Refine Daily Notes

Improve an Obsidian daily note by polishing prose, adding missing wikilinks to maintain a rich knowledge graph, extracting long sections into dedicated notes, and suggesting new vault entities.

Workflow

Phase 0: Setup

Run echo $OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH to get the vault root. If empty, ask the user for the path.
Determine the target date: use the argument if provided (e.g., /refine 2026-02-14 ), otherwise use today.
Read the daily note at $VAULT/Daily Notes/{date}.md . Error if missing.

Phase 1: Transcribe Meeting Recordings

Detect meeting recordings and transcribe them into meeting notes. Two sub-phases run in order: SD card auto-detect (primary), then Google Drive URL scan (fallback).

Phase 1a: Recording Detection & Matching (Primary)

Discover screen recordings:

bash skills/transcribe-meeting/scripts/find-screenrecordings.sh "{date}"

Save JSON output to /tmp/screenrecs-{date}.json . If no screen recordings found, use empty array [] .

Discover Rodecaster recordings:

bash skills/transcribe-meeting/scripts/find-recordings.sh "{date}"

Save JSON output to /tmp/rodecaster-{date}.json . If SD card not mounted or no recordings found, use empty array [] .

Match recordings by time overlap:

bash skills/transcribe-meeting/scripts/match-recordings.sh /tmp/screenrecs-{date}.json /tmp/rodecaster-{date}.json

This produces groups with mode , video , audio , and transcribe_from fields.

If both arrays are empty, skip to Phase 1b silently.

Check idempotency: For each group, search for existing meeting notes by both recording: and video_file: fields:

grep -rl 'recording: "{folder}"' "$VAULT/Meetings/" grep -rl 'video_file: "{filename}"' "$VAULT/Meetings/"

Skip any group that already has a meeting note (matched by either field).

Match to time entries: For each new group, scan the daily note time entries for meeting-like entries. Use the recording start time and duration to correlate. Present to the user with mode info:

Found 2 recording groups:

omarchy-only: screen recording from 09:36 (30 min) — no Rodecaster match. Match to [[EWG]] - team standup - 0.5 ?
omarchy+rodecaster: screen recording from 11:02 + Rodecaster 10 (51 min). Match to [[Khov]] - sync with Don - 1 ?

Extract context from the matched time entry:

Project: The wikilinked project name (e.g., [[Khov]] )
Description: The task/meeting description (e.g., "sync with Don")
Participants: Any names mentioned in the line or surrounding context

Determine audio source for transcription:

omarchy+rodecaster → audio = Rodecaster WAV (audio.path )
omarchy-only → extract audio from screen recording: bash skills/transcribe-meeting/scripts/extract-audio.sh "{video.path}"
rodecaster-only → audio = Rodecaster WAV (audio.path )

Transcribe inline (do NOT use Task/sub-agents — they lack bash permissions). For each new group:

a. Determine the engine: echo $OBSIDIAN_WHISPER_ENGINE (defaults to openai if unset). b. Run transcription directly:

bash skills/transcribe-meeting/scripts/transcribe.sh "{wav_path}" "{engine}"

c. Capture the JSON output (array of {start, end, text} segments). d. Generate a meeting note following the format in skills/transcribe-meeting/SKILL.md Phase 3:

Title, Summary, Decisions, Action Items, Open Questions, Transcript
Use context from the matched time entry (project, description, participants) e. Present the summary to the user for approval before writing. f. Create the meeting note at $VAULT/Meetings/{date} {Title}.md with frontmatter:
recording: "{folder}" (if Rodecaster audio exists)
audio_url: "{wav_path}"
video_file: "{video_filename}" (if screen recording exists)
recording_mode: "{mode}"

Phase 3.5: Extract Key Screenshots (only when video recording exists):

Step 1 — Find user screenshots taken during the meeting:

bash skills/transcribe-meeting/scripts/find-screenshots.sh "{date}" "{start_time}" "{duration_secs}"

This returns a JSON array of screenshots from ~/Pictures/ (or $OMARCHY_SCREENSHOT_DIR / $XDG_PICTURES_DIR ) taken during the meeting timeframe (±5 min buffer). Each entry has path , timestamp , and offset_secs .

