Recall

Recall

Search past idea-girlie research from any repo.

All idea-girlie sessions are filed in a centralized knowledge base using PARA organization. The default path is ~/.idea-girlie/knowledge-base/ — override with the IDEA_GIRLIE_KB env var (Manzanita Research users: ~/.manzanita/knowledge-base/). This skill searches that knowledge base and surfaces what's relevant.

How it works

Step 1: Get the search query

The user gives you a topic, question, or keyword. Extract the core search terms.

Step 2: Search in two passes

Pass 1 — Directory names. Resolve the knowledge base root first:

KB="${IDEA_GIRLIE_KB:-$HOME/.idea-girlie/knowledge-base}"

Then glob for session directories matching the topic:

ls -R "$KB/projects/" "$KB/areas/" | grep -i [search-terms]

Use the Glob tool with patterns like $KB/**/*{term}* to find matching session directories.

Pass 2 — Synthesis content. Search SYNTHESIS.md files for the search terms:

Use the Grep tool to search for the terms across all synthesis files:

• Pattern: the search terms
• Path: $KB (resolved above)
• Glob: **/SYNTHESIS.md

Step 3: Present results

For each match, show:

• Session name (the directory slug)
• Filed under (category/grouping — e.g. projects/magpie or areas/sacred-economics)
• Date (from the directory timestamp)
• Key insight — Read the first few lines of SYNTHESIS.md and pull the most relevant excerpt

Keep it concise. 2-4 lines per match.

Step 4: Offer to go deeper

After presenting matches, ask if the user wants to:

• Read the full synthesis for any session
• See individual researcher docs (archivist, connector, etc.)
• Start a new idea-girlie session building on past research

When to use this skill

• "Have we looked into this before?"
• "What do we know about [topic]?"
• "Find the research on [X]"
• "Pull up that session about [Y]"
• "Recall [topic]"
• Any time the user wants to check past research before starting new work

When NOT to use this skill

• The user wants new research (use idea-girlie)
• The user is asking about code, not research (just search the codebase)