/extract-ideas

Extract Ideas — Daily Note Idea Promoter

Scan recent daily notes, surface ideas worth promoting to standalone permanent notes, and help you decide what to graduate into your PARA system.

Obsidian Access

Use Obsidian CLI commands directly via Bash. If a CLI command fails, tell the user "Obsidian CLI isn't working — update Obsidian with CLI enabled."

Step 1: Scan Recent Daily Notes

Read the past 14 days of daily notes:

# Read each day individually
obsidian read path="2 - Areas/Daily Ops/YYYY/YYYY-MM-DD.md"  # for each of the past 14 days

For each daily note, extract candidates for graduation.

Explicit Signals

• #idea or #expand tags
• Language like "I should write about", "worth investigating", "need to explore"
• Named concepts (capitalized or in quotes)
• Unresolved [[links]] to notes that don't exist yet

Implicit Signals

• Paragraphs with high energy (longer passages, strong language)
• Original claims or frameworks (positions, not just events)
• Recurring themes across 3+ days
• Questions that keep appearing but never get their own note

What NOT to Extract

• Tasks and to-dos
• Meeting logistics
• Things that already have their own standalone note

Step 2: Cross-reference with Existing Vault

For each candidate:

obsidian search query="<candidate concept>" format=json

Categorize:

• New concept - No note exists. Best candidate for graduation.
• Underdeveloped - A note exists but it's thin. Candidate for enrichment.
• Already covered - Substantial note exists. Skip unless daily note adds something new.
• Recurring unresolved - Referenced as [[unresolved link]] multiple times. High priority.

Step 3: Present Candidates

Table ordered by priority (recurring/high-energy ideas first):

#	Idea / Concept	Source	Days Mentioned	Status	Recommendation
1	...	Feb 17, Feb 18	2	Unresolved link	Create standalone note
2	...	Feb 14	1	New concept	Create standalone note
3	...	Feb 6, Feb 12	2	Thin note exists	Enrich existing note

For each candidate include:

• 1-2 sentence summary of the idea
• Exact quote(s) from the daily notes
• What it connects to in the vault

Step 4: Graduate Selected Ideas

Ask which ideas to graduate, then for each:

Creating a new standalone note:

• Place in appropriate PARA folder:
  • Active idea with deadline -> 1 - Projects/
  • Ongoing area of interest -> 2 - Areas/
  • Reference/concept -> 3 - Resources/Coding/ or 3 - Resources/
• Write as mini-essay (3-8 paragraphs):
  • Core claim or question
  • Context from source daily notes
  • Connections to other vault notes as [[backlinks]]
  • Open questions or next steps
• Preserve original voice from daily notes
• Go back to source daily notes and add [[links]] to the new note

Enriching an existing note:

• Read the existing note
• Add new content with date header
• Add any new backlinks
• Update source daily notes with proper links

ALWAYS ask before creating or modifying files.

Step 5: Summary

Graduated Today

List of notes created or enriched, with links

Still in the Queue

Ideas surfaced but not graduated (flag if they reappear next run)

Vault Health

• Total ideas found in scan period
• Number graduated vs. skipped
• Recurring themes not yet graduated

Guidelines

• Keep graduated notes concise (3-8 paragraphs)
• Preserve original voice and energy from daily notes
• When in doubt, present and let user decide
• Target 5-10 minutes per run
• Always ask before creating or modifying files