Capture

Chats are invisible to the routines. Captures are how what's settled in a chat reaches the vault: you append one line per item; the nightly dream files it into the right page and the weekly flags anything left unfiled.

This works from any chat, in any surface: the workbench project, another Cowork chat, a Claude Code session, a plain chat. The chats that settle things outside the project are exactly the ones that otherwise write nothing down. Wherever you are, the destination is the same: the workbench's Tracking/Captures/ folder, same file names, same line shape. Find the workbench the way the commands do: the nearest folder above the current one containing .workbench/manifest.json, or the folder the project is attached to. Set source: to where the chat happened (project-chat, cowork-chat, code-session, chat).

If this chat can't reach the workbench folder, you can't file the capture. Write the formatted capture lines in your reply instead, say plainly that they weren't saved and why, and ask the owner to paste them into the project (or today's capture file) so the dream picks them up.

You write two places: Tracking/Captures/<today>.md and Tracking/Drafts/ (today in the owner's timezone, from Context/me.md). Append only. Never edit or delete an earlier line, never write any other vault file from a chat. Everything else has an owner, and a second writer causes conflicts.

When to capture

Without being asked, at the moment it happens:

• a decision gets made ("let's go with vendor B", "we're pushing launch to March")
• a process changes ("from now on, QBR decks go through Dana first")
• a fact comes up that the next session should know (a new owner, a date, a number, a name)
• the owner corrects you, or says "always" or "never". Capture before continuing.
• the owner answers a numbered question from a briefing ("3 yes, 5 it's Dana"). One answer: line per answer.

Don't capture chit-chat, drafts, half-formed ideas, or anything already in the vault and unchanged. If the owner says "don't save this" or the topic is personal, don't.

Line format

- decision: <what was decided, and why if stated> — about [[Page]] `source: project-chat` `date: YYYY-MM-DD`
- process: <what changed in how something is done> — about [[Page]] `source: project-chat` `date: YYYY-MM-DD`
- fact: <the fact, with who said it if relevant> — about [[Page]] `source: project-chat` `date: YYYY-MM-DD`
- correction: <what was wrong> → <the rule going forward> `source: project-chat` `date: YYYY-MM-DD`
- answer: briefing YYYY-MM-DD Q<n> — <the answer> — about [[Page]] `source: project-chat` `date: YYYY-MM-DD`

Write every line in your own words as a summary of what was settled. Never paste text from an email, document, message or web page into a capture. Something discussed but not decided is not a capture.

• One item per line, in plain words a stranger could act on. Name people in full, as [[wikilinks]] when they have a page, and name every org, project and tool involved the same way. The dream builds relationship edges from these names, so "Pat said Acme wants it" is weaker than "[[Pat Lee]] said [[Acme Data]] wants the pilot moved — about [[Acme Expansion]]".
• When a chat establishes a relationship ("Sam's taking over the Acme account", "Dana reports to Lee now"), capture it as a fact: so the edge gets built.
• about [[Page]] names the page it belongs on: a project, person, org, tool, or Context/me / Context/voice for how the owner works or writes. Use the page's exact name; check it exists. If there's no page yet, use the plain name without brackets; the dream decides whether to create one.
• If a line supersedes an earlier capture, say so: (supersedes 10:40 line about launch date).

If the file doesn't exist yet, create it with this frontmatter first:

---
type: reference
tags: [tracking, captures]
date: YYYY-MM-DD
---

Then tell the owner in a few words what you captured ("Captured: decision to push launch to March"). No ceremony.

Drafts

Separately from captures: whenever you hand the owner a draft they'll send to someone else (email, Slack message, post, doc section), save it exactly as given to Tracking/Drafts/YYYY-MM-DD_<short-slug>.md:

---
type: draft
date: YYYY-MM-DD
channel: email | slack | doc | post | other
to: "[[Name]]"
about: "[[Page]]"
---

<the draft exactly as given>

If you revise it in the same chat, save the final version under the same name (it's the one they'll send). Don't announce it. The recap compares it with what was actually sent, and the dream learns the owner's voice from the differences. Never save personal or HR drafts.

Secrets and sensitive data

Never capture passwords, keys, tokens, account numbers, or anything the role guardrails in the root CLAUDE.md exclude (e.g. candidate or employee personal data). Capture that the thing exists and where it lives, not its value.