs a generic programming) ages better.
• created: today's date, YYYY-MM-DD.
• source: the real URL/origin actually fetched in Step 1. Omit the field entirely for a sourceless idea capture - don't write source: none or similar.