---
title: knowledge-wiki - Knowledge Base
description: Maintain a local structured knowledge base with automatic archiving, categorisation, and cross-referencing
---

Organises notes, insights, and reference materials from your conversations into a structured local knowledge base, automatically maintaining an index and cross-references between pages.

`knowledge-wiki` maintains a `knowledge/` directory in your workspace — essentially the Agent's "second brain". The skill is marked `always: true`, so it is **always loaded** and requires no external dependencies.

## When It Triggers

- You share an article, document, or URL that you want to keep for future reference
- A conversation produces conclusions worth retaining long-term
- You want to look up something you accumulated earlier

## Directory Structure

```
knowledge/
├── index.md           # Global index (must be maintained)
├── log.md             # Operation log (append-only)
└── <category>/        # Category subdirectories (grouped by content)
    └── <slug>.md      # Knowledge page (lowercase-hyphenated filename)
```

## Three Core Operations

### 1. Ingest

When you share some material, the Agent will:

1. Read and understand the original content, extracting key information
2. Decide which category it belongs to — check `index.md` first; create a new category if none fits
3. Generate a knowledge page at `knowledge/<category>/<slug>.md`
4. Update the index `index.md` and the log `log.md`

### 2. Synthesise

When a conversation produces new conclusions or insights:

1. Create a new knowledge page under an appropriate category
2. Add cross-links to and from related existing pages
3. Update the index and log

### 3. Query

When you ask about previously accumulated knowledge:

1. Search `index.md` for potentially relevant pages
2. Open specific pages with the `read` tool
3. Supplement with `memory_search` if needed
4. Include links to knowledge pages in the answer so you can click through to the source

## Page Format

```markdown
# Page Title

> Source: <source URL or brief description>

Body content. Link between pages using relative paths:
[Related Page](../category/related-page.md)

## Key Points

- ...

## Related Pages

- [Page A](../category/page-a.md) — why it's related
```

<Note>
- `> Source:` records where this knowledge came from. Always include it when there is a clear source
- Cross-references are important: when creating or updating a page, remember to add back-links in the related pages too
- **Only link to pages that already exist.** If a concept deserves its own page, create it first, then add the link
</Note>

## Index Format

`knowledge/index.md` uses a flat list grouped by category, one knowledge page per line:

```markdown
# Knowledge Index

## Category A
- [Page Title](category-a/page-slug.md) — one-line summary

## Category B
- [Page Title](category-b/page-slug.md) — one-line summary
```

No tables, no emojis. Category names and organisation can be adjusted freely.

## Log Format

`knowledge/log.md` is append-only — newest entries go at the bottom:

```markdown
## [YYYY-MM-DD] ingest | Page Title
## [YYYY-MM-DD] synthesize | Page Title
```

## Writing Guidelines

- **Filenames**: lowercase with hyphens, e.g. `machine-learning.md`
- **One topic per page** — link related content across pages
- **Update, don't duplicate** — if a page already exists, update it rather than creating a new one
- **Always update the index** `knowledge/index.md` after any change
- **Distill, don't copy** — capture the key points, not the entire source
- **Use full paths when referencing knowledge pages in conversations**, e.g. `[Title](knowledge/<category>/<slug>.md)`. Use relative paths only for inter-page links
- **Include links when answering questions based on knowledge pages** so users can dig deeper
