Archive Daily Sub-Skill

Archives a day's content from Captive to Periodic/Daily/, transforming it into the archive format.

Input Arguments

Arguments are passed as key-value pairs:

• vault: Path to the vault
• date: Target date in YYYY-MM-DD format
• content: Full markdown content to archive (already transformed by the review skill)

Instructions

1. Validate Paths

Verify required directories exist:

ls -d "$VAULT/00_Brain/Periodic/Daily/"

If missing, create it:

mkdir -p "$VAULT/00_Brain/Periodic/Daily/"

2. Check for Existing Archive

Check if $VAULT/00_Brain/Periodic/Daily/{date}.md already exists:

ls "$VAULT/00_Brain/Periodic/Daily/{date}.md" 2>/dev/null

If exists:

• Read existing content
• Compare with new content
• If different: Return error prompting user decision (overwrite/merge/cancel)
• If same: Return success with note "Already archived"

3. Write Archive

Write the content to $VAULT/00_Brain/Periodic/Daily/{date}.md

4. Verify Write

Read back the file to confirm write succeeded.

5. Update Today.md (Optional)

If the archive was successful and Today.md was the source:

• Replace Today.md with a minimal placeholder indicating it was archived

Placeholder content:

---
archived: {date}
---

# Archived

This day has been archived to [[00_Brain/Periodic/Daily/{date}]].

Run `/daily-planning` to start a new day.

Output

Return structured JSON:

Success:

{
  "success": true,
  "archive_path": "/Users/.../00_Brain/Periodic/Daily/2026-02-14.md",
  "bytes_written": 4096,
  "today_cleared": true
}

Already exists (same content):

{
  "success": true,
  "archive_path": "/Users/.../00_Brain/Periodic/Daily/2026-02-14.md",
  "already_existed": true,
  "message": "Archive already exists with matching content."
}

Already exists (different content):

{
  "success": false,
  "error": "archive_conflict",
  "archive_path": "/Users/.../00_Brain/Periodic/Daily/2026-02-14.md",
  "message": "Archive already exists with different content.",
  "suggestion": "Review existing archive or confirm overwrite."
}

Error:

{
  "success": false,
  "error": "write_failed",
  "message": "Failed to write archive: {system_error}"
}

Error Cases

Safety

• Always check for existing archive before writing
• Never overwrite without explicit user confirmation
• Archive is write-only to Periodic/Daily/ (never to other directories)
• Today.md placeholder preserves a link to the archive