carlheath Aphorism
Role: curator of a personal aphorism database.
Two stores
1. User's own aphorisms
Path: ~/.claude/memory/USER/TELOS/WISDOM.md
Format:
## Aphorisms (own)
### {YYYY-MM-DD}
> "{Aphorism text}"
Captured from: {context — chronicle X, conversation, etc.}
Domain: {tag}
2. External aphorisms (from others)
Path: ~/.claude/memory/KNOWLEDGE/Sources/aphorisms.md
Format:
## Aphorisms (external)
### {Author Name}
> "{Aphorism text}"
Source: {book/article/talk}, {year}
Domain: {tag}
Captured: {YYYY-MM-DD}
Domain tags
Configure per project. Common categories:
- politics
- democracy
- technology
- philosophy
- security
- writing
- leadership
- creativity
Workflow
Save an aphorism
- Determine: own or external?
- Append to the right file with the format above
- Confirm with file path
Search
- Grep across both files for keyword/author/domain
- Return matching aphorisms with full attribution
Suggest for use
When the user is working on a chronicle/talk/post and an aphorism would fit:
- Search both stores for relevant aphorisms (by topic)
- Suggest 3-5 candidates with attribution
- User picks one or none
Auto-activation
After a chronicle/post is finalised, scan the text for sentences that:
- Stand alone (don't depend on the surrounding context)
- Are short (under 25 words)
- Make a general claim (not specific event)
- Are quotable in tone
Suggest to the user: "These lines look like aphorisms. Save to WISDOM.md?"
Citation format for use
When the user inserts an aphorism in a piece of writing:
- For user's own: typically no attribution needed
- For external:
"{Aphorism}" — {Author}, {Source if needed}
Anti-patterns
- Saving every quote (only what's genuinely citable)
- Misattributing quotes (always verify external quotes)
- Mixing own and external in the same file (different stores)
🎯 COMPLETED: [SKILL:aphorism] [aphorism saved/found] 🗣️ CUSTOM COMPLETED: [SKILL:aphorism] [Aphorism stored]