Archive Article

Move an article to the archive while preserving its URL for external links. Archived articles display a notice to visitors explaining the content is no longer maintained.

When to Use

• •When explicitly invoked: /archive
• •When removing content you no longer want on the site
• •When an article is outdated but may have external links pointing to it
• •When retiring content without breaking incoming URLs

Arguments

Provide as space-separated arguments or answer when prompted:

1. •Article path: obsidian/concepts/article-to-archive.md
2. •Reason (optional): Why this article is being archived

Example: /archive obsidian/topics/old-article.md "Content no longer relevant"

Instructions

1. Validate Input

Verify the source file exists and is archivable:

• •File must exist in obsidian/
• •File must be in a sync directory (topics/, concepts/, voids/, apex/, etc.)
• •File must not already be in archive/

If no argument is provided, ask the user which article to archive.

2. Check for References

Search for wikilinks to this article in active content:

grep -r "[[article-slug" obsidian/

Report any references found. The user may want to:

• •Update references to point elsewhere
• •Proceed anyway (references will link to archived version)
• •Cancel the archive

3. Calculate Archive Path

Map from obsidian path to archive path:

• •obsidian/concepts/article.md → archive/concepts/article.md
• •obsidian/topics/article.md → archive/topics/article.md
• •obsidian/voids/article.md → archive/voids/article.md

Create the archive subdirectory if it doesn't exist.

4. Move and Update Article

1. •

   Move file to archive directory

2. •

   Update frontmatter by adding archive metadata:

archived: true
archived_date: [current ISO timestamp in UTC]
archive_reason: "[user-provided reason or 'Content retired']"
original_path: "/[original-section]/[original-slug]/"

If the article is being replaced by another, also add:

superseded_by: "/[replacement-section]/[replacement-slug]/"

The original content remains intact below the frontmatter. The archive notice will be displayed by Hugo templates.

5. Log to Changelog

Append to obsidian/workflow/changelog.md:

### HH:MM - archive
- **Status**: Success
- **Archived**: [original path] → [archive path]
- **Reason**: [reason]
- **References found**: [count or "none"]

6. Commit Changes

Create a git commit:

feat(auto): archive - [article-slug]

Archived: [original-path] → [archive-path]
Reason: [reason]

Important

• •ALWAYS preserve the original content (never delete or truncate)
• •ALWAYS update frontmatter with archival metadata
• •The original URL will continue to work via the archive
• •Hugo templates handle displaying the archive notice
• •If the user wants to redirect to a replacement article, use the superseded_by field