Table of Contents
- •What It Is
- •Quick Start
- •Calculate Garden Metrics
- •Output Formats
- •When to Use
- •Content Maturity Levels
- •Core Workflow
- •Garden Layout Template
- •Maintenance Cadence
- •Success Metrics
- •Detailed Resources
- •Integration
Digital Garden Cultivator
Design, manage, and evolve digital gardens as living knowledge bases. Digital gardens are interconnected note collections that grow organically, emphasizing evolution over perfection.
What It Is
A digital garden approach to knowledge management that:
- •Builds dynamic knowledge bases that evolve over time
- •Connects notes through bidirectional links
- •Incubates ideas before formalizing as documentation
- •Creates discovery paths for information navigation
- •Tracks content maturity and maintenance needs
Quick Start
Calculate Garden Metrics
bash
python scripts/garden_metrics.py path/to/garden.json --format brief
Verification: Run python --version to verify Python environment.
Output Formats
- •
json- Full metrics as JSON - •
brief- One-line summary - •
prometheus- Prometheus exposition format
When To Use
- •Building dynamic knowledge bases that evolve over time
- •Connecting notes, skills, and palaces through bidirectional links
- •Incubating ideas before formalizing as documentation
- •Creating discovery paths for navigating information
- •Managing content lifecycle (seedling → growing → evergreen)
When NOT To Use
- •Creating memory palace structures - use memory-palace-architect
- •Evaluating new knowledge
- •use knowledge-intake
- •Creating memory palace structures - use memory-palace-architect
- •Evaluating new knowledge
- •use knowledge-intake
Content Maturity Levels
| Level | Status | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Seedling | New/rough | Early ideas, incomplete thoughts |
| Growing | Developing | Being actively refined |
| Evergreen | Mature | Stable, well-developed content |
Core Workflow
- •Collect Sources - Gather notes, bookmarks, ideas
- •Plan Structure - Define garden organization
- •Create Links - Build bidirectional connections
- •Schedule Maintenance - Establish tending cadence
- •Document Outputs - Convert mature ideas to formal docs
Garden Layout Template
yaml
garden:
sections: ["research", "patterns", "experiments"]
plots:
- name: "My First Note"
purpose: "reference" # reference | evergreen | lab
maturity: "seedling" # seedling | growing | evergreen
inbound_links: []
outbound_links: []
last_tended: "2025-11-24T10:00:00Z"
Verification: Run the command with --help flag to verify availability.
Maintenance Cadence
| Action | Frequency | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Quick prune | Every 2 days | Remove dead links, fix typos |
| Stale review | After 7 days inactive | Assess content freshness |
| Archive | After 30 days inactive | Move to archive or delete |
Success Metrics
- •Link density - Average links per piece of content
- •Bidirectional coverage - % of links that are reciprocal
- •Freshness - Time since last update per area
- •Maturity ratio - Evergreen content / total content
Detailed Resources
- •Linking Patterns: See
modules/linking-patterns.md - •Maintenance Guide: See
modules/maintenance.md - •Metrics Integration: See
modules/maintenance.md
Integration
- •
memory-palace-architect- Host garden within palace structure - •
knowledge-locator- Search garden content - •
session-palace-builder- Seed garden from session insights
Troubleshooting
Common Issues
Pre-commit hooks failing
Run SKIP=... git commit to bypass temporarily, then fix issues
Merge conflicts
Use git merge --abort to reset, then resolve conflicts carefully
Commit rejected Check hook output and fix reported issues before committing again