Emerge

Emerge — Discover Patterns Across Your Obsidian Vault

Tools needed: Bash, Agent, Write, Read

Procedure

Step 0 — Create task manifest

TaskCreate: subject="Collect and upgrade vault corpus", activeForm="Collecting vault corpus"
TaskCreate: subject="Analyze patterns across notes", activeForm="Analyzing patterns"
TaskCreate: subject="Build emerge report", activeForm="Building report"
TaskCreate: subject="Write vault note", activeForm="Writing vault note"
TaskCreate: subject="Present results", activeForm="Presenting results"

Track task IDs. Set task #1 to in_progress.

Step 1 — Parse args + upgrade + collect corpus

Optional flags:

• --include-snapshots — include claude-snapshot notes in the corpus. By default snapshots are excluded; their transient "Key context" bullets dilute cross-session pattern synthesis.

Parse args: strip --include-snapshots first (set INCLUDE_SNAPSHOTS=1 or 0), then parse remaining arg as DAYS: no arg=30, Nd/N days=N, this week=days since Monday.

cd "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null || pwd)"
python3 -c '
import sys, os, glob; sys.path.insert(0, max(glob.glob(os.path.expanduser("~/.claude/plugins/cache/*/obsidian-brain/*/hooks")), default="hooks"))
from emerge_cli import run_corpus; run_corpus(int(sys.argv[1]) if len(sys.argv) > 1 else 30, include_snapshots=(sys.argv[2] == "1") if len(sys.argv) > 2 else False)
' "$DAYS" "$INCLUDE_SNAPSHOTS"

If STATUS starts with CACHED:, report "Using cached corpus (< 15 min old, same window)" and skip to Step 2.

Parse STATUS (OK:<total>:<upgraded>:<failed> or EMPTY:0:0:0). EMPTY -> tell user to widen window, stop. Report upgrades. If failed > 0 -> Step 1f, else Step 2. Mark task #1 completed.

Step 1f — Sub-agent fallback (skip if no failures)

Spawn parallel sub-agents for failed notes (read note, write summary to temp, write back via upgrade_note_with_summary) — mirrors /recall Phase 2 fallback. Re-collect:

cd "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null || pwd)"
python3 -c '
import sys, os, glob; sys.path.insert(0, max(glob.glob(os.path.expanduser("~/.claude/plugins/cache/*/obsidian-brain/*/hooks")), default="hooks"))
from emerge_cli import run_recollect; run_recollect(int(sys.argv[1]) if len(sys.argv) > 1 else 30, include_snapshots=(sys.argv[2] == "1") if len(sys.argv) > 2 else False)
' "$DAYS" "$INCLUDE_SNAPSHOTS"

Step 2 — Pattern synthesis

Set task #2 to in_progress. Spawn one Agent:

Agent({
  description: "Analyze vault corpus for cross-cutting patterns",
  prompt: "Read ~/.claude/obsidian-brain/emerge-corpus.json. Analyze and write to ~/.claude/obsidian-brain/emerge-analysis.md with these 5 categories:\n\n## Recurring Technical Patterns\nPatterns in approaches, tools, or architecture across 2+ sessions.\n\n## Error Clusters\nRepeated error types, common root causes, or failure modes.\n\n## Decision Trends\nDirectional shifts in technical decisions over time.\n\n## Cross-Project Connections\nShared themes between projects. Skip if only 1 project.\n\n## Emergent Practices\nImplicit conventions that formed organically but aren't documented.\n\nFor each pattern: descriptive name, 2-3 examples with note references, confidence (strong/moderate/tentative).\n\nWrite using the Write tool. Return ONLY: WRITTEN:~/.claude/obsidian-brain/emerge-analysis.md"
})

If no WRITTEN: response, report failure and stop. Mark task #2 completed.

Step 3 — Build output + write note

cd "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null || pwd)"
python3 -c '
import sys, os, glob; sys.path.insert(0, max(glob.glob(os.path.expanduser("~/.claude/plugins/cache/*/obsidian-brain/*/hooks")), default="hooks"))
from emerge_cli import run_build_note; run_build_note()
' 2>&1

Parse SAVED:<path> and everything after ---REPORT---. Mark tasks #3-#4 completed.

Step 4 — Present to user

Display report prefixed with Pattern Discovery Results:. Confirm saved path. Mark task #5 completed.

Edge Cases

• No notes in window: Suggest widening (e.g., /emerge 60d).
• Only 1 project: Sub-agent skips Cross-Project Connections.
• Very large corpus (200+): Python distills to ~25k tokens JSON, fits one sub-agent.
• Config not found: Tell user to run /obsidian-setup first.