Vicky Setup

Vicky Setup

Loaded automatically at SessionStart. Re-invoke /vicky:setup after /compact to restore Vicky context.

What Vicky provides

A demand-driven KB stored under vicky/ inside the project root. Conclusions and sources are markdown notes linked with [[wikilinks]]. The Obsidian vault is the project root itself — init scaffolds an .obsidian/ preset (Dataview + graph) at the root and the vicky/ KB subfolder beside it.

Skills (/vicky:<name>)

Skill	When
setup	Auto-fires on SessionStart. Re-invoke after /compact to restore context.
index [<path>]	Docs → KB sync. Mirrors changed *.md / *.mdx / *.rst / *.txt outside vicky/ into vicky/sources/docs/. Never indexes source code.
learn	Drain the pending queue into sources and refresh link graphs. No stub conclusions — synthesis is a separate step via conclude.
research "<topic>"	Topic-focused web research → sources + follow-up questions. Calls learn at the end.
experiment	Autonomous code-optimisation loop. Reads experiment.md, runs in worktrees, learns time estimates.

MCP tools

Tool	Use when
research-gap "<question>"	Default for any knowledge question. Returns KB context if found, auto-enqueues research when there's a gap. Honors WORKFLOW.md → auto_enqueue.
query "<question>"	Direct KB lookup, no auto-enqueue. Focus-biased per WORKFLOW.md.
learn	Drain the pending queue into sources. triage workflow filters to priority: high.
remember title content	Save findings to vicky/sources/ with frontmatter. Cannot write to conclusions/.
conclude title content sources	Save a derived conclusion to vicky/conclusions/. sources arg becomes [[wikilinks]] in frontmatter + body. Use once you have a real synthesis.
enqueue "<question>"	Manually queue a research question.
relink	Rebuild link graphs + related: frontmatter.
dashboard	Vault overview (counts, hubs, pending, sources awaiting synthesis, orphans, stale, tags) via Obsidian + Dataview. Call before research sessions and when the user asks about KB state.
dql "<query>"	Run arbitrary DQL. query="help" returns syntax reference + examples. Use for ad-hoc questions the fixed dashboard doesn't answer.
web-search	Drive external research when KB has no answer.

WORKFLOW.md — single source of truth

Read vicky/WORKFLOW.md once at session start, again whenever a tool result references a workflow.

Frontmatter keys that affect runtime:

• active_focus: [tag, topic] — biases query results, filters dashboard By focus section
• priority_tags: [perf, blocker] — emphasised in views
• auto_enqueue: true|false — when false, gaps are reported without being queued
• default_workflow: default | deep-dive | triage — triage makes learn only drain priority: high pending notes
• min_sources_per_conclusion: N — quality gate hint

Sections:

• Focus — what Vicky cares about right now (bullets)
• Active Rules — rules every tool call must honour
• Workflows — named procedures
• Routing — pipe table mapping question regex → workflow

Edits to WORKFLOW.md are picked up on the next tool call (mtime cache).

Dashboard + DQL prerequisites

dashboard and dql shell out to obsidian.com vault=<name> eval and require:

1. Obsidian installed (PATH or OBSIDIAN_CLI env var)
2. The vault open in a running Obsidian instance (the plugin's preset auto-enables Dataview on first open)
3. Dataview plugin loaded

If dashboard errors with "Obsidian is not running with the vault "..." open", instruct the user to open the vault in Obsidian first. Do not retry indefinitely — the 10s timeout is intentional.

Default behaviour for Claude

• Knowledge questions → start with research-gap
• "What's in the vault?" / activity questions → dashboard
• Ad-hoc structural queries (find all sources with tag X, recently-touched conclusions, etc.) → dql
• New finding worth keeping → remember
• After absorbing new sources → conclude for any source ready to synthesise
• After a research burst → relink to refresh the graph

Do not call learn reactively for every question — it drains the queue and is expensive. Run it when the user asks, when the queue has accumulated, or per WORKFLOW.md → default_workflow.

Vault layout (created by init)

The Obsidian vault is the project root. vicky/ is just the KB subfolder. .obsidian/ sits at the vault root, not inside vicky/.

<project root>/         ← Obsidian vault (open this directory in Obsidian)
├── .obsidian/          Dataview + graph + plugin preset (force-written by init)
└── vicky/
    ├── sources/         external research, papers, web findings
    ├── conclusions/     synthesised knowledge (only real synthesis — no stubs)
    ├── pending/         queued research questions
    ├── .graphify/       semantic graph state (graph.json — read by query_graph)
    ├── graphs/          Dataview-queryable wiki of the graph (vicky.md + clusters)
    ├── .graphifyignore  graphify scope (excludes pending/, graphs/, etc.)
    ├── WORKFLOW.md      focus + rules + routing (edit to steer)
    └── Dashboard.md     live Dataview views