# LLM Wiki > The foundational knowledge distillation pattern for building and maintaining an AI-powered Obsidian wiki. Based on Andrej Karpathy's LLM Wiki architecture. Use this skill whenever the user wants to understand the wiki pattern, set up a new knowledge base, or needs guidance on the three-layer architecture (raw sources → wiki → schema). Also use when discussing knowledge management strategy, wiki structure decisions, or how to organize distilled knowledge. This is the "theory" skill — other skills handle specific operations (ingesting, querying, linting). - Skill: `mangowhoiscloud/llm-wiki` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add mangowhoiscloud/llm-wiki` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/mangowhoiscloud/llm-wiki/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: AI & ML - Author: mangowhoiscloud (https://skillmd.com/u/mangowhoiscloud) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/mangowhoiscloud/llm-wiki --- # LLM Wiki — Knowledge Distillation Pattern You are maintaining a persistent, compounding knowledge base. The wiki is not a chatbot — it is a **compiled artifact** where knowledge is distilled once and kept current, not re-derived on every query. ## Three-Layer Architecture ### Layer 1: Raw Sources (immutable) The user's original documents — articles, papers, notes, PDFs, conversation logs, bookmarks, **and images** (screenshots, whiteboard photos, diagrams, slide captures). These are never modified by the system. They live wherever the user keeps them (configured via `OBSIDIAN_SOURCES_DIR` in `.env`). Images are first-class sources: the ingest skills read them via the Read tool's vision support and treat their interpreted content as inferred unless it's verbatim transcribed text. Image ingestion requires a vision-capable model — models without vision support should skip image sources and report which files were skipped. Think of raw sources as the "source code" — authoritative but hard to query directly. ### Layer 2: The Wiki (LLM-maintained) A collection of interconnected Obsidian-compatible markdown files organized by category. This is the compiled knowledge — synthesized, cross-referenced, and navigable. Each page has: - YAML frontmatter (title, category, tags, sources, timestamps) - Obsidian `[[wikilinks]]` connecting related concepts - Clear provenance — every claim traces back to a source The wiki lives at the path configured via `OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH` in `.env`. ### Layer 3: The Schema (this skill + config) The rules governing how the wiki is structured — categories, conventions, page templates, and operational workflows. The schema tells the LLM *how* to maintain the wiki. ## Wiki Organization The vault has two levels of structure: **categories** (what kind of knowledge) and **projects** (where the knowledge came from). ### Categories Organize pages into these default categories (customizable in `.env`): | Category | Purpose | Example | |---|---|---| | `concepts/` | Ideas, theories, mental models | `concepts/transformer-architecture.md` | | `entities/` | People, orgs, tools, projects | `entities/andrej-karpathy.md` | | `skills/` | How-to knowledge, procedures | `skills/fine-tuning-llms.md` | | `references/` | Summaries of specific sources | `references/attention-is-all-you-need.md` | | `synthesis/` | Cross-cutting analysis across sources | `synthesis/scaling-laws-debate.md` | | `journal/` | Timestamped observations, session logs | `journal/2024-03-15.md` | ### Projects Knowledge often belongs to a specific project. The `projects/` directory mirrors this: ``` $OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH/ ├── projects/ │ ├── my-project/ │ │ ├── my-project.md ← project overview (named after project) │ │ ├── concepts/ ← project-scoped category pages │ │ ├── skills/ │ │ └── ... │ ├── another-project/ │ │ └── ... │ └── side-project/ │ └── ... ├── concepts/ ← global (cross-project) knowledge ├── entities/ ├── skills/ └── ... ``` **When knowledge is project-specific** (a debugging technique that only applies to one codebase, a project-specific architecture decision), put it under `projects///`. **When knowledge is general** (a concept like "React Server Components", a person like "Andrej Karpathy", a widely applicable skill), put it in the global category directory. **Cross-referencing:** Project pages should `[[wikilink]]` to global pages and vice versa. A project's overview page should link to the key concept, skill, and entity pages relevant to that project — whether they live under the project or globally. **Naming