Life Skills

Personal knowledge management using flat markdown files with YAML front matter stored in a local git repository.

Data Location

All data lives in ~/.local/share/life/ with one subdirectory per domain:

~/.local/share/life/
  memories/
  people/
  projects/
  engagements/
  thoughts/

Each entry is a single markdown file with YAML front matter and an optional body.

File Naming Conventions

Domain	Pattern	Example
memories	YYYY-MM-DD-slugified-title.md	2025-06-15-prefers-dark-mode.md
people	slugified-full-name.md	jane-doe.md
projects	slugified-project-name.md	life-skills.md
engagements	YYYY-MM-DD-slugified-title.md	2025-06-15-review-api-design.md
thoughts	YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS.md	2025-06-15-143022.md

Slugify: lowercase, replace non-alphanumeric with hyphens, collapse multiple hyphens, trim.

Domain: Memories

Store facts, preferences, decisions, learnings, and context snippets.

Create

Write a new file in ~/.local/share/life/memories/:

---
title: Prefers dark mode
category: preference
source: manual
confidence: 1.0
tags: [ui, settings]
project_id: life-skills
person_id: jane-doe
created_at: 2025-06-15T10:30:00Z
---
User mentioned they always use dark mode across all editors and terminals.

Required fields: title, body content. Optional: category (fact|preference|decision|learning|context), source, confidence (0-1), tags, project_id, person_id.

Search

Use Grep to search memory content:

Grep pattern="dark mode" path="~/.local/share/life/memories/"

Filter by category by grepping front matter:

Grep pattern="^category: preference" path="~/.local/share/life/memories/"

Update

Read the file, modify front matter or body, write it back.

Domain: People

Track contacts with relationship context.

Create

Write a new file in ~/.local/share/life/people/:

---
name: Jane Doe
email: [email protected]
phone: "+1-555-0100"
company: Acme Corp
role: Engineering Manager
relationship: colleague
tags: [engineering, frontend]
last_contact: 2025-06-15
created_at: 2025-06-15T10:30:00Z
---
Met at the 2025 engineering offsite. Leads the frontend platform team.
Interested in design systems and accessibility.

Required: name. Optional: email, phone, company, role, relationship, context (body), tags, last_contact.

Search

Grep pattern="company: Acme" path="~/.local/share/life/people/"

List all people:

Glob pattern="*.md" path="~/.local/share/life/people/"

Get Related Data

When retrieving a person, also search memories and engagements that reference their slug:

Grep pattern="person_id: jane-doe" path="~/.local/share/life/memories/"
Grep pattern="jane-doe" path="~/.local/share/life/engagements/"

Domain: Projects

Track projects with status, priority, and repository links.

Create

Write a new file in ~/.local/share/life/projects/:

---
name: Life Skills
description: Personal knowledge management skill
repo_url: https://github.com/<org>/life-skills
local_path: ~/repositories/life-skills
status: active
priority: 8
tech_stack: [typescript, markdown]
tags: [tools, productivity]
identity_id: personal
created_at: 2025-06-15T10:30:00Z
---
Flat-file personal knowledge management system that replaces the old SQLite-backed life-os.

Required: name. Optional: description, repo_url, local_path, status (active|paused|archived|idea), priority (higher = more important), tech_stack, tags, identity_id.

List by Status

Grep pattern="^status: active" path="~/.local/share/life/projects/"

Get Full Project View

When retrieving a project, also fetch related memories, engagements, and people:

Grep pattern="project_id: life-skills" path="~/.local/share/life/memories/"
Grep pattern="project_id: life-skills" path="~/.local/share/life/engagements/"

Domain: Engagements

Track tasks, decisions, meetings, and milestones linked to projects and people.

Create

Write a new file in ~/.local/share/life/engagements/:

---
title: Review API design
type: task
project_id: life-skills
status: open
priority: 7
due_date: 2025-06-20
tags: [api, review]
people:
  - jane-doe
  - bob-smith
created_at: 2025-06-15T10:30:00Z
---
Review the new REST API design doc and provide feedback on authentication flow.

Required: project_id, type, title. Optional: description (body), status (open|in_progress|done|cancelled), priority, due_date, tags, people (list of person slugs).

Complete

Read the file, set status: done, add completed_at timestamp, write it back.

List Open Engagements

Grep pattern="^status: open" path="~/.local/share/life/engagements/"

Filter by Due Date

Grep pattern="^due_date: 2025-06" path="~/.local/share/life/engagements/"

Domain: Thoughts

Free-form journal entries.

Create

Write a new file in ~/.local/share/life/thoughts/:

---
mood: focused
tags: [architecture, planning]
created_at: 2025-06-15T14:30:22Z
---
Thinking about migrating to flat files. The SQLite approach works but
creates friction with git sync. Markdown files are more transparent,
easier to diff, and work better with standard tools.

Required: body content. Optional: mood, tags.

List Recent

Glob pattern="*.md" path="~/.local/share/life/thoughts/"

Files sort chronologically by filename.

Search by Mood

Grep pattern="^mood: focused" path="~/.local/share/life/thoughts/"

Sync

The data directory is a git repository. Sync with:

cd ~/.local/share/life && git add -A && git commit -m "update: <brief description>" && git pull --rebase && git push

Always sync after creating or modifying entries. See reference/sync.md for conflict resolution and detailed procedures.

Dashboard

When the user asks for a dashboard or overview, build it by aggregating:

1. Active projects: Grep pattern="^status: active" path="~/.local/share/life/projects/"
2. Open engagements: Grep pattern="^status: open" path="~/.local/share/life/engagements/" -- also check in_progress
3. Upcoming due dates: Grep pattern="^due_date:" path="~/.local/share/life/engagements/" -- filter for near-future dates
4. Recent memories: List the 10 most recently modified files in memories/
5. Recent thoughts: List the 5 most recent files in thoughts/

Present as a structured summary with sections for each domain.

Behavioral Guidelines

When to Proactively Remember

• The user shares a preference, opinion, or decision -- create a memory with category preference or decision
• The user mentions a person with details -- create or update a person entry
• A project milestone is reached -- create a memory with category fact and link the project
• The user learns something new -- create a memory with category learning

When to Search

• Before answering questions about people, projects, or past decisions -- search first
• When the user says "remember when" or "what did I say about" -- search memories
• When starting work on a project -- load the project file and recent related engagements
• When the user mentions a name -- check if the person exists in people/

General Behavior

• Always confirm before creating entries (unless the user explicitly says "remember this")
• When creating entries, show the user what was written
• Keep front matter fields consistent with the schemas defined in reference/formats.md
• Use ISO 8601 format for all dates and timestamps
• Sync after batches of changes, not after every single write

Reference Files

• reference/formats.md -- Detailed YAML front matter schemas and examples for each domain
• reference/migration.md -- Guide for migrating data from the old life-os SQLite database
• reference/sync.md -- Git sync procedures and conflict resolution