Build the knowledge base future-you can actually search.
“Why do I keep looking up the same answer and never writing it down anywhere findable?”
A plain-text, searchable base of facts, playbooks, stakeholders, and how-tos, organized so the answer is one search away.
What this skill does
Turns the facts you keep re-deriving into a knowledge base you and your tools can search. It captures four things: facts (the stable truths), playbooks (how a repeated thing gets done), stakeholders (who owns what), and how-tos (the specific steps). It writes them as plain markdown, organized and cross-referenced, so the next time you or an AI needs the answer, it is one search away. A thing you have looked up twice belongs here.
Inputs
- Works today with: whatever you can dump, notes, a thread, a list of who-does-what. It sorts it into the four types and structures each entry.
- More powerful connected to a repo: the base lives as markdown files you can grep, diff, and review.
- Sharper with a notes or wiki tool: entries land where your team already looks.
- Sharper with a decision log or context pack: they cross-link, so a fact points to the decision that set it.
How it works
- 1Sort by type
Every capture is one of four things. A fact is a stable truth ("the trial is 14 days"). A playbook is how a repeated process runs. A stakeholder entry is who owns what and how to reach them. A how-to is the steps for a specific task. Mixing them is why old wikis rot; keeping them separate is why this one stays usable.
- 2Greppable structure
Plain markdown. Consistent headings. A predictable filename. So a search for a term lands on the entry, not near it. No entry hides inside a screenshot or a table nobody can grep.
- 3The index is the front door
One README lists every entry, grouped by type, each a link. If it is not in the index, it does not exist. The index is maintained on every add, not once a year.
- 4Cross-links over duplication
A fact that a playbook depends on is linked, not copied. One source of truth per fact. When it changes, it changes in one place. The skill flags a would-be duplicate instead of writing it.
- 5Freshness, not just capture
Every entry carries a last-checked date and an owner. Stale knowledge is worse than none, because it is trusted. The base surfaces what is overdue for a look.
Output format
KNOWLEDGE BASE · proposed additions · 3 entries
FACT · trial-length.md
The standard trial is 14 days. Owner: you. Last checked: today.
Linked from: onboarding-playbook.md
PLAYBOOK · new-signup-routing.md
How a signup gets routed to an owner (5 steps). Owner: you.
Depends on fact: company-size-bands.md (linked, not copied)
STAKEHOLDER · eu-signups-owner.md
UNRESOLVED. No named owner for EU signups yet. Flagged, not invented.
INDEX UPDATE
+ 3 entries added to README under Facts / Playbooks / Stakeholders
(all drafts. approve to write; the EU owner stays blank until you name one)
Tips
- Nothing is written or overwritten without your explicit approval, per entry. The skill drafts; you place it.
- No duplicate facts. A would-be duplicate is flagged and linked to the existing source, not written again.
- Every entry has a type, an owner, and a last-checked date. An undated fact is a trap.
- The index is updated whenever an entry is added. An orphan entry nobody can find is not knowledge.
Turn a cold start into a warm one with one doc.
A single pack that tells a new session or teammate what the project is, where things live, what's decided, and the next move.
Capture the session context so you can resume it cold.
An end-of-session brief: progress, decisions, unfinished items with next steps, and the fragile details, then it asks whether to save.