rule:** The project overview file must be named `.md`, not `_project.md`. Obsidian's graph view uses the filename as the node label — `_project.md` makes every project appear as `_project` in the graph, making it unreadable. So `projects/my-project/my-project.md`, `projects/another-project/another-project.md`, etc. Each project directory has an overview page structured like this: ```markdown --- title: My Project category: project tags: [ai, web, backend] source_path: ~/.claude/projects/-Users-name-Documents-projects-my-project created: 2026-03-01T00:00:00Z updated: 2026-04-06T00:00:00Z --- # My Project One-paragraph summary of what this project is. ## Key Concepts - [[concepts/some-api]] — used for core functionality - [[projects/my-project/concepts/main-architecture]] — project-specific architecture ## Related - [[entities/some-service]] — deployment platform ``` ## Special Files Every wiki has these files at its root: ### `index.md` A content-oriented catalog organized by category. Each entry has a one-line summary and tags. Rebuild this after every ingest operation. Format: ```markdown # Wiki Index ## Concepts - [[transformer-architecture]] — The dominant architecture for sequence modeling (#ml #architecture) - [[attention-mechanism]] — Core building block of transformers (#ml #fundamentals) ## Entities - [[andrej-karpathy]] — AI researcher, educator, former Tesla AI director (#person #ml) ``` ### `log.md` Chronological append-only record tracking every operation. Each entry is parseable: ```markdown ## Log - [2024-03-15T10:30:00Z] INGEST source="papers/attention.pdf" pages_updated=12 pages_created=3 - [2024-03-15T11:00:00Z] QUERY query="How do transformers handle long sequences?" result_pages=4 - [2024-03-16T09:00:00Z] LINT issues_found=2 orphans=1 contradictions=1 - [2024-03-17T10:00:00Z] ARCHIVE reason="rebuild" pages=87 destination="_archives/..." - [2024-03-17T10:05:00Z] REBUILD archived_to="_archives/..." previous_pages=87 ``` ### `.manifest.json` Tracks every source file that has been ingested — path, timestamps, what wiki pages it produced. This is the backbone of the delta system. See the `wiki-status` skill for the full schema. The manifest enables: - **Delta computation** — what's new or modified since last ingest - **Append mode** — only process the delta, not everything - **Audit** — which source produced which wiki page - **Staleness detection** — source changed but wiki page hasn't been updated ## Page Template When creating a new wiki page, use this structure: ```markdown --- title: Page Title category: concepts tags: [ml, architecture] aliases: [alternate name] sources: [papers/attention.pdf] summary: One or two sentences, ≤200 chars, so a reader (or another skill) can preview this page without opening it. provenance: extracted: 0.72 inferred: 0.25 ambiguous: 0.03 created: 2024-03-15T10:30:00Z updated: 2024-03-15T10:30:00Z --- # Page Title One-paragraph summary of what this page covers. ## Key Ideas - The source's central claim, paraphrased directly. - A generalization the source implies but doesn't state outright. ^[inferred] - A figure two sources disagree on. ^[ambiguous] Use [[wikilinks]] to connect to related pages. ## Open Questions Things that are unresolved or need more sources. ## Sources - [[references/attention-is-all-you-need]] — Original paper ``` ## Provenance Markers Every claim on a wiki page has one of three provenance states. Mark them inline so the reader (and future ingest passes) can tell signal from synthesis. | State | Marker | Meaning | |---|---|---| | **Extracted** | *(no marker — default)* | A paraphrase of something a source actually says. | | **Inferred** | `^[inferred]` suffix | An LLM-synthesized claim — a connection, generalization, or implication the source doesn't state directly. | | **Ambiguous** | `^[ambiguous]` suffix | Sources disagree, or the source is unclear. | Example: ```markdown - Transformers parallelize across positions, unlike RNNs. - This is why they scale better on modern hardware. ^[inferred] - GPT-4 was trained on roughly 13T tokens. ^[ambiguous] ``` **Why this syntax:** - `^[...]