# Annotate > Take reading notes on a prose corpus — quotations with stable locators and margin notes, as a term source for extract - Skill: `tony/annotate` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add tony/annotate` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/tony/annotate/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - Author: tony (https://skillmd.com/u/tony) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/tony/annotate --- # /scholar:annotate The prose path. Without it, a written corpus enters the pipeline as unstructured text and its citations degrade to "somewhere in chapter 3". Read `../../references/citation.md` for the locator rules this stage implements. User arguments: $ARGUMENTS ## Locator precedence Take the most stable locator the source actually supports. In order: **A pinned line anchor** — where the source is a text file in version control. Most stable, and `verify` can check it mechanically. **Chapter and section** — where the work is structured. Survives repagination and translation between print and digital. **Page** — only where `sources.jsonl` records the edition. A page number without an edition is not a locator; it is a number that happens to be true of one printing. **A search string** — where the source has no stable anchor at all: a PDF without pagination, an audio transcript, a scanned document. Quote enough unique text to be found by search, and record in `sources.jsonl` that this source's locator is a search string rather than a position, so `verify` checks it by search rather than by position. Never invent a position the source does not have. A confident wrong locator costs a reader more than an honest search string. ## Procedure ### 1. Confirm the edition Read the source's row in `sources.jsonl`. If the locator scheme is `page` and the edition is unrecorded, stop and record the edition first. ### 2. Extract quotations One quotation per concept the author names, long enough to stand on its own when read out of context. A quotation that only makes sense beside the sentence before it is too short. ### 3. Attach margin notes The note says what the quotation is evidence *for* — which is the analyst's judgement and must stay visibly separate from the author's words. Never blend the two into a paraphrase; `extract` needs to know which is which. ### 4. Write the quotation set ``` {"source": "", "locator": "ch.3 §2", "quote": "...", "note": "the author's own term for the boundary"} ``` ## Rules - The quotation is verbatim. An ellipsis marks every omission. - The note is the analyst's; the quote is the author's. They never merge. - A term the author uses without defining is still a term. Quote a passage showing the usage rather than skipping it. - Where the author defines a term explicitly, quote the definition and mark it, so `extract` can use it directly rather than inferring one. ## Output Open with a one-line hero (`✓ quotations from ` or `⚠ Blocked: `), then exactly these sections: 1. `## Quotations` — count by locator kind, and the concepts they name. 2. `## Locator` — which scheme this source uses and why, including any fallback to a search string. 3. `## Undefined` — terms the author uses without defining, which `extract` will have to infer from usage. End with an `AskUserQuestion` panel offering next steps (for example: run extract, annotate another source, stop here) — skip the panel only in plan mode.