Document Editing

Document Editing

Documents are stored in the SQL database via Drizzle ORM. Each document has a title, stable description, markdown content, optional parent (for nesting), and a position for ordering. The description explains why the page exists and what belongs there; it is not a changing synopsis of the current body.

Scripts

Always use the dedicated scripts for document operations. Never use raw db-exec SQL.

In dev, call actions with pnpm action <name>; in production, call native tools. Never use curl, raw HTTP requests, or db-exec with raw SQL for document operations. .env is loaded automatically — never manually set DATABASE_URL or other env vars.

list-documents

List document metadata in a tree structure. This intentionally does not return full document bodies; call get-document for the one document you need to read.

pnpm action list-documents
pnpm action list-documents --format json

search-documents

Search documents by title and content. Results include snippets, not full document bodies; call get-document before editing or summarizing a specific result.

pnpm action search-documents --query "meeting notes"
pnpm action search-documents --query "project plan" --format json

get-document

Get a single document by ID with full content.

pnpm action get-document --id abc123
pnpm action get-document --id abc123 --format json

create-document

Create a new document.

pnpm action create-document --title "Meeting Notes" --content "# Meeting Notes\n\nAttendees: ..."
pnpm action create-document --title "Sub Page" --parentId parent123
pnpm action create-document --title "My Page" --icon "📝"
pnpm action create-document --title "Research" --description "Evidence and source notes that support the current project"

edit-document

Surgically edit document content using search-and-replace. Preferred over update-document --content for modifications — sends only the changed text instead of regenerating the entire document.

# Single edit
pnpm action edit-document --id abc123 --find "old text" --replace "new text"

# Delete text
pnpm action edit-document --id abc123 --find "delete me" --replace ""

# Batch edits
pnpm action edit-document --id abc123 --edits '[{"find":"old","replace":"new"},{"find":"also old","replace":"also new"}]'

update-document

Update an existing document. Use for full rewrites or new content, not for small changes (use edit-document instead).

pnpm action update-document --id abc123 --title "New Title"
pnpm action update-document --id abc123 --content "# Updated Content\n\nNew text here"
pnpm action update-document --id abc123 --title "New Title" --content "New content"
pnpm action update-document --id abc123 --description "Stable guidance for what belongs on this page"

delete-document

Move a document and all its children to Trash. IDs, bodies, hierarchy, and database membership remain intact so the subtree can be restored.

pnpm action delete-document --id abc123

Restore the root subtree, or permanently delete it only after it is in Trash:

pnpm action restore-document --id abc123
pnpm action permanently-delete-document --id abc123

Comments

Comments are Notion/Google-Docs-style inline comments. Selecting text and commenting leaves the passage highlighted inline via a ProseMirror decoration overlay — nothing is written into the markdown body, so the document round-trips unchanged. Each thread stores the quoted text plus surrounding context (anchorPrefix/anchorSuffix) and an approximate anchorStartOffset, so the highlight follows the text as the document is edited, disambiguates repeated text, and degrades gracefully (the thread stays in the sidebar) when its text is deleted.

Resolving a thread clears its highlight and moves it to a collapsible "Resolved (n)" sidebar section, from which it can be reopened. Comments support @mentions of org members, stored as a mentions array of {email, name}.

# List threads (returns anchor fields + parsed mentions)
pnpm action list-comments --documentId abc123

# Plain comment on the document
pnpm action add-comment --documentId abc123 --content "Looks good"

# Inline-anchored comment with a mention
pnpm action add-comment --documentId abc123 --content "@Sam check this" \
  --quotedText "the second paragraph" --anchorPrefix "above " --anchorSuffix " here" \
  --anchorStartOffset 120 --mentions '[{"email":"sam@x.com","name":"Sam"}]'

# Reply to a thread
pnpm action add-comment --documentId abc123 --threadId t123 --content "Agreed"

# Resolve / reopen the whole thread
pnpm action update-comment --id c123 --resolved true
pnpm action update-comment --id c123 --resolved false

--authorName sets the comment's display name; it defaults to a name derived from the author's email.

refresh-list

Trigger the UI to refresh the document list.

pnpm action refresh-list

Always run this after any document modification to update the sidebar.

create-document, update-document, and delete-document already signal a UI refresh, so in practice only call refresh-list directly if you mutate documents another way and the UI doesn't update.

Document Schema

Related Tables

Documents live in the SQL documents table via Drizzle; the framework injects the live column schema separately, so this covers only semantics the schema can't convey:

• document_shares holds per-user/per-org grants with a viewer, editor, or admin role.
• document_versions, document_comments, and document_sync_links all carry owner_email so a workspace can upgrade from local mode to a real account without losing history, comments, or Notion links.
• A database is a normal document (content_databases + document_property_definitions) whose rows are also documents, linked through content_database_items. Row pages are omitted from the ordinary sidebar tree — they're reached through the database view.

Documents are private by default; use share-resource / set-resource-visibility (resourceType document) to change access.

Content Format

Documents use markdown for content. The editor renders markdown in real time.

Math

Content renders LaTeX with KaTeX while preserving the source in NFM. Use the canonical Content delimiters when an agent creates or edits math:

Inline math: The relationship is $`E = mc^2`$ in this example.

Block math:

$$
\int_0^1 x^2 dx = \frac{1}{3}
$$

• Inline math uses $`...`$. Do not substitute ordinary $...$; dollar amounts in prose are intentionally not interpreted as equations.
• Block equations use $$ on their own lines before and after the LaTeX.
• Keep the raw LaTeX intact when editing around an equation. Invalid or unsupported expressions remain visible as source so they can be repaired.
• Markdown exports preserve these delimiters. HTML and PDF-ready exports render the equation.

Parent-Child Hierarchy

Documents form a tree via parent_id:

• Root documents have parent_id = null
• Child documents reference their parent's id
• Deleting a parent recursively deletes all children
• Position determines ordering within the same parent

Descriptions are owned; context is inherited. get-document and view-screen return the focused page's own description plus a computed root-to-parent contextPath. Use that path to understand where the page lives, but never copy ancestor descriptions into the child. Database, property, and option descriptions narrow the guidance further when working with structured values.

Screen Context And IDs

Screen context is auto-included as a <current-screen> block on every message — check it before acting instead of calling view-screen by default. Call view-screen explicitly only when that snapshot is truncated or doesn't yet reflect something that changed earlier in the same turn (for example, right after create-document or navigate).

IDs for edits always come from <current-screen> or a prior action result — never guessed.

Common Tasks

Always run refresh-list after any create, update, or delete operation.

Reference Files

• references/document-behavior.md — self-documenting descriptions, pull-document's collab-flush handshake vs get-document, versions, image blocks, and the sharing/visibility model (/page/<id> vs /p/<id>, discoverability, the read-only public chat). Read it before touching descriptions, external ingest, or a document's visibility.
• references/databases.md — full behavioral reference for Content databases: property types, Blocks fields, and every view type (table, list, gallery, board, calendar, timeline, form). Read it before building or modifying database views, properties, or forms.

Also read on demand, outside this skill:

• references/local-file-mode.md in the content skill — local folder sources, Builder Symbol/source-component preservation, local MDX components.
• The notion-integration skill — connecting, sync, conflicts, the read-only database-source pilot, and the raw Notion provider API path.
• The Comments section above — inline anchor-tracked threads, @mentions, resolve/reopen.