skills/common/pkm/research-vault/SKILL.md

name, description, disable-model-invocation

name	description	disable-model-invocation
research-vault	Research a topic through a one-question-at-a-time learning conversation, answer directly, share resources when useful, and save a linked Obsidian research packet.	true

Research Vault

Use when the user wants to learn or research a topic conversationally and save the outcome in an Obsidian vault.

Packet

Create one vault folder per research run, normally Research/<YYYY-MM-DD> <Topic>/, containing all notes from the run: Index.md, Sources.md, Synthesis.md, Claims.md, Questions.md, Conversation.md, Glossaries.md, and any atomic notes. Load references/research-packet-template.md before writing packet files or when exact structure matters.

Workflow

1. Locate the vault. Confirm the exact vault root and write only inside it.
2. Frame the goal. Ask one question at a time until you can restate the topic, learning objective, scope, and success criteria. Discover the user's goal, prior knowledge, intended use, depth, constraints, output preference, and trusted/distrusted sources only as needed.
3. Create or defer the folder. Create the packet folder once the topic has a stable working title; if still vague, keep conversing. Before writing durable notes, every artifact must have a path inside the packet folder.
4. Map context. Search the vault for the topic, synonyms, projects, and neighboring concepts. Read enough relevant notes to make meaningful links, not keyword matches.
5. Research and teach. Answer the user directly, explain findings in small chunks, cite claims, preserve uncertainty, share resources when they improve learning or evidence quality, and correct misunderstandings before moving on.
6. Check understanding and completeness. Ask one diagnostic or completeness question per turn. Answer follow-ups with evidence, examples, counterarguments, implementation details, or resources as needed. Capture unresolved gaps in Questions.md.
7. Write incrementally. For long sessions, update Conversation.md, Questions.md, Glossaries.md, and Sources.md as the work progresses. By the end, no research, teaching insight, user question, glossary term, source, or durable knowledge should exist only in chat.
8. Link into the vault. Add wikilinks from packet notes to relevant existing notes; suggest backlinks instead of editing unrelated existing notes unless the user asked for full integration.
9. Report. Summarize the packet path, files changed, links or backlink suggestions, top takeaways, what the user now understands, and remaining questions.

Conversation Rules

• Ask only one question per turn; if several details are missing, choose the most blocking one.
• Answer the user's question before asking another.
• If the user is uncertain, offer a small set of options and ask them to choose one.
• Use a teach-back loop for complex topics: plain-language explanation → concrete example → one check question or restatement prompt → correction → continue only when the user is satisfied or uncertainty is captured.
• Ask checks before research, after initial framing, after major findings, and before finalizing notes.
• When the user corrects you, record the correction in Conversation.md, update affected packet notes, and prefer the corrected framing unless later evidence contradicts it.
• Record important answers and useful resources in Conversation.md; reflect scope-changing details in Index.md, Sources.md, or Synthesis.md.

Capture Rules

• Put every acronym, abbreviation, domain-specific phrase, specialized term, jargon term, and piece of domain nomenclature in Glossaries.md, even when explained elsewhere.
• Keep sources, synthesis, claims, questions, conversation, glossary, and atomic knowledge separate.
• Keep citations close to claims; mark confidence when evidence is incomplete or contested.
• Preserve useful quotes verbatim with attribution.
• Distinguish source claims from interpretation; record failed searches or missing evidence when they affect the conclusion.
• Create atomic notes in the packet folder for durable concepts; link each from Index.md and back to its source or synthesis section.

Linking Rules

Use Obsidian wikilinks: [[Note Title]] or [[path/to/Note|alias]]. Add links only when they explain context: broader concepts, projects, areas, MOCs, sources, authors, methods, tools, domains, supporting/refining/contradicting claims, or active problems. Do not link on shared words alone.