majiayu000 Orphans Skill
Find orphan notes - notes that have no backlinks (no other notes link to them).
Purpose
Orphan notes represent disconnected knowledge that isn't integrated into your vault's knowledge graph. Finding orphans helps you:
- Identify notes that may be forgotten or lost
- Connect isolated knowledge to related concepts
- Improve vault connectivity
- Discover notes that might need better naming/tagging
When to Use
Invoke when you want to:
- Find disconnected notes: "orphans" or "orphan notes"
- Audit vault connectivity: "show orphans" or "find isolated notes"
- Improve linking: "disconnected notes" before linking campaign
- Vault maintenance: Part of quarterly vault gardening
Process
1. Call MCP Tool
Call: mcp__flywheel__find_orphan_notes
Parameters: { folder: optional }
2. Categorize Orphans
Group orphans by type for better analysis:
By Folder:
tech/: 50 orphans
work/: 80 orphans
personal/: 30 orphans
daily-notes/: 40 orphans
other: 50 orphans
By Age:
Recent (last 30 days): 20 orphans (may still need time)
Medium (30-90 days): 50 orphans (needs attention)
Old (90+ days): 180 orphans (likely forgotten)
3. Display Report
Orphan Notes Report
═══════════════════════════════════════════════
Found 250 orphan notes (25% of vault)
Total notes: 1,000
BREAKDOWN BY FOLDER:
work/: 80 orphans (32%)
tech/: 50 orphans (20%)
daily-notes/: 40 orphans (16%)
personal/: 30 orphans (12%)
other: 50 orphans (20%)
BREAKDOWN BY AGE:
Recent (<30 days): 20 (8%)
Medium (30-90 days): 50 (20%)
Old (90+ days): 180 (72%) ⚠️
HIGH-PRIORITY ORPHANS (20 shown):
📄 work/projects/data-platform.md
Created: 2024-05-15 | Modified: 2024-05-15
Tags: #work #project
→ CRITICAL: Major project with no links!
Options:
1. Show full list (all orphans)
2. Filter by folder/age/tags
3. Export to CSV for manual review
═══════════════════════════════════════════════
Implementation Details
Orphan Criteria
A note is an orphan if:
- ✅ It exists in the vault
- ✅ It has zero backlinks (no other notes link to it)
- ❌ Excluded: Template files
- ❌ Excluded: System files (.claude/, .obsidian/)
Priority Scoring
Score orphans by importance (0-100):
priority_score = 0
# Deduct for age (older = lower priority)
days_old = (today - created_date).days
if days_old < 30:
priority_score += 30 # Recent
elif days_old < 90:
priority_score += 20 # Medium
else:
priority_score += 10 # Old
# Add for folder importance
if 'projects' in path:
priority_score += 40
elif 'work' in path:
priority_score += 30
elif 'tech' in path:
priority_score += 20
else:
priority_score += 10
# Add for tags
important_tags = ['project', 'goal', 'person', 'client']
priority_score += len([t for t in tags if t in important_tags]) * 10
Related Skills
- backlinks: Shows existing backlinks (orphans have ZERO)
- unlinked-mentions: Find mentions not yet linked (helps connect orphans)
- health: Overall vault health (orphan % is key metric)
- hubs: Opposite of orphans (highly connected notes)
Performance
- MCP call: ~500ms-1s for large vaults
- Categorization: ~200ms for 250 orphans
- Total: Usually <2 seconds