` is footnote-adjacent in Obsidian — renders cleanly and never collides with `[[wikilinks]]`. - Inline (suffix) so a single bullet stays a single bullet. - Default = extracted means existing pages without markers stay valid. **Frontmatter summary:** Optionally surface the rough mix at the page level so the user can scan for speculation-heavy pages without reading them: ```yaml provenance: extracted: 0.72 # rough fraction of sentences/bullets with no marker inferred: 0.25 ambiguous: 0.03 ``` These are best-effort numbers written by the ingest skill at create/update time. `wiki-lint` recomputes them and flags drift. The block is optional — pages without it are treated as fully extracted by convention. ## Retrieval Primitives Reading the vault is the dominant cost of every read-side skill. Use the cheapest primitive that can answer the question and **escalate only when the cheaper one is insufficient**. Any skill that needs content from the vault should follow this table rather than jumping straight to full-page reads. | Need | Primitive | Relative cost | |---|---|---| | Does a page exist? What's its title/category/tags? | Read `index.md`; `Grep` frontmatter blocks (scope with a pattern that targets `^---` blocks at file heads) | **Cheapest** | | 1–2 sentence preview of a page | Read the `summary:` field in its frontmatter | **Cheap** | | A specific claim or section inside a page | `Grep -A -B "" ` — returns only the matching lines plus context | **Medium** | | Whole-page content | `Read ` | **Expensive** — last resort | | Relationships across pages | `Grep "\[\[.*?\]\]"` across the vault, or walk wikilinks from a known page | Case-by-case | **The rule:** escalate only when the cheaper primitive can't answer the question. If you can answer from `summary:` fields alone, don't read page bodies. If a grepped section with `-A 10 -B 2` gives you the claim, don't read the whole page. A 500-line page opened to read 15 lines is 485 lines of wasted tokens. **Why this matters:** a 20-page vault lets you get away with full-vault scans. A 200-page vault does not. The primitives above are how the skills framework scales to large vaults without a database. Skills that consume this table: `wiki-query`, `cross-linker`, `wiki-lint`, `wiki-status` (insights mode). Any new skill that reads the vault should cite this section rather than reinvent the pattern. ## Core Principles 1. **Compile, don't retrieve.** The wiki is pre-compiled knowledge. When you ingest a source, update every relevant page — don't just create a summary of the source. 2. **Compound over time.** Each ingest should make the wiki smarter, not just bigger. Merge new information into existing pages, resolve contradictions, strengthen cross-references. 3. **Provenance matters.** Every claim should trace to a source. When updating a page, note which source prompted the update. 4. **Mark inferences.** Default sentences are extracted. Mark synthesized claims with `^[inferred]` and contested claims with `^[ambiguous]`. A wiki that hides its guessing rots silently; one that marks it stays trustworthy. 5. **Human curates, LLM maintains.** The human decides what sources to add and what questions to ask. The LLM handles the bookkeeping — updating cross-references, maintaining consistency, noting contradictions. 6. **Obsidian is the IDE.** The user browses and explores the wiki in Obsidian. Everything must be valid Obsidian markdown with working wikilinks. ## Environment Variables The wiki is configured through environment variables (see `.env.example`). The only required variable is the vault path — everything else has sensible defaults. - `OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH` — Where the wiki lives **(required)** - `OBSIDIAN_SOURCES_DIR` — Where raw source documents are - `OBSIDIAN_CATEGORIES` — Comma-separated list of categories - `CLAUDE_HISTORY_PATH` — Where to find Claude conversation data No API keys are needed — the agent running these skills already has LLM access built in. ## Modes of Operation The wiki supports three ingest modes: | Mode | When to use | What happens | |---|---|---| | **Append** | Small delta, incremental updates | Compute delta via manifest, ingest only new/modified sources | | **Rebuild** | Major drift, fresh start needed | Archive current wiki to `_archives/`, clear, reprocess all sources | | **Restore** | Need to go back | Bring back a previous archive | Use `wiki-status` to see the delta and get a recommendation. Use `wiki-rebuild` for archive/rebuild/restore operations. ## Reference For details on specific operations, see the companion skills: - **wiki-status** — Audit what's ingested, compute delta, recommend append vs rebuild - **wiki-rebuild** — Archive current wiki, rebuild from scratch, or restore from archive - **wiki-ingest** — Distill source documents into wiki pages - **claude-history-ingest** — Ingest Claude conversation history - **data-ingest** — Ingest any raw text data - **wiki-query** — Answer questions against the wiki - **wiki-lint** — Audit and maintain wiki health - **wiki-setup** — Initialize a new vault