Promote

The conversation is a substrate. Most of what happens in it is ephemeral — task-specific, session-bound, useful in the moment and gone after. But some exchanges produce durable insights: a new architectural understanding, a person fact worth remembering, a doctrine pattern emerging, a decision that should be logged.

Without /promote, those insights live in the conversation transcript and decay. With /promote, the principal can elevate them to vault content the framework will surface in future sessions.

When to use

• The conversation produced an insight that should outlive this session
• The principal said "we should remember that" or "make a note that…"
• A doctrine pattern is starting to emerge from the discussion
• A new person, project, or concept came up that needs a vault entry
• Use on prompts like: "/promote", "promote that", "make a note that", "save that insight", "elevate to doctrine", "capture this conversation", "remember that we decided", "this should be a vault note"

How to execute

Step 1 — Identify the slice to promote

Ask: which part of the conversation should become durable?

If the principal points to specific turns ("the last 10 messages about X"), use those. Otherwise:

• Default to the last 5-10 turns AND any explicitly-referenced earlier exchanges
• If unclear, ask one focused question: "Promote the {topic A} discussion or the {topic B} discussion?"

Step 2 — Categorize the artifact

Map the slice to a vault category:

If the slice is about multiple categories, produce multiple artifacts. Don't bundle.

Step 3 — Extract the durable content

From the conversation slice, extract:

• The insight or fact (the load-bearing claim)
• The reasoning that led to it (why this is true / matters)
• The context (what triggered the conversation)
• Open questions (what's NOT yet resolved)

Drop:

• Conversational noise ("good point", "right", "that makes sense")
• Tool calls and intermediate exploration that doesn't matter to the conclusion
• Prior context that's already in other vault notes (link to those instead)

Step 4 — Write the artifact

Use the appropriate vault note structure (frontmatter with title/tags/created/aliases, then content). Cross-link to existing notes that the slice references.

Step 5 — Confirm and link

Output:

✅ Promoted to vault/{path}.md

Cross-references added:
- [[Existing Note 1]]
- [[Existing Note 2]]

Open questions captured:
- {question 1}
- {question 2}

Update [[MOC]] or [[MEMORY]] if this is high-signal? (y/n)

If the principal says yes, append a one-line entry to the appropriate MOC or to MEMORY.md.

Step 6 — Optional: append to DECISION_LOG

If the promoted artifact reflects a decision (not just an insight), also append a one-line entry to vault/memory/DECISION_LOG.md:

- 2026-04-27: {decision summary} → see [[promoted-artifact]]

This will trigger the decision-aging loop ([[Cost of Confidence]] sister doctrine) and surface 30/60/90-day check-ins via /open.

What this skill is NOT

• Not a transcript saver. The daily note (/close artifact) handles that. /promote is for selective elevation.
• Not a summarizer. /promote extracts insights; it doesn't condense a long conversation. If the slice doesn't have a durable insight, don't promote — just let it stay in the transcript.
• Not automatic. The principal decides what graduates. Auto-promotion would dilute the vault.

Anti-patterns this prevents

• Insights captured in chat transcripts that nobody reads later
• The principal saying "we already discussed this" but not knowing where
• Decisions made in conversation that don't make it to DECISION_LOG → lost reasoning
• Doctrine emerging in real-time but never crystallizing into a vault note → never applied

Connects to

• /close — writes the daily note (transient outcome record)
• /learn — sister skill for tool/framework evaluations specifically
• /decision-log (forthcoming) — sister skill for decisions specifically
• [[Self-Improving CLAUDE.md]] — the broader pattern of converting conversation to durable rules
• [[Legibility Thesis]] — the meta-doctrine that demands ephemera become legible artifacts
• vault/memory/MEMORY.md — the index that gets updated when promoted artifacts are high-signal