Knowledge Vault

Personal knowledge management repository combining the PARA method (organization by actionability) with the Zettelkasten method (atomic, cross-linked notes). All content is plain Markdown.

Structure

knowledge-vault/
├── 0-Inbox/              # Unsorted fleeting notes awaiting triage
├── 1-Projects/           # Active projects: defined outcome + deadline
│   ├── <slug>.md         # simple project (single file)
│   └── <slug>/<slug>.md  # project with supporting files (folder form)
│       └── drafts/       # (optional) blog post drafts for that project — see Publisher
├── 2-Areas/              # Ongoing areas of responsibility, no end date
├── 3-Resources/          # Reference material, source/literature notes, topics of ongoing interest
├── 4-Archive/            # Mirrors 1/2/3 above: 1-Projects/, 2-Areas/, 3-Resources/
├── Journal/
│   ├── YYYY/MM/YYYY-MM-DD/<zettel-id>.md   # Zettelkasten notes, filed by the day they were written
│   └── templates/        # Note templates (e.g. zettel-template.md)
├── agents/               # Per-role agent context prompts (librarian, project-manager, ...)
├── tmp/                  # Inter-agent communication directory
│   ├── target-librarian/     # Pending tasks for Librarian agent
│   ├── target-project-manager/  # Pending tasks for Project Manager agent
│   ├── target-archivist/     # Pending tasks for Archivist agent
│   ├── target-performance-reviewer/  # Pending tasks for Performance Reviewer agent
│   ├── target-architect/     # Pending tasks for Architect agent
│   ├── target-software-engineer/  # Pending tasks for Software Engineer agent
│   ├── target-publisher/     # Pending tasks for Publisher agent
│   ├── target-advisor/       # Pending tasks for Advisor agent (conversational role, rarely used)
│   └── target-$agent/         # Pending tasks for other agents
├── AGENTS.md             # Index of agents/ — read PREFERENCES.md first
└── PREFERENCES.md        # Master preferences for all agents

PARA

Projects — short-term efforts with a clear goal and deadline.
Areas — long-term responsibilities to maintain over time.
Resources — reference material and topics of ongoing interest, including source/literature notes (summaries, quotes) taken from books, articles, or talks.
Archive — inactive items from any of the above, moved into a mirrored 4-Archive/1-Projects|2-Areas|3-Resources/ structure (same slug/filename, new parent folder) so project/area/resource frontmatter references keep resolving — search checks the live folder first, then Archive.

Journal (Zettelkasten)

Every atomic note (one idea, in your own words) lives under Journal/YYYY/MM/YYYY-MM-DD/<zettel-id>.md, filed by the date it was written. The trailing YYYY-MM-DD folder repeats the parent path on purpose — it keeps each day self-contained for fast search/navigation.
New notes start from Journal/templates/zettel-template.md.
Fleeting captures go to 0-Inbox/ first and get triaged into the structure above (either a PARA folder or a dated Journal note) during review.
A zettel note can relate to a Project, Area, and/or Resource — see the frontmatter schema below.

Conventions

Zettel id / filename: YYYYMMDDHHmm (creation timestamp), e.g. Journal/2026/08/2026-08-24/202608241030.md.
Use relative Markdown links between notes.
Tag notes with YAML frontmatter (tags: []) for topical retrieval.

Frontmatter schema

Zettel notes (Journal/**/*.md):

id: YYYYMMDDHHmm
title:
aliases: []    # alternate display names
tags: []
created: YYYY-MM-DD
links: []      # ids of related Journal notes
project: []    # slugs (filename, no path/extension) of files in 1-Projects/ this note supports
area: []       # slugs (filename, no path/extension) of files in 2-Areas/ this note supports
resource: []   # slugs (filename, no path/extension) of files in 3-Resources/ this note references
people: []     # slugs identifying peers/reports this note involves (tag only, no backing file)

PARA notes (1-Projects/, 2-Areas/, 3-Resources/):

id: YYYYMMDDHHmm
title:
aliases: []    # alternate display names
tags: []
created: YYYY-MM-DD
status: active   # active | paused | done | archived
people: []     # slugs identifying peers/reports this note involves (tag only, no backing file)

Agents

This vault is worked on by several specialized agents (Librarian, Project Manager, Archivist, Performance Reviewer, Architect, Senior Software Engineer, Publisher, Advisor), each with its own context prompt under agents/. Notably, the Architect reasons from this vault’s own content, while the Senior Software Engineer is a read-only debugging/Q&A role over enterprise GitHub repos — see agents/architect.md and agents/software-engineer.md. The Publisher turns vault content into posts for Juan’s Jekyll/ minimal-mistakes blog at cornerinthemiddle.com, drafted under 1-Projects/<slug>/drafts/ — see agents/publisher.md. The Advisor handles personal guidance, reflection, and cultural awareness conversations — see agents/advisor.md. See AGENTS.md for the full index and PREFERENCES.md for communication/working preferences shared by all of them.

Devin

This repository includes a Devin environment blueprint at .devin/blueprint.yaml so it can be opened as a Devin workspace with no manual environment setup (documentation-only repo, no build/test steps).