commonplace

A Claude Code plugin that turns any folder into an LLM-maintained knowledge base. Inspired by the commonplace book tradition and Karpathy's approach to using LLMs for personal wiki management.

Works on any directory — Obsidian vault, plain folder, whatever. Obsidian is not required; it's just a good browser for [[wikilink]] markdown if you use it.

What it does

• wiki-init: Point commonplace at a folder for the first time → scaffold .wiki/, discover initial domains
• wiki-ingest: Share a paper, article, or URL → structured vault note + concepts + MOC links
• wiki-query: Ask research questions → answers with wikilinks + novel connections filed back
• wiki-lint: Ask "how's the vault?" → read-only health report
• autoimprove: "improve the vault" → score-gated loop that picks fixes, executes, re-scores, repeats
• wiki-compile: Fill concept stubs with real definitions from source papers
• wiki-supersede: Retire an entity replaced by a successor, propagate the live→historical reframing
• wiki-domain: Create or manage research domains with scope rules
• wiki-deep-link: Find hidden concept connections via local embeddings (Ollama)
• paper-analyzer: Deep paper analysis with smart PDF extraction and multi-agent review

How it works

Skills auto-trigger from natural conversation. You never type slash commands — just chat and the right skill activates.

Skill interactions

                        ┌─────────────┐
                        │  wiki-init  │  (one-time setup)
                        └──────┬──────┘
                               │ writes .vault-path
                               ▼
            ┌──────────────────────────────────────┐
            │            (vault is active)         │
            └──────────────────────────────────────┘
                               │
            ┌──────────────────┼──────────────────────────┐
            │                  │                          │
            ▼                  ▼                          ▼
     ┌────────────┐    ┌─────────────┐            ┌──────────────┐
     │ wiki-domain│    │ wiki-ingest │ ◀───┐      │  wiki-query  │
     └────────────┘    └──────┬──────┘     │      └──────┬───────┘
       (new domain             │ paper?    │             │ pivot Q
        when ingest             │ ─yes──▶ paper-analyzer  │ "how does
        finds none)             │           (returns      │  this relate
                                │            analysis)    │  to X?")
                                ▼                        │
                        ┌──────────────┐                 │ ◀────┘
                        │ supersession │   (post-ingest pivot
                        │  declared in │    auto-fires wiki-query)
                        │   body? ──yes┼─▶ wiki-supersede
                        └──────┬───────┘
                               │ no
                               ▼
                       ┌────────────────┐
                       │ post-write hook│
                       │  (deterministic)│
                       └──────┬─────────┘
                              │ dispatches
              ┌───────────────┼─────────────────┐
              ▼               ▼                 ▼
      wiki-moc-updater  wiki-impact-checker  wiki-cross-domain-linker
                                  │
                                  └─ supersession candidate ──▶ wiki-supersede

  Read-only path:                    Autonomous-write path:
  ┌──────────────┐                   ┌──────────────┐
  │  wiki-lint   │ ◀── if fixes ──▶ │ autoimprove  │
  │  (diagnose)  │     wanted        │ (score loop) │
  └──────────────┘                   └──────┬───────┘
                                            │ dispatches per round
                          ┌─────────────────┼────────────────┬──────────────────┐
                          ▼                 ▼                ▼                  ▼
                   wiki-linter      wiki-pruner      wiki-moc-updater   wiki-deep-linker
                                   (refuses retired                       (semantic
                                    → wiki-supersede)                      candidates)
                                            │
                                            ▼
                                    wiki-compile (inline at main-model cost)
                                            │
                                            ▼
                                    wiki-freshness-checker (post-loop)

  Bottom-up triggers (any skill → wiki-supersede):
    • wiki-query lands on retired note
    • wiki-pruner asked to delete retired
    • wiki-impact-checker flags candidate
    • commonplace lint reports retired-but-referenced

| Skill | Triggers on | Hands off to | Receives from | |---|---|---|---| | wiki-init | first-time setup; missing .vault-path | (none) | (entry point) | | wiki-domain | "set up a domain", "list domains" | (none) | wiki-ingest (no domain match) | | wiki-ingest | "save this", arXiv ID, paper URL | paper-analyzer; wiki-supersede; wiki-domain; post-write hook | (entry point) | | paper-analyzer | "analyze this paper"; arXiv without save intent | (returns analysis) | wiki-ingest | | wiki-query | "how does X relate to Y"; post-ingest pivot | wiki-supersede (retired note) | wiki-ingest | | wiki-supersede | "mark X retired"; body declares supersession; retired-but-live debt | (terminal) | wiki-ingest, wiki-query, wiki-pruner, wiki-impact-checker | | wiki-lint | "how's the vault" — read-only | autoimprove (if fixes wanted) | (entry point) | | autoimprove | "improve the vault", "what's the score" | wiki-linter, wiki-pruner, wiki-moc-updater, wiki-deep-linker, wiki-compile, wiki-freshness-checker | wiki-lint | | wiki-compile | "fill the stubs" | (none) | autoimprove; wiki-lint | | wiki-deep-link | "find hidden connections" (needs Ollama) | (none) | autoimprove (optional) |

Three-tier cost model:

1. TypeScript scripts (zero LLM cost) — indexing, validation, linting
2. Haiku agents (cheap) — mechanical fixes, wikilink insertion, MOC syncing
3. Main model (synthesis) — paper analysis, concept definitions, query answers

Install

git clone https://github.com/noopz/commonplace
cd commonplace
npm install

# Point it at your vault
npx tsx scripts/init.ts --vault /path/to/your/vault

Dependencies

• gray-matter — YAML frontmatter parsing
• glob — File pattern matching
• pdfjs-dist — PDF text extraction
• tsx — TypeScript execution