LLM Wiki

Philosophy

Cited local files beat remembered answers.

When To Use

Use when durable local markdown should change.

Anti-Patterns

Avoid one-off answers, uncited summaries, and broad vault reorganization.

Inputs

Confirm domain, vault/workspace path, raw-source path, source sensitivity (public, internal, confidential, or restricted), workflow (ingest, query, lint, or repair), citation style, attachment path, and whether reusable answers should be filed back into the wiki.

Discovery Interview

Ask one round at a time: one plain-language question plus Why this matters:; avoid dumping the full interview plan at once.

Constraints

Redact sensitive content by default. Keep raw sources read-only. Preserve citations.

Execution Boundaries

Write only approved pages, indexes, logs, schemas, governance files, or narrow helpers. Require explicit approval for private attachments, network retrieval, sync/sharing, publishing, vector infrastructure, bulk renames, merges, or reorganization.

Workflows

Ingest: classify each source, read one source or bounded batch, extract path/page/heading evidence, create or update source summaries, update affected concept/entity/synthesis pages, strengthen wikilinks, then update index and log.

Query: start with index/log and linked pages, read raw sources only when needed, answer with citations, mark uncertainty, and file reusable synthesis back into the wiki when it will compound.

Lint: check contradictions, stale claims, orphan pages, missing concepts, weak links, duplicate aliases, unsupported assertions, brittle attachments, and data gaps. Formal sweeps return schema_version: lint-report/v1 with severity, evidence, status, and owner.

Concrete Output Shapes

Use these compact patterns: index rows - [[concepts/local-first-knowledge]] - claim area; source summaries with optional frontmatter type, status, sources, aliases, confidence, reviewed, and supersedes; citations like [raw/articles/source.pdf#p4]; log rows like 2026-05-24: added [[sources/x]], updated [[concepts/y]], no bulk renames.

Complete ingest example:

# wiki/sources/2026-05-24-smith-local-wikis.md
---
type: source-summary
status: active
sources: ["raw/articles/smith-local-wikis.pdf"]
aliases: ["Smith local wikis"]
confidence: medium
reviewed: 2026-05-24
---
## Summary
Local markdown wikis stay auditable when claims cite raw evidence. [raw/articles/smith-local-wikis.pdf#p4]

# wiki/concepts/local-first-knowledge.md
Local-first knowledge keeps raw sources stable while wiki pages evolve through cited updates. See [[sources/2026-05-24-smith-local-wikis]].

# wiki/index.md
- [[concepts/local-first-knowledge]] - local markdown as auditable knowledge base

# wiki/log.md
- 2026-05-24: added [[sources/2026-05-24-smith-local-wikis]] and updated [[concepts/local-first-knowledge]]; no bulk renames.

Update Gates

A wiki update passes when every changed claim has a source citation or explicit uncertainty marker, new wikilinks resolve or are intentional stubs, aliases do not create duplicate identities, attachments stay under the approved local asset path, index/log entries name the change, and no broad rename/reorganization happened. Fail fast: stop at the first failed gate; do not proceed. Optional local checks: rg -n "\\[\\[[^]]+\\]\\]" wiki/ for wikilinks and find raw/assets -type f for attachments.

Outputs

Return changed pages, index/log updates, lint/schema outputs, privacy/citation status, and command outcomes. Schema-bound outputs include schema_version.

Failure Mode

Fail closed when provenance, sensitivity, citation policy, page ownership, or bulk-reorganization authority is unclear. Report the smallest safe next action.

Gotchas

Obsidian filenames are identities; preserve them unless a rename is explicit.

Progressive Disclosure

This file is self-contained for ordinary work. Use references/ only for multi-user operations, scheduled maintenance, confidence/supersession policy, typed relations, hybrid retrieval, or consolidation.

Validation

For vault work, run Update Gates plus user-provided checks. For skill edits, run strict audit and the closest smoke/external review. Fail fast: stop at the first failed gate; do not proceed. Report exact pass/fail/blocker outcomes.

Examples

• User says: "Create an Obsidian vault from raw/articles with source summaries, concept pages, frontmatter, wikilinks, and a log."
• User says: "Audit the team-notes vault for orphan pages, weak links, stale claims, duplicate aliases, and unsupported assertions."
• User says: "The customer-call corpus is confidential and has no redaction policy yet; diagnose the safe next step."