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Quick capture - classify and file natural language input into the vault. Part of chief-of-staff system. Use for capturing tasks, ideas, project notes, or people notes.

bradautomates By bradautomates schedule Updated 3/29/2026

name: new description: Quick capture - classify and file natural language input into the vault. Part of chief-of-staff system. Use for capturing tasks, ideas, project notes, or people notes. argument-hint: <whatever's on your mind (projects, ideas, or tasks)> allowed-tools: Read, Glob, Write, Edit, AskUserQuestion

/new - Quick Capture

Create items from natural language: /new <input>

Input is in $ARGUMENTS.

Do NOT commit manually unless explicitly asked. A PostToolUse hook auto-commits after Write operations.

Steps

  1. Decompose - Extract ALL entities from input (may be multiple)
  2. Classify each entity: task | project | person | idea
  3. Extract structured data (due dates, tags, names)
  4. Link entities via frontmatter fields
  5. Write files for each entity (hook handles git commit)
  6. Respond with summary of what was created

Decomposition

Parse input for multiple entities. Example:

"new project with John Smith for marketing outbound, need landing page and brainstorm names"

Entities:

  • Person: John Smith
  • Project: marketing-outbound (linked to John Smith)
  • Task: create landing page (linked to project)
  • Task: brainstorm names for workshop (linked to project)

Classification

  • Named person with context → person
  • Ongoing work, multiple steps → project
  • Specific actionable item → task
  • Speculative, "what if" → idea
  • Confidence < 0.5 → Ask for clarification

Edge case: "start/begin/create X" → task (the action of initiating), not project.

  • "I need to start a content plan" → task: start content plan
  • "Working on the content plan" → project: content plan (if ongoing)

Missing Information

When creating a task without a due date, use AskUserQuestion:

Question: "When is this due?"
Header: "Due date"
Options:
  - "Today" → use today's date
  - "End of week" → use Friday of current week
  - "Next week" → use Monday of next week
  - (Other allows custom entry)

Apply similar pattern for other ambiguous fields when classification confidence is high but key data is missing.

Linking

Use Obsidian wiki-style links [[slug]] in the markdown body to connect entities.

When creating a task linked to a project, update the project file to include [[task-slug]]. Same for project → person links.

Check if person/project already exists before creating (use Glob). Use Read before editing existing files.

File Formats

Task:

---
type: task
status: pending
due: YYYY-MM-DD  # optional
tags: []
---
Description here.

Project:

---
type: project
status: active
tags: []
---
## Next Action
- First task to do
[[linked-task-slug]]

## Notes

Person:

---
type: person
last-contact: YYYY-MM-DD
tags: []
---
## Context
Who they are, relationship.

## Follow-ups
- [ ] Pending items

Idea:

---
type: idea
tags: []
---
Description of the idea.
Install via CLI
npx skills add https://github.com/bradautomates/second-brain --skill new
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article Path SKILL.md
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