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
- Decompose - Extract ALL entities from input (may be multiple)
- Classify each entity: task | project | person | idea
- Extract structured data (due dates, tags, names)
- Link entities via frontmatter fields
- Write files for each entity (hook handles git commit)
- 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.