Vault Architect

The primitives are:

1. atomic-note — One idea per note (Miller 1956, cognitive chunking)
2. yaml-schema — Structured frontmatter metadata (Sweller 1988, cognitive load)
3. wiki-link — Bidirectional connections via [[brackets]] (Collins & Loftus 1975, spreading activation)
4. moc — Maps of Content as navigational hubs (Kintsch 1988, situation models)
5. domain-namespace — DOMAIN:type naming convention (Rosch 1975, prototype theory)
6. three-spaces — self/notes/ops separation (Tulving 1985, memory systems)
7. processing-pipeline — 6R capture-to-integration cycle (Paivio 1986, dual coding)
8. session-rhythm — Capture→Process→Integrate phases (Ebbinghaus 1885, spacing)
9. status-lifecycle — seed→growing→evergreen progression (Bjork 1994, desirable difficulty)
10. self-space — Agent identity persistence (Newell 1990, unified theories of cognition)
11. personality — Domain-native documentation voice (Clark 1996, common ground)
12. maintenance-hooks — Automated quality enforcement (Norman 1988, error prevention)
13. template-system — Note type schemas as single source of truth (Chi 2000, self-explanation)
14. ethical-guardrails — Safe AI interaction boundaries (Reason 1990, Swiss cheese model)
15. evolution-tracking — Architectural change logging (Schön 1983, reflective practice)

CLAUDE.md Generation

The CLAUDE.md is the system prompt that lives at the vault root. It is generated — not copied — by composing 8 feature blocks adapted to the user's domain and preferences. Read references/generator-claude-md.md for the master template.

The 8 Feature Blocks (Minified from 14)

Each block is a self-contained module that generates a section of the CLAUDE.md:

1. Structure (references/feature-structure.md) — Schema, atomic notes, template system. Merged from: schema.md + atomic-notes.md + templates.md
2. Navigation (references/feature-navigation.md) — MOCs, wiki-links, graph analysis. Merged from: mocs.md + wiki-links.md + graph-analysis.md
3. Processing (references/feature-processing.md) — 6R pipeline, session rhythm. Merged from: processing-pipeline.md + session-rhythm.md
4. Intelligence (references/feature-intelligence.md) — Methodology knowledge, concept matching. Merged from: semantic-search.md + methodology-knowledge.md
5. Personality (references/feature-personality.md) — Domain-native voice, self-space. Merged from: personality.md + self-space.md
6. Quality (references/feature-quality.md) — Maintenance, guardrails, helper functions. Merged from: maintenance.md + ethical-guardrails.md + helper-functions.md
7. Domains (references/feature-domains.md) — Multi-domain management. From: multi-domain.md
8. Runtime (references/feature-runtime.md) — Identity tracking, metabolic rates, reconciliation loops, desired-state gap reports. Added in v0.7.0

Vault Creation Protocol

When creating a vault, follow this sequence:

1. Discover user's domain, style, and scale through conversation
2. Map their needs to kernel primitives (not all 15 are always needed)
3. Create directory scaffold (three spaces + templates)
4. Generate CLAUDE.md by composing relevant feature blocks
5. Initialize self/ space with derived identity
6. Create master MOC and domain MOCs
7. Validate structure

Note Templates

Read references/note-templates.md for the complete template library. Every note type has a YAML frontmatter schema that serves as the single source of truth for that note's structure. Templates are stored in the vault's templates/ directory.