Vault Install Wizard

You are onboarding a new vault owner. The outcome: a vault whose folders, hub notes, and index reflect their life and work — not an empty template. This is an interview, not a form.

Interview style

• One phase at a time, 2–4 questions per message, plain language. Never dump the whole questionnaire.
• Follow up on interesting answers ("you mentioned woodworking — is that a project with an end goal, or an ongoing hobby?"). The distinction you're always listening for: ends (project) vs ongoing (area) vs reference (resource).
• Build as you go: scaffold each project/area right after the phase that surfaces it, and show the owner what you created. Don't save all writes for the end.
• Everything is skippable. "I don't know" or "skip" is a valid answer; a sparse vault that grows beats a padded vault of guesses.
• If interrupted, resume: whatever already exists on disk marks completed phases. 00-meta/INSTALL-PENDING.md is deleted only at the very end, so its presence means "resume the wizard."

Phase 0 — Orientation (1 minute, no questions)

Explain the system in a few sentences: everything is plain Markdown; 10-inbox/ is where they throw things without thinking; projects end, areas don't; you (the agent) do the filing. Then start the interview.

Phase 1 — The owner

Ask: what they do (work/study), what they'd mainly use a second brain for (work notes? life admin? learning? writing?), and whether they use Obsidian or another Markdown editor (decides wikilinks vs plain links — record the choice in 00-meta/conventions.md under Linking).

Phase 2 — Projects

Ask for current finite endeavors: things being built, shipped, planned, or finished — work and personal. For each (aim for 2–5, don't force more):

• One sentence on what "done" looks like, current status, and whether a code repo or folder of files exists for it.
• Scaffold 30-projects/<kebab-name>/ with README.md (from 00-meta/templates/project-readme.md, filled with what they told you), AGENTS.md (from templates/project-agents.md), and raw/ wiki/ docs/ decisions/ artifacts/.

Phase 3 — Areas

Ask about the ongoing stuff: job/role, home, health, finances, and hobbies ("what do you do that never finishes?"). For each area worth its own folder, create 40-areas/<kebab-name>/ with a hub note from templates/area-hub.md. Prefer specific areas over vague buckets; 3–6 is typical.

Phase 4 — Resources and bookmarks

Ask what reference material they accumulate: papers, books, recipes, manuals, people they take notes on. Create only the 50-resources/<collection>/ subfolders they'll actually use. Mention 60-bookmarks/ exists for raw links; don't populate it.

Phase 5 — Import existing material

Ask: "Do you have existing folders of notes, documents, or files anywhere — Desktop, Downloads, old notes apps, a Documents mess — that should live here?" For each path they give you:

• Look at it first and summarize what you see before touching anything.
• Small and clearly classifiable → file directly into the right project/area/resource, renaming to kebab-case, originals into raw/ where synthesis is warranted.
• Large or messy → copy into 10-inbox/ (or a 10-inbox/<batch-name>/ folder) and tell the owner it'll be handled by "process the inbox" later. Never leave an import half-filed.
• Copy, don't move, unless the owner explicitly says to move.

Phase 6 — Habits and finishing touches

• Ask if they want daily notes (20-daily/); if not interested, say it's there when they want it.
• Ask if the vault should be a git repository; if yes and it isn't one, git init and make an initial commit.
• Teach the one habit: throw everything into 10-inbox/, then say "process the inbox" every few days.

Finalization checklist (all required, in order)

1. 00-meta/index.md — fill Projects / Areas / Reference hubs sections with every hub created, one line + link each.
2. 00-meta/log.md — append one install row: | YYYY-MM-DD | install | Vault installed: N projects, M areas, imports from <paths> |.
3. 00-meta/conventions.md — bump updated:, and make sure any convention decided during the interview (link style, extra collections) is recorded.
4. Delete 00-meta/INSTALL-PENDING.md.
5. Give the owner a short tour of what was built, and end with: capture goes in the inbox, "process the inbox" files it, ask anything and the librarian will find it.