Step 2 — Copy and embed user screenshots: For each found screenshot:

Copy to $VAULT/Attachments/{meeting-name}-user-{HH-MM-SS}.png
Place in the meeting note at the transcript position closest to its offset_secs
Embed using ![[filename.png]]

Step 3 — Supplement with ffmpeg-extracted frames:

If fewer than 3 user screenshots were found, scan the transcript for visual moments (screen sharing, demos, "as you can see", "look at this", code references, topic transitions) and extract additional frames to reach 3-8 total: ffmpeg -ss {secs} -i "{video}" -frames:v 1 -q:v 2 -y "$VAULT/Attachments/{name}-{MM-SS}.png"
If 3+ user screenshots were found, skip ffmpeg extraction entirely.
If no user screenshots at all, fall back entirely to existing ffmpeg extraction behavior (select 3-8 key timestamps).

Embed all screenshots at corresponding transcript positions using ![[filename.png]] .

Post-process & upload: After transcription completes for each group:

a. Compress WAV → MP3 and upload to Google Drive:

bash skills/transcribe-meeting/scripts/compress.sh "{wav_path}" bash skills/transcribe-meeting/scripts/upload-gdrive.sh "/tmp/meeting-archive/{filename}.mp3"

Capture the Google Drive URL. Update audio_url in the meeting note.

b. Merge video + audio (omarchy+rodecaster only):

bash skills/transcribe-meeting/scripts/merge-av.sh "{video.path}" "{audio.path}"

c. Upload to YouTube (omarchy+rodecaster and omarchy-only):

bash skills/transcribe-meeting/scripts/upload-youtube.sh "{video_file}" "{meeting_title}" "{summary}" "{date}"

For omarchy+rodecaster : upload the merged MP4
For omarchy-only : upload the original screen recording MP4
Capture the YouTube URL. Update video_url in the meeting note.

Update daily note: Append a wikilink to the matched time entry line:

[[Khov]] - sync with Don - 1 - [[2026-02-18 Khov Sync with Don]]

Update project note: If the project has a note in $VAULT/Projects/ , add a ## Meetings section (or append to existing) with a wikilink to the meeting note.

Present the transcription summary to the user for confirmation before writing the meeting note (consistent with refine's preview-before-applying pattern).

Phase 1b: Google Drive URL Detection (Fallback)

Scan the daily note for Google Drive audio links and transcribe them into meeting notes.

Scan for audio URLs: Look for lines containing drive.google.com/file/d/ in the daily note text.

Check for existing transcriptions: For each URL found, search $VAULT/Meetings/ for a note with matching audio_url in frontmatter:

grep -rl "audio_url:.*{file-id}" "$VAULT/Meetings/"

If a meeting note already exists for this URL, skip it (idempotent).

Extract context: From the daily note line containing the URL, infer:

Project: The wikilinked project name (e.g., [[Khov]] )
Description: The task/meeting description (e.g., "sync with Don")
Participants: Any names mentioned in the line or surrounding context

Transcribe inline (do NOT use Task/sub-agents). For each new recording:

a. Download the audio:

bash skills/transcribe-meeting/scripts/download-gdrive.sh "{url}"

b. Determine the engine: echo $OBSIDIAN_WHISPER_ENGINE (defaults to openai if unset). c. Run transcription directly:

bash skills/transcribe-meeting/scripts/transcribe.sh "{local_audio_path}" "{engine}"

d. Capture the JSON output (array of {start, end, text} segments). e. Generate a meeting note following the format in skills/transcribe-meeting/SKILL.md Phase 3. f. Present the summary to the user for approval before writing. g. Create the meeting note at $VAULT/Meetings/{date} {Title}.md .

Update daily note: Replace the Google Drive link in the daily note line:

[[Project]] - description - hours - recording

To:

[[Project]] - description - hours - [[{date} {Title}]]

Update project note: If the project has a note in $VAULT/Projects/ , add a ## Meetings section (or append to existing) with a wikilink to the meeting note.

Present the transcription summary to the user for confirmation before writing the meeting note (consistent with refine's preview-before-applying pattern).

If no recordings are found from either source, skip this phase silently.

Phase 1c: Meeting Action Items → Project Todos

After all meeting notes are created (from Phase 1a and 1b), extract action items and add them to the relevant project pages.

