later

Create a new "Later" item — a personal backlog entry for things to learn, research, do, or read.

Backlog location: this command writes to $LATER_DIR (defaults to ~/notes/Later). Set LATER_DIR in your shell if your backlog lives elsewhere.

Arguments

$ARGUMENTS

• First positional argument is the title (required, can be quoted for multi-word)
• --category <name> — one of: Learn, Research, Do, Read (if omitted, ask the user)
• --priority <level> — Low, Medium, or High (default: Medium)
• Examples: /later "Learn Rust async/await" --category Learn --priority High, /later "Read Designing Data-Intensive Applications", /later "Set up home lab Kubernetes cluster" --category Do

Steps

1. Parse arguments: Extract the title, --category, and --priority from $ARGUMENTS.

   • The title is everything that is not a flag or flag value. It may be quoted.
   • --priority defaults to Medium if not provided.
   • If --category is missing, ask the user to choose one: Learn, Research, Do, Read.

2. Resolve the backlog directory and template:

   • Read LATER_DIR from the environment; if unset, default to ~/notes/Later.
   • Look for a template file at $LATER_DIR/_template.md. If it exists, use it.

   • If no template file exists, fall back to this inline template:

     # [Title]
     
     **Added:** YYYY-MM-DD
     **Priority:** Medium
     **Status:** New
     
     ## What
     
     ## Why
     
     ## Resources
     
     ## Notes

3. Generate filename: Convert the title to kebab-case for the filename.

   Note: the inline-fallback path skips step 2 ("Read the template") since the template is already inlined above.

   • Strip special characters (slashes, colons, quotes, etc.)
   • Example: "Learn Rust Async" → learn-rust-async.md

4. Fill in metadata: Copy the template and replace:

   • # [Title] → # <the provided title>
   • **Added:** YYYY-MM-DD → today's date
   • **Priority:** Medium → the chosen priority
   • **Status:** New → leave as New

5. Gather content from the user: Ask the user to provide content for each section. Ask all at once or in a natural flow:

   • What — brief description of the item
   • Why — why it's worth pursuing
   • Resources — any links, books, courses (optional — skip if user has none)
   • Notes — additional context (optional — skip if user has none)
6. Write the file: Save the completed file to $LATER_DIR/<Category>/<filename>.md (creating subdirectories as needed).
7. Confirm: Show the user the final file path and the rendered contents.

Output

Display the created file path and its full contents so the user can verify everything looks correct.