People Intelligence

Step 1: Check for existing note

Search by name across person notes:

search_notes(query="<name>", note_types=["person"], page_size=5)

Also do a broad text search in case the note uses a different title format:

search_notes(query="<name>", search_type="text", page_size=10)

If a matching person note is found, read it:

read_note(identifier="<title>", include_frontmatter=true, output_format="json")

Freshness check: Scope research based on note age (check updated_at):

Note any previous [gotcha] or [controversy] observations — these guide what to look for in new research.

Append new observations rather than overwriting.

Step 2: Five-source enrichment (run in parallel)

Multi-query strategy: For Tavily, ask 2 targeted questions (bio/role and contributions/influence) rather than one broad query.

Launch these research queries simultaneously:

a) Basic Memory context — deep graph traversal:

People are key connectors in the knowledge graph — a single person may be referenced across engineering, indieweb, security, and accessibility clusters. The BM step is therefore deeper than in package-intel or tool-intel.

If a note exists, build context with depth 2 to discover second-hop connections:

build_context(url="<note-title>", depth=2, max_related=15)

Then search broadly for mentions across all note types:

search_notes(query="<name>", search_type="text", page_size=20)

If no note exists, run the text search first, then build context from the highest-scoring related note to explore its neighborhood:

search_notes(query="<name>", search_type="text", page_size=20)
build_context(url="<highest-scoring-related-note>", depth=1, max_related=10)

Relation mining: For each note that mentions the person, note:

• What role the person plays in that note (creator, advocate, author, inventor)
• Whether the mention is substantive or passing
• Which relation verb from the person schema best describes the connection

This produces a richer set of relations than just relates_to — use created, founded, maintains, works_with, enables where they apply.

Cross-cluster discovery: People often bridge unrelated graph clusters. After the initial search, check if results span multiple directories (e.g., results appearing in 3+ distinct directories). If so, the person is a cross-cluster connector — document this in a [connection] observation.

b) Raindrop — bookmarked articles by or about the person:

find_bookmarks(search="<name>")

If fewer than 3 results, search again with a known alias, project name, or domain (e.g., find_bookmarks(search="adactio") for Jeremy Keith):

find_bookmarks(search="<alias-or-project>")

If bookmarks are found, fetch content from the top 2-3 most relevant results:

fetch_bookmark_content(bookmark_id=<id>)

These are articles the user deliberately saved — high relevance signal.

c) Readwise — highlights from their writing:

readwise_search_highlights(vector_search_term="<name> <primary-domain>")
reader_search_documents(query="<name>")

Highlights contain expert-selected passages from the user's reading (books, articles, documentation). These have high signal-to-noise ratio and may surface insights not found in any other source. Reader documents may contain in-depth articles by or about the person.

If both return empty, note "source c: no Readwise content found" and proceed.

d) Tavily — biographical and professional data:

Two targeted queries:

tavily_search(query="<name> bio role current work projects contributions", max_results=5)
tavily_search(query="<name> <primary-domain> influence controversy", max_results=5)

If the person has a personal site (identifiable from Raindrop or Readwise results), extract the about page:

tavily_extract(urls=["<personal-site-url>/about"], query="role bio current projects")

This is the primary source for the role and impact fields.

e) DeepWiki — GitHub repository analysis (conditional):

Only run if Tavily or Raindrop surfaces a GitHub username or the person is primarily known as a developer/maintainer of open source projects.

ask_question(repo="<github-username>/<primary-repo>", question="What are this project's goals, design philosophy, and key patterns?")

The goal is understanding the person's approach through their work, not documenting the package API (that's what /package-intel does).

If no GitHub presence is evident, skip and note "source e: no GitHub presence found".

Step 3: Synthesize into note

Read the note template: ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/people-intel/references/note-template-person.md

Read the source guide for query refinement tips: ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/people-intel/references/source-guide.md

Fourth-wall guardrail: Before writing, verify every sentence passes the export test — "would someone unfamiliar with Basic Memory understand this paragraph?" Delete any sentence that:

• Claims the person "has no presence in Raindrop/BM"
• Explains where the note fits in the knowledge graph
• References the research process rather than the person
• Describes the note's coverage status rather than the person's work

This prevents the fourth-wall anti-pattern (self-referential content in subject-domain notes). See the vp-note-quality skill checklist for the full ruleset.

Title convention: <Full Name> - <Brief Descriptor>. The descriptor should be a concise phrase (3-8 words) capturing the person's primary contribution or role. Examples:

• Linus Torvalds - Linux Creator
• Tim Berners-Lee - World Wide Web Inventor
• Aaron Gustafson - Web Standards and Accessibility Advocate

Directory: Default to people/. If the person clearly belongs to a domain cluster with an existing directory convention, use that directory. When uncertain, use people/.

No wiki-links in observations. Never use [[Target]] syntax in observation lines. BM's parser treats any [[ as a relation boundary — the text before it becomes the relation_type field (max 200 chars), causing validation failures. Put all wiki-links in ## Relations only.

Step 4: Write or update the note

New person: Use write_note with the full template. Set note_type="person".

Existing person: Use edit_note with find_replace to insert new observations after the last existing - [category] line in ## Observations. Do NOT use operation="append" with section="Observations" — it appends to the end of the file, not the end of the section.

Step 5: Confirm and summarize

Report to the user:

• Note location (directory/title)
• Key findings from each source (1 line each)
• Any controversies or sensitivities surfaced
• Cross-links to be added in Step 6

Step 6: Cross-link existing notes

After writing the note, search for existing notes that reference this person in their body text or observations but lack a wiki-link back to them:

search_notes(query="<name>", search_type="text", page_size=15)

The page size is larger than in package-intel because person names appear in prose more often than package names. Filter carefully — only add links where the mention is substantive (attributing a quote, citing their work, listing them as a creator). Do not link notes that mention the name only in passing.

For each qualifying result (excluding the note just written):

1. Read its ## Relations section
2. If the person is mentioned in body/observations but not linked in Relations, add a link via edit_note with find_replace:

edit_note(
  identifier="<existing-note-title>",
  operation="find_replace",
  find_text="- <last_relation_type> [[<Last Existing Relation>]]",
  content="- <last_relation_type> [[<Last Existing Relation>]]\n- relates_to [[<person-title>]]"
)

Cross-linking is bidirectional: also check the new person note's ## Relations section. If source a) surfaced related project, standard, or concept notes that should link back, add created [[Project]], maintains [[Project]], or relates_to [[Standard]] relations using the person schema's relation vocabulary.

For adding outbound relations to the new person note itself:

edit_note(
  identifier="<person-title>",
  operation="find_replace",
  find_text="- <last_relation_type> [[<Last Existing Relation>]]",
  content="- <last_relation_type> [[<Last Existing Relation>]]\n- created [[<Project-Title>]]"
)

Only add links where the relationship is genuine. Skip this step for updates to existing notes where cross-links likely already exist.