Collect action items: For each newly created meeting note, read its ## Action Items section.
Filter for Olivier's items: Extract items assigned to Olivier (look for @Olivier , Olivier: , or unattributed items from 1:1 meetings where Olivier is a participant).
Map to projects: Use the meeting frontmatter project: field to determine which project page each item belongs to.
Check for duplicates: For each project, read the ## Todos section and fuzzy-match proposed items against existing todos. Skip items that are already present (even if worded slightly differently).
Present proposed insertions grouped by project:

From [[2026-02-20 EXSQ Sol 1-1 Sync]], adding to project pages:

EXSQ.md ## Todos : - [ ] Set up Claude Code access for Sol (from [[2026-02-20 EXSQ Sol 1-1 Sync]])
EXSQ.md ## Todos : - [ ] Explore Figma + GitHub integration feasibility (from [[2026-02-20 EXSQ Sol 1-1 Sync]])
If approved, append each todo under the ## Todos section of the corresponding project file in $VAULT/Projects/ .
Format: - [ ] task description (from [[Meeting Note]]) — no [[Project]] prefix needed since the todo is already in the project file.

If no new meeting notes were created or no action items found, skip this phase silently.

Phase 2: Discover Vault Entities

Build a catalog of all known entities so you can match them against the daily note text.

Projects: List files recursively in $VAULT/Projects/ — extract project names from filenames
People: List files in $VAULT/Persons/ — read each file to extract aliases from frontmatter
Topics: List files in $VAULT/Topics/ — extract topic names from filenames
Coding sessions: List files in $VAULT/Coding/ — for cross-reference awareness
Meetings: List files in $VAULT/Meetings/ — for cross-reference awareness and to avoid duplicate transcription

This gives you the full entity catalog to match against the daily note.

Phase 2b: Slack Activity Scan

Always run this phase. If Slack MCP tools are unavailable, skip gracefully with no error.

Load Slack tools: Use ToolSearch to search for slack tools. If no Slack MCP tools are available, skip this phase with no error — but always attempt it first.
Search for user's messages on the target date using slack_search_public_and_private :
Query: from:<@U07J89FDWPJ> on:{date}
Group messages by channel and 30-minute time windows.
Build a time coverage map from existing daily note time entries (start times, durations, projects).
Identify gaps: time windows with 3+ Slack messages but no matching time entry.
Detect huddles: For each DM or group DM channel found in step 2, read messages around the activity window using slack_read_channel with oldest /latest timestamps. Look for messages from Slackbot containing "A huddle started" .
Slack's search API does not index huddle system messages — they can only be found by reading the channel directly.
When a huddle is found, record:
Start time: the Slackbot message timestamp
Participants: inferred from the DM/group DM members (the channel context)
Estimated duration: gap between the huddle start and the next human message in the channel (rough estimate — Slack does not expose huddle duration via API)
Huddles should always have a corresponding time entry. Flag any huddle that doesn't match an existing entry.
Infer channel→project mapping from channel names and existing time entries:
Check cached mappings in $VAULT/.claude/intervals-cache/slack-mappings.md
If a new channel→project mapping is discovered, append it to the cache file
Present findings:

Slack activity not covered by time entries:

#technomic-dev (2:30-3:15pm, 8 messages): discussed vector search PR issues → [[Technomic]]?
#exsq-general (4:00-4:20pm, 4 messages): coordinated with team on AI Upskill → [[EXSQ]]? Add time entries for these?

Huddles detected:

DM with [[Sol Parrot|Sol]] (12:16pm, ~1h54m): matches [[EXSQ]] - 1:1 sync with Sol - 2 ✓
DM with [[Adam Herrneckar|Adam]] (3:05pm, ~25m): no matching time entry — add one?
If approved, suggest time entry lines but do NOT auto-insert into time entries — present them for the user to manually add (time entries are sacred structured data).

Phase 2c: Slack Activity Summary

Using the data already gathered in Phase 2b, write a ### Slack Activity section into the daily note summarizing the day's interactions.

Group by channel/conversation: For each channel or DM where the user sent messages, build a brief summary:

Channel name (linked to project if a mapping exists)
Time window (e.g., 2:30–3:15pm)
Message count
Topics discussed: Summarize the key topics, decisions, or questions from the messages (keep to 1–2 sentences per channel). Use context from slack_read_channel / slack_read_thread if threads were read in Phase 2b, otherwise summarize from search result snippets.
Huddle indicator: If a huddle was detected in this channel (from Phase 2b step 6), note it with duration.

Format the section as a bullet list under ### Slack Activity :

Slack Activity

#technomic-dev (2:30–3:15pm, 8 msgs) — Discussed vector search indexing issues; agreed to switch to HNSW. [[Technomic]]
#exsq-general (4:00–4:20pm, 4 msgs) — Coordinated AI Upskill session logistics with [[Sol Parrot|Sol]]. [[EXSQ]]
DM with [[Adam Herrneckar|Adam]] (3:05–3:30pm, 3 msgs + huddle ~25m) — Reviewed deployment pipeline changes.

