PARA Custodian

This skill maintains a repository organised using a strict shallow PARA layout.

The repository uses numbered PARA roots:

1-projects/
2-areas/
3-resources/
4-archives/

Each root may contain one level of containers only.

Example:

1-projects/mdbook-linkcheck-triage/plan.md
3-resources/para/PARA-summary.md

Deeper nesting must not be introduced.

Both skills assume the same PARA layout (four roots, one level of containers); retrieval aids (manifests, indexes, note metadata) are described in knowledge-base-navigator references.

Core responsibilities

This skill periodically:

Surveys repository activity
Detects active projects and emerging topics
Reviews PARA classification
Evaluates container health
Distils atomic notes using the CODE system
Applies safe changes
Proposes large changes via the user's communication channel

Before creating a new atomic note or moving content, use the knowledge-base-navigator skill to check whether equivalent knowledge already exists; avoid duplicates.

The process is designed to run autonomously with minimal intervention.

After each workflow step, persist the step output.

If the step changed tracked repository files, commit and push immediately with a step-scoped commit message.

If the step produced only temporary analysis artifacts, do not commit them unless the workflow is running on a dedicated maintenance branch that preserves intermediate state.

Change thresholds

Safe auto-apply:

≤ 10 files created or moved
no container splits
no container merges
no root-level changes

Proposal required:

10 files moved/created
container split or merge
container rename
new conceptual container

Large changes must be surfaced through the configured communication channel (e.g. Discord).

Sub-agent architecture

Each maintenance stage is performed by a specialised sub-agent with strict inputs and outputs.

Agents:

Repo Survey Agent
Activity Detection Agent
Classification Review Agent
Container Health Agent
Atomic Distillation Agent
Maintenance Planner Agent

Agents should adapt rather than fail.

When uncertain they should:

produce best-effort output
annotate uncertainty
continue the workflow

Agents must not abort the process unless the repository cannot be accessed.

Progressive disclosure

The skill uses a references/ directory.

Each reference file describes:

workflow orchestration
agent contracts
evaluation rules
atomic note standards
proposal protocols

Agents should load only the references required for their step.

This reduces context usage during long-running autonomous workflows.

Token Economy

Never re-read the full PARA repository by default.

Default to incremental maintenance based on:

files changed since the last successful maintenance run
recently touched containers
open proposals
unresolved classification issues

Each sub-agent must operate within a bounded read budget.

Prefer:

git metadata
container manifests
cached summaries
full file contents only when necessary

The Atomic Distillation Agent may create at most 3 atomic notes per run.

It should prefer strong, reusable insights over broad coverage.

Container-wide structural review should not run on every heartbeat.