People Intel

People Intelligence

Research a person and synthesize a structured Basic Memory person note using five enrichment sources, then cross-link existing notes.

Arguments

One argument: the person's full name. No prefix required — person names are unique identifiers in this graph.

See Step 0 below for how the argument is parsed into name and descriptor.

Step 0: Normalize input

Strip leading/trailing whitespace. If the argument looks like a BM note title (contains -), split into name and descriptor. Otherwise treat the whole argument as the person's name.

Step 1: Check for existing note

Search by name across person notes:

search_notes(query="<name>", note_types=["person"], page_size=5)

Also do a broad text search in case the note uses a different title format:

search_notes(query="<name>", search_type="text", page_size=10)

If a matching person note is found, read it:

read_note(identifier="<title>", include_frontmatter=true, output_format="json")

Freshness check: Scope research based on note age (check updated_at):

Note any previous [controversy] observations — these guide what to look for in new research.

Append new observations rather than overwriting.

Step 2: Five-source enrichment (run in parallel)

Multi-query strategy: For Tavily, ask 2 targeted questions (bio/role and contributions/influence) rather than one broad query.

Launch these research queries simultaneously:

a) Basic Memory context — deep graph traversal:

People are key connectors in the knowledge graph — a single person may be referenced across engineering, indieweb, security, and accessibility clusters. The BM step is therefore deeper than in either of intel's families.

If a note exists, build context with depth 2 to discover second-hop connections:

build_context(url="<note-title>", depth=2, max_related=15)

Then search broadly for mentions across all note types:

search_notes(query="<name>", search_type="text", page_size=20)

If no note exists, run the text search first, then build context from the highest-scoring related note to explore its neighborhood:

search_notes(query="<name>", search_type="text", page_size=20)
build_context(url="<highest-scoring-related-note>", depth=1, max_related=10)

Relation mining: For each note that mentions the person, note:

• What role the person plays in that note (creator, advocate, author, inventor)
• Whether the mention is substantive or passing
• Which relation verb from the person schema best describes the connection

This produces a richer set of relations than just relates_to — use created, founded, maintains, works_with, enables where they apply.

Cross-cluster discovery: People often bridge unrelated graph clusters. After the initial search, check if results span multiple directories (e.g., results appearing in 3+ distinct directories). If so, the person is a cross-cluster connector — document this in a [connection] observation.

b) Raindrop — bookmarked articles by or about the person:

find_bookmarks(search="<name>")

If fewer than 3 results, search again with a known alias, project name, or domain (e.g., find_bookmarks(search="adactio") for Jeremy Keith):

find_bookmarks(search="<alias-or-project>")

If bookmarks are found, fetch content from the top 2-3 most relevant results:

fetch_bookmark_content(bookmark_id=<id>)

These are articles the user deliberately saved — high relevance signal.

c) Readwise — highlights from their writing:

readwise_search_highlights(vector_search_term="<name> <primary-domain>")
reader_search_documents(query="<name>")

Highlights contain expert-selected passages from the user's reading (books, articles, documentation). These have high signal-to-noise ratio and may surface insights not found in any other source. Reader documents may contain in-depth articles by or about the person.

If both return empty, note "source c: no Readwise content found" and proceed.

d) Tavily — biographical and professional data:

Two targeted queries:

tavily_search(query="<name> bio role current work projects contributions", max_results=5)
tavily_search(query="<name> <primary-domain> influence controversy", max_results=5)

Anti-hagiography check: the second query deliberately searches for controversy and criticism alongside the first query's neutral bio search — this is what keeps the note from reading as one-sided praise. Carry any findings into the [controversy] observations described in Step 3.

If the person has a personal site (identifiable from Raindrop or Readwise results), extract the about page:

tavily_extract(urls=["<personal-site-url>/about"], query="role bio current projects")

This is the primary source for the role and impact fields.

e) DeepWiki — GitHub repository analysis (conditional):

Only run if Tavily or Raindrop surfaces a GitHub username or the person is primarily known as a developer/maintainer of open source projects.

ask_question(repo="<github-username>/<primary-repo>", question="What are this project's goals, design philosophy, and key patterns?")

The goal is understanding the person's approach through their work, not documenting the package API (that's what /intel does).

If no GitHub presence is evident, skip and note "source e: no GitHub presence found".

Step 3: Synthesize into note

Read the note template: ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/people-intel/references/note-template-person.md

Read the source guide for query refinement tips: ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/people-intel/references/source-guide.md

Fourth-wall guardrail: Before writing, verify every sentence passes the export test — "would someone unfamiliar with Basic Memory understand this paragraph?" Delete any sentence that:

• Claims the person "has no presence in Raindrop/BM"
• Explains where the note fits in the knowledge graph
• References the research process rather than the person
• Describes the note's coverage status rather than the person's work

This prevents the fourth-wall anti-pattern (self-referential content in subject-domain notes). See the vp-note-quality skill checklist for the full ruleset.