Wikilink any people and projects mentioned, using the entity catalog from Phase 2.

Placement: Insert the section after the time entries block and before the first ### [[Project]] section (or at the end if no project sections exist). If a ### Slack Activity section already exists, replace it (idempotent).

Include in Phase 6 preview: Show the proposed Slack Activity section as part of the change summary for user approval.

If no Slack messages were found in Phase 2b, or Slack MCP tools were unavailable, skip this phase silently.

Phase 3: Analyze & Improve Writing

Review each section of the daily note:

Skip time entries — the bullet list at the top (lines like - [[Project]] - task - duration ) is structured data for the intervals skill. Never modify these.
Improve prose — fix grammar, improve clarity, tighten wording. Keep it concise.
Fix formatting — consistent heading levels, list styles, spacing.
Preserve todos — don't reorder, rewrite, or change checkbox state. Only improve prose around them.
Author's voice — improve clarity without rewriting the user's natural style. Don't make it sound like AI wrote it.

Phase 4: Add Missing Wikilinks

Scan all text (outside time entries) for mentions of known entities:

Projects: Add [[Project Name]] links where project names appear unlinked
People: Add [[Full Name]] or [[Full Name|Alias]] when a short name or alias is used
Topics: Add [[Topic]] links where topic names appear unlinked
Heading style: Use ### [[Project]] for project section headings consistently

Rules:

Don't double-link — skip text already inside [[...]]
Don't link inside time entry lines
Link known entities freely without asking the user

Phase 5: Extract Long Sections

Identify sections that are >~20 lines or contain substantial standalone content worth its own note.

For each extractable section:

Determine destination: Projects/ subtree or Topics/ based on content
Create the new note with proper format:

{Title}

{Extracted content}

[[Daily Notes/{date}]]
Replace the section in the daily note with a brief summary + [[wikilink]] to the new note

Present all proposed extractions to the user for approval before executing. Show what would be extracted, where it would go, and what the replacement summary would look like.

Phase 5b: Suggest New Entities

Identify mentions of people, projects, or topics that don't match any existing vault note.

Present these as candidates:

It looks like Jane Smith and ProjectX are mentioned but don't have vault pages yet. Want me to create them?

For each confirmed new entity, create the note following vault conventions:

Person: $VAULT/Persons/{Name}.md

aliases:

{short name}

{Full Name}

Role: {if known} Projects: {if known}

Notes

Project: $VAULT/Projects/{Name}.md (or appropriate subdirectory)

{Project Name}

{Brief description if known}

Topic: $VAULT/Topics/{Name}.md

{Topic Name}

{Brief definition if known}

Notes

After creating new entities:

Add them to the respective MOC file (e.g., Persons MOC, Topics MOC) if one exists
Link them in the daily note (they now exist as vault pages)

Phase 5c: Suggest Todo Completions

Scan unchecked todos on project pages against today's content to suggest completions with high confidence.

Collect unchecked todos from project pages: read the ## Todos section of each project file referenced in today's time entries (in $VAULT/Projects/ ). Collect all - [ ] lines.
Build an evidence corpus from:
Meeting note ## Decisions and ## Action Items sections (items marked complete)
Coding session summaries and files changed (from Coding/ notes for this date)
PR review verdicts (merged PRs mentioned in notes)
Daily note prose sections
Match todos to evidence — for each unchecked todo, check for HIGH confidence matches only:
Strong keyword overlap between todo text and evidence
Explicit completion signals ("merged PR #X", "completed", "done", "shipped", "deployed")
Present suggestions with evidence:

These todos appear done based on today's work:

review PRs (Technomic.md) — Evidence: wrote detailed reviews for PRs #650, #636, #571, #469
fix vector search (Technomic.md) — Evidence: coding session [[2026-02-20--TechnomicIgnite--fix-vector-search]] shows fixes deployed Mark as complete? (✅ 2026-02-20)
If approved, check off the todos on the project page: change - [ ] to - [x] and append ✅ {date} . The Tasks plugin completion format ensures they appear in the daily note's "Done today" dataview.

