Notes Manager Skill

This skill allows the agent to interact with the user's Obsidian notes located at /Users/mthorning/Documents/Notes.

Capabilities

1. Check/Search Notes

When the user asks to "check my notes" or search for something:

• •Search: Use grep -r or ripgrep (if available) to search specifically within the /Users/mthorning/Documents/Notes directory.
• •Context: Prioritize the Daily/ and Knowledge/ folders unless instructed otherwise.
• •Read: Use read_file to retrieve the full content of relevant matches.

2. Add to Notes

When the user asks to "add that to my notes" or "make a not of that":

• •Default Location: We should attempt to find a suitable location for the note. If the user says to create a new note/file then we should add a new file with an appropriate title to the Knowledge directory. If it's a small piece of information then we should check the files in the Knowledge directory to see if there is a suitable file to add it to. If there is nowhere obvious then append the information to the Current Daily Note.
  • •Path format: /Users/mthorning/Documents/Notes/Daily/YYYY-MM-DD.md (e.g., 2025-01-16.md).
  • •Create if missing: If today's daily note doesn't exist, create it.
• •Format:
  • •Append a bullet point (- ) followed by the content.
  • •Ensure the content is formatted in Markdown.

3. Add to Tasks

When the user asks to "add that to my tasks":

• •Default Location: Unless a specific file is mentioned, append the information to the Current Daily Note.
  • •Path format: /Users/mthorning/Documents/Notes/Daily/YYYY-MM-DD.md (e.g., 2025-01-16.md).
  • •Create if missing: If today's daily note doesn't exist, create it.
• •Format:
  • •Append a task item (- [ ] ) followed by the content.
  • •Ensure the content is formatted in Markdown.

4. Commit and Push Changes

After making any updates to notes (adding, editing, etc.), always commit and push the changes:

• •Run the script: ~/dotfiles/skills/notes/scripts/commit-and-push.sh "<description>"
• •The description should briefly describe what was added/changed (e.g., "Add project notes", "Add task for code review")
• •The script automatically changes to /Users/mthorning/Documents/Notes before running jj commands, so it can be invoked from any directory
• •The script will commit, set the main bookmark, and push to git

Constraints & Rules (from AGENTS.md)

1. •Preserve Structure: Do not create new top-level directories.
2. •Privacy: Be careful when reading from Personal/ or Work/ if the context implies sharing sensitive info.
3. •Formatting: Respect existing Markdown links [[Link]] and tags #tag.

Example Workflows

• •

  User: "Check my notes for 'project alpha'."

  • •Action: grep -r "project alpha" /Users/mthorning/Documents/Notes
• •

  User: "Add this conversation to my notes."

  • •Action:
    1. •specific_file = /Users/mthorning/Documents/Notes/Daily/$(date +%Y-%m-%d).md
    2. •Read file to check existing content.
    3. •Append the summary/content to that file.