Title convention: <Full Name> - <Brief Descriptor>. The descriptor should be a concise phrase (3-8 words) capturing the person's primary contribution or role. Examples:

• Linus Torvalds - Linux Creator
• Tim Berners-Lee - World Wide Web Inventor
• Aaron Gustafson - Web Standards and Accessibility Advocate

Directory: Default to people/. If the person clearly belongs to a domain cluster with an existing directory convention, use that directory. When uncertain, use people/.

No wiki-links in observations. Never use [[Target]] syntax in observation lines. BM's parser treats any [[ as a relation boundary — the text before it becomes the relation_type field (max 200 chars), causing validation failures. Put all wiki-links in ## Relations only.

Verify before capture (mandatory self-check — not CI-enforced). This step is required for the conditions below — not enforced by CI, but the same class of obligation as the LLM-judgment fourth-wall rules. Unlike the Step 1 freshness table (enforced by which sources actually run), no mechanical gate checks it; treat that as a reason to self-enforce, not permission to skip. For any note Step 1 did not put on the fast path — missing, 60+ days old, or a low-evidence person — confirm load-bearing claims (current role/affiliation, authorship and project attribution, and any biographical assertion) against the sources already fetched in this run before writing. Do NOT make new source calls — Step 1's freshness tiers deliberately pruned sources; verify against what was fetched. A wrong note compounds via citation and cross-project reciprocation, so a persisted claim carries a higher bar than a passing remark. If a claim cannot be confirmed from this run's sources, weaken it to a hedged statement ("appears to", "is associated with") and date-qualify uncertain facts (e.g. "as of 2026-05") — never fabricate; if a fact is unknown, say so or omit it. Routine refreshes (note under 60 days) skip this step. This complements the anti-hagiography check (Step 2d) and the fourth-wall guardrail (above, this step) — verify-before-capture checks accuracy, the anti-hagiography check ensures balance, and the fourth-wall guardrail keeps the note subject-focused.

Record contradictions, do not resolve them silently. When two sources disagree on a load-bearing fact (role, affiliation, attribution), record both values with their provenance as a [controversy] observation (the person-schema category for disputes, criticisms, and unresolved source conflicts) — prefer the more recent or authoritative source and name which — rather than silently picking one.

Confidence scales with source count. A biographical claim backed by only one source in this run carries lower confidence than the same claim independently confirmed by 2+ sources. Apply the hedging rule above ("appears to", "is associated with") to single-source claims even when nothing in this run's sources contradicts them — the absence of a second source is not confirmation.

Genuinely unresolved contradictions. The "prefer the more recent or authoritative source and name which" guidance above assumes one source can be judged more trustworthy. When neither can be — both current, both plausible, no canonical/official source among them — do not force a pick. Record the contradiction as still-open in the same [controversy] observation, e.g. - [controversy] Contested: Tavily bio says current role is X (2026-06), Raindrop-bookmarked profile says Y (undated) — unresolved, neither source clearly more authoritative. This flags the fact for a future refresh instead of quietly asserting a resolution the evidence doesn't support.

Step 4: Write or update the note

New person: Use write_note with the full template. Set note_type="person". Emit aliases: ["<Full Name>"] in the frontmatter — the bare name (the title minus its - <Descriptor>), which you already have from the synthesized title; a YAML list of bare strings, never [[ ]]. Add a known link-variant (handle / full given name) only if research surfaced one. Skip the alias and note it to the user if that bare name already titles or aliases another note (an ambiguous Obsidian target). The alias resolves [[<Full Name>]] links today in Obsidian and other wiki-link tools that honor aliases: frontmatter, and will resolve in Basic Memory once its LinkResolver gains an alias step — it is inert inside BM tooling until then (see UPSTREAM-basic-memory.md), which is expected, not a bug.

Existing person: Pick the operation based on the note's current state:

Self-heal aliases (SHOULD): if the existing note's frontmatter lacks an aliases: key, add one in the same update — a find_replace anchored on the title: line (title: <X> → title: <X>\naliases: ["<bare name>"]), staying strictly inside the frontmatter (never include a --- fence in find_text). This backfills the alias on notes you actively re-run, without a separate bulk pass.

