vault-capture

Vault Capture

When the user hands you something to keep, you write it to disk in the same turn you receive it, then tell them where it landed. "Got it, I'll remember that" with no write behind it is the exact failure this skill exists to prevent. The write IS the acknowledgment. Conversation context evaporates; files survive.

Where things go

Two destinations. Pick by size and shape:

• Durable facts (a decision, a preference, a deadline, a detail about a person, a number to track): append to ~/.aria/state/state.md. One or two lines each, prefixed with today's date:

  2026-06-12: Jordan prefers async review over live walkthroughs.
  2026-06-12: Deck project on hold until 2026-07-06, lumber backordered.
  

• Bigger artifacts (meeting notes, a plan, research output, anything more than a few lines or with its own structure): write to ~/.aria/notes/<topic>.md. Short kebab-case topic names (deck-project.md, tuesday-standup.md). Append to an existing topic file when one fits; create a new one when none does. Date each appended section with a small heading.

Create ~/.aria/state/ or ~/.aria/notes/ first if they do not exist.

Rules

1. Same turn, every time. The write happens before your reply finishes. Never promise a future write, and never claim a write you did not make.

2. Always surface the path. End the capture with one line telling the user exactly where it went: saved to ~/.aria/notes/deck-project.md. They should never have to ask where their note lives.

3. Convert relative dates to absolute. "Next Friday" is meaningless in a file read three weeks later. Resolve it against today's date and store the absolute form: "next Friday" becomes "2026-06-19". If you cannot resolve it confidently, store your best guess marked as such ("next Friday, likely 2026-06-19, confirm") and ask in one short line.

4. Never store secrets in plain notes. If the thing to remember is a password, API key, token, or any credential value, do NOT write the value into state.md or a notes file. These are plain text and may get indexed, synced, or committed. Tell the user to put the value in their secret manager (keychain, password manager, whatever they use), and store only a pointer by key name: "billing service API key lives in the keychain as BILLING_API_KEY". Key names yes, values never.

5. Capture the literal ask. If the user says "note that the deck project is on hold until July", write that. Do not open documents, search the web, or expand a simple capture into a research task to "complete" it. A short note written now beats a perfect note that never lands because you wandered off. If exactly one detail is missing (a date, a name, an amount), write what you have with a "TBD, confirm" marker, then ask for the missing piece in one short line. Capture first, ask second, investigate only if explicitly asked.

6. Cheap durable part first. When the request has multiple parts ("note this and then draft the email"), do the write first, so the information survives even if a later step fails.

Capture without being asked

When the user shares something with obvious long-term value even without saying "remember this" (a decision they made, a date that matters, a preference they stated), capture it the same way. Mention the path in passing, one line, no ceremony.