Refine Daily Notes

Improve an Obsidian daily note by polishing prose, adding missing wikilinks to maintain a rich knowledge graph, extracting long sections into dedicated notes, and suggesting new vault entities.

Workflow

Phase 0: Setup

1. •Run echo $OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH to get the vault root. If empty, ask the user for the path.
2. •Determine the target date: use the argument if provided (e.g., /refine 2026-02-14), otherwise use today.
3. •Read the daily note at $VAULT/📅 Daily Notes/{date}.md. Error if missing.

Phase 1: Discover Vault Entities

Build a catalog of all known entities so you can match them against the daily note text.

1. •Projects: List files recursively in $VAULT/🗂️ Projects/ — extract project names from filenames
2. •People: List files in $VAULT/👤 Persons/ — read each file to extract aliases from frontmatter
3. •Topics: List files in $VAULT/📚 Topics/ — extract topic names from filenames
4. •Coding sessions: List files in $VAULT/💻 Coding/ — for cross-reference awareness

This gives you the full entity catalog to match against the daily note.

Phase 2: Analyze & Improve Writing

Review each section of the daily note:

• •Skip time entries — the bullet list at the top (lines like - [[Project]] - task - duration) is structured data for the intervals skill. Never modify these.
• •Improve prose — fix grammar, improve clarity, tighten wording. Keep it concise.
• •Fix formatting — consistent heading levels, list styles, spacing.
• •Preserve todos — don't reorder, rewrite, or change checkbox state. Only improve prose around them.
• •Author's voice — improve clarity without rewriting the user's natural style. Don't make it sound like AI wrote it.

Phase 3: Add Missing Wikilinks

Scan all text (outside time entries) for mentions of known entities:

• •Projects: Add [[Project Name]] links where project names appear unlinked
• •People: Add [[Full Name]] or [[Full Name|Alias]] when a short name or alias is used
• •Topics: Add [[Topic]] links where topic names appear unlinked
• •Heading style: Use ### [[Project]] for project section headings consistently

Rules:

• •Don't double-link — skip text already inside [[...]]
• •Don't link inside time entry lines
• •Link known entities freely without asking the user

Phase 4: Extract Long Sections

Identify sections that are >~20 lines or contain substantial standalone content worth its own note.

For each extractable section:

1. •Determine destination: 🗂️ Projects/ subtree or 📚 Topics/ based on content
2. •Create the new note with proper format:
   markdown

   # {Title}
   
   {Extracted content}
   
   ## Related
   - [[📅 Daily Notes/{date}]]
   

3. •Replace the section in the daily note with a brief summary + [[wikilink]] to the new note

Present all proposed extractions to the user for approval before executing. Show what would be extracted, where it would go, and what the replacement summary would look like.

Phase 4b: Suggest New Entities

Identify mentions of people, projects, or topics that don't match any existing vault note.

Present these as candidates:

It looks like **Jane Smith** and **ProjectX** are mentioned but don't have vault pages yet.
Want me to create them?

For each confirmed new entity, create the note following vault conventions:

• •

  Person: $VAULT/👤 Persons/{Name}.md

  markdown

  ---
  aliases:
    - {short name}
  ---
  # {Full Name}
  
  **Role**: {if known}
  **Projects**: {if known}
  
  ## Notes
  

• •

  Project: $VAULT/🗂️ Projects/{Name}.md (or appropriate subdirectory)

  markdown

  # {Project Name}
  
  {Brief description if known}
  
  ## Related
  

• •

  Topic: $VAULT/📚 Topics/{Name}.md

  markdown

  # {Topic Name}
  
  {Brief definition if known}
  
  ## Related
  
  ## Notes
  

After creating new entities:

• •Add them to the respective MOC file (e.g., Persons MOC, Topics MOC) if one exists
• •Link them in the daily note (they now exist as vault pages)

Phase 5: Apply & Confirm

1. •Show a summary of all proposed changes before writing:
   • •Prose improvements (brief description)
   • •Wikilinks added (list them)
   • •Sections extracted (destination paths)
   • •New entities created (paths)
2. •Get user approval before applying
3. •Apply changes: edit the daily note, create any extracted/new entity notes
4. •Report: what was changed, what was linked, what was extracted, what was created

Key Rules

• •Never modify time entries — the bullet list at the top is structured data
• •Preserve todos — only improve prose around them
• •Link known entities freely — no need to ask for entities that already exist
• •Offer to create unknown entities — ask before creating new vault pages
• •Author's voice — improve clarity without rewriting style
• •Idempotent — running twice shouldn't cause issues (don't re-extract already-extracted sections, don't double-link)
• •Show before applying — always preview changes for user approval