Canonical call (populated section):

edit_note(
  identifier="<person-title>",
  operation="find_replace",
  find_text="- [<last-category>] <last observation text>",
  content="- [<last-category>] <last observation text>\n- [<new-category>] <new observation text>"
)

Empty-section fallback (anchor on header):

edit_note(
  identifier="<person-title>",
  operation="find_replace",
  find_text="## Observations\n",
  content="## Observations\n- [<new-category>] <new observation text>\n"
)

Do NOT use operation="append" with section="Observations" when the section already exists — it appends to end of file, not end of section. The substring match in find_replace is byte-exact: use the observation text verbatim, no whitespace normalization or escaping.

If find_replace fails (no match found), the note may have been edited since you last read it. Re-run read_note, re-derive the anchor, and retry once. If the second attempt also fails, stop and report the error to the user — do not loop.

Step 5: Confirm and summarize

Report to the user:

• Note location (directory/title)
• Key findings from each source (1 line each)
• Any controversies or sensitivities surfaced
• Cross-links to be added in Step 6

Step 6: Cross-link existing notes

After writing the note, search for existing notes that reference this person in their body text or observations but lack a wiki-link back to them:

search_notes(query="<name>", search_type="text", page_size=15)

The page size is larger than in intel's package family because person names appear in prose more often than package names. Filter carefully — only add links where the mention is substantive (attributing a quote, citing their work, listing them as a creator). Do not link notes that mention the name only in passing.

For each qualifying result (excluding the note just written):

1. Read its ## Relations section
2. If the person is mentioned in body/observations but not linked in Relations, add a link via edit_note with find_replace:

edit_note(
  identifier="<existing-note-title>",
  operation="find_replace",
  find_text="- <last_relation_type> [[<Last Existing Relation>]]",
  content="- <last_relation_type> [[<Last Existing Relation>]]\n- relates_to [[<person-title>]]"
)

Cross-linking is bidirectional: also check the new person note's ## Relations section. If source a) surfaced related project, standard, or concept notes that should link back, add created [[Project]], maintains [[Project]], or relates_to [[Standard]] relations using the person schema's relation vocabulary.

For adding outbound relations to the new person note itself:

edit_note(
  identifier="<person-title>",
  operation="find_replace",
  find_text="- <last_relation_type> [[<Last Existing Relation>]]",
  content="- <last_relation_type> [[<Last Existing Relation>]]\n- created [[<Project-Title>]]"
)

Only add links where the relationship is genuine. Skip this step for updates to existing notes where cross-links likely already exist.

Verify the specific edge resolved — not via build_context. After adding a link (either direction), confirm that specific previously-dangling relation now resolves by querying the relation index directly, not by re-running build_context:

search_notes(query="<existing-note-title-or-target-name>", entity_types=["relation"], page_size=10)

Find the specific relation row for the edge you just added or fixed and confirm it shows a populated to_entity/target rather than a dangling target. Caution: build_context's bidirectional "Related" list traverses only resolved edges and can surface a reciprocal relation — e.g. the relates_to link the other note already carries back to the person note you just edited — which reads as success even when the specific egress edge you just wrote is still unresolved (to_id NULL). Seeing the target appear in build_context's Related list does not confirm that edge; only the relation index does.

Reconcile bare-name stubs. For a new note titled <Full Name> - <Descriptor>, existing notes elsewhere in the graph may already reference this person via a bare [[<Full Name>]] wiki-link, written before this note existed. Basic Memory resolves wiki-links by exact title match, so [[<Full Name>]] does NOT resolve to [[<Full Name> - <Descriptor>]] — the link silently stays broken. This is a different mechanism from the aliases: frontmatter Step 4 sets on the new note itself: the alias makes this note resolvable by its own bare name once BM's LinkResolver supports aliases (still inert as of this writing — see Step 4), but it does nothing for links that already live in other notes today. Reconcile those explicitly. Search relations, not text — FTS5 strips brackets, so a search_type="text" query containing [[/]] degrades to an unscoped match on the bare name; entity_types: ["relation"] with the bare name and no search_type (default hybrid) instead searches the relation's indexed text — for a resolved relation the title carries both endpoints, while for a dangling bare-name link the target survives in the relation's permalink slug, which the default hybrid/semantic search surfaces — an explicit search_type="text" would not, since text search is scoped to title/content_stems only and never matches on permalink:

search_notes(query="<Full Name>", entity_types=["relation"], page_size=15)

For each result (excluding the note just written) that contains a bare [[<Full Name>]] link aimed at this person — not an unrelated note that happens to share the bare name — rewrite it to the full title:

edit_note(
  identifier="<existing-note-title>",
  operation="find_replace",
  find_text="[[<Full Name>]]",
  content="[[<Full Name> - <Descriptor>]]"
)

Skip this step when the new note's title has no <Descriptor> suffix (title equals the bare name — nothing to reconcile).