Rules:

Never suggest more than 5 completions at once
Skip anything below ~80% confidence — better to miss one than suggest a false positive
Never auto-complete without user approval
If no high-confidence matches found, skip this phase silently

Phase 5d: Freeze "Done today" on Previous Days

When refining a previous day's note (not today), convert the "Done today" dataview query into plain markdown so it becomes a permanent historical record.

Check if the target date is before today. If refining today's note, skip this phase entirely.
Find the ### Done today section and its dataview code block.
Read completed todos from project pages: search all project files in $VAULT/Projects/ for tasks matching - [x] ... ✅ {target-date} under ## Todos sections.
Build plain markdown from the results:

Done today

[[Technomic]] - Investigate feature-22 login issue ✅ 2026-03-03
[[AI Upskill]] - Attend Panama Canal meeting ✅ 2026-03-03

Prefix each item with [[Project]] for context since the items originally live on project pages.

Replace the dataview block with the plain markdown list.
Clean up project pages: Remove the now-frozen - [x] ... ✅ {target-date} items from the project files' ## Todos sections to keep them tidy.

If no completed tasks found for the target date, replace the dataview with an empty section (just the heading).

Phase 5e: Move Inline Todos to Project Pages

Scan the daily note for - [ ] lines written outside of dataview blocks and move them to the appropriate project page.

Find inline todos: Scan the daily note for lines matching - [ ] [[Project]] ... that are NOT inside a dataview code block.
For each todo:
Extract the project name from the [[Project]] wikilink
Find the corresponding project file in $VAULT/Projects/
Check the ## Todos section for duplicates (fuzzy match)
Present proposed moves:

Moving inline todos to project pages:

- [[Technomic]] fix login bug → Technomic.md ## Todos
- [[KHov]] test Docker build → Khov.md ## Todos
If approved:
Append each todo (without the [[Project]] prefix) to the project file's ## Todos section
Remove the original line from the daily note

If no inline todos found, skip this phase silently.

Phase 6: Apply & Confirm

Show a summary of all proposed changes before writing:
Prose improvements (brief description)
Wikilinks added (list them)
Sections extracted (destination paths)
New entities created (paths)
Get user approval before applying
Apply changes: edit the daily note, create any extracted/new entity notes
Report: what was changed, what was linked, what was extracted, what was created

Phase 7: Update Project Recent Activity

After all daily note changes are applied, update each referenced project's note with a summary of today's activity.

Identify projects from today's time entries in the daily note.
For each project with a note in $VAULT/Projects/ :
Read the existing ## Recent Activity section (or prepare to create it)
Build today's entry: - {date}: {hours}h — {brief summary} (meetings: [[links]], coding: [[links]])
Prune entries older than 7 days from the section
Insert the ## Recent Activity section before ## Key Features or at the end of the note if no logical insertion point
Check idempotency: If an entry for today's date already exists, update it rather than duplicating.
Present all proposed project note updates for approval before applying.
Apply changes if approved.

Phase 7b: Update Person Interaction History

Update person notes for anyone who appeared in today's meetings.

Collect participants from all newly created meeting notes (from frontmatter participants: field).
For each person with a note in $VAULT/Persons/ :
Read the existing ## Recent Interactions section (or prepare to create it)
Build entry: - {date}: [[Meeting Note]] — {topics discussed, action items for/from them}
Prune entries older than 30 days from the section
Insert the ## Recent Interactions section before ## Notes or at the end of the note
Check idempotency: If an entry for today's date + same meeting already exists, skip it.
Present all proposed person note updates for approval before applying.
Apply changes if approved.

If no new meeting notes were created or no participants have vault pages, skip this phase silently.

Key Rules

Never modify time entries — the bullet list at the top is structured data
Todos live on project pages — open todos are under ## Todos in each project file. Daily notes show them via dataview queries (### Done today for completed, ### Open todos for unchecked). New todos from meetings go to project pages, not daily notes.
Link known entities freely — no need to ask for entities that already exist
Offer to create unknown entities — ask before creating new vault pages
Author's voice — improve clarity without rewriting style
Idempotent — running twice shouldn't cause issues (don't re-extract already-extracted sections, don't double-link, don't re-freeze already-frozen Done today sections)
Show before applying — always preview changes for user approval

refine

Safety Notice

Copy this and send it to your AI assistant to learn

Slack Activity

{Title}

Related

{Full Name}

Notes

{Project Name}

Related

{Topic Name}

Related

Notes

Done today

Source Transparency

Related Skills

done

refine

refine

refine