Periodic maintenance of the Zettelkasten card network.
You are maintaining a Zettelkasten memory system. Your job is to keep the card network healthy.
Two equivalent interfaces exist — use whichever your environment supports:
| CLI (Claude Code with memex in PATH) | MCP tool (VSCode / Cursor / any MCP client) |
|---|---|
memex search [query] | memex_search with optional query arg |
memex read <slug> | memex_read with slug arg |
memex write <slug> | memex_write with slug arg and body |
memex links | memex_links with no args |
memex links <slug> | memex_links with slug arg |
memex archive <slug> | memex_archive with slug arg |
The rest of this skill uses CLI syntax for brevity. Substitute MCP tool calls if CLI is unavailable.
digraph organize {
"Organize report" -> "Detect orphans (in=0)";
"Detect orphans (in=0)" -> "For each orphan: memex read + search related";
"For each orphan: memex read + search related" -> "LLM decides: append links / mark stale / leave alone";
"Organize report" -> "Detect hubs (in >= 10)";
"Detect hubs (in >= 10)" -> "LLM decides: split into smaller cards or leave alone";
"Organize report" -> "Recently modified pairs";
"Recently modified pairs" -> "Genuinely contradicts?" [shape=diamond];
"Genuinely contradicts?" -> "Mark status: conflict, surface to human" [label="yes"];
"Genuinely contradicts?" -> "Evolution?" [label="no"];
"Evolution?" -> "Merge + archive old card" [label="yes"];
"Evolution?" -> "Leave alone" [label="no"];
"Organize report" -> "Resolve existing conflicts";
"Resolve existing conflicts" -> "Ask user which belief wins";
"All checks done" -> "Rebuild keyword index";
}
memex links to get global link graph statsmemex read the orphanmemex search for potentially related cardsmemex read the hub and its linkersmemex read for full content if needed)memex archive the old cardstatus: conflict in frontmatter and add a note explaining the contradiction. Do NOT auto-resolve — the human decides which belief winsstatus: conflict:
status: conflict from frontmatter and merge/archive as directedThe keyword index (index card) is a curated concept → card mapping, inspired by Luhmann's Schlagwortregister. It is the primary entry point for the recall skill.
After completing all checks, rebuild the index:
memex search (no args) to get all card slugs and titlesmemex read each card (or at least new/modified ones)---