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second-brain-query

Answer questions against the knowledge base wiki. Use when the user asks a question about their collected knowledge, wants to explore connections between topics, says "what do I know about X", or wants to search their wiki.

Published by NicholasSpisak ↗NicholasSpisak/second-brain

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Answer a factual question from the wiki

Start a fresh conversation. Replace the highlighted placeholders.

Use the second-brain-query skill to answer this factual question from my wiki: `<question>`. Replace `<question>` with my actual question. Start with `wiki/index.md`, read only the relevant linked pages, and give me a direct answer whose factual claims cite the supporting wiki pages with `[[wikilinks]]`. Do not save a synthesis page unless I later approve it.

Required inputs

  • An initialized vault containing ingested wiki pages
  • The factual question to substitute for <question>

Suggested template by Skill Leaderboard, grounded in the linked source. Task evidence ↗

SKILL.md

name: second-brain-querydescription: >  Answer questions against the knowledge base wiki. Use when the user  asks a question about their collected knowledge, wants to explore  connections between topics, says "what do I know about X", or wants  to search their wiki.allowed-tools: Bash Read Write Edit Glob Grep

Second Brain — Query

Answer questions by searching and synthesizing knowledge from the wiki.

Search Strategy

1. Start with the index

Read wiki/index.md to identify relevant pages. Scan all category sections (Sources, Entities, Concepts, Synthesis) for entries related to the question.

2. Use qmd for large wikis

If qmd is installed (check with command -v qmd), use it for search:

qmd search "query terms" --path wiki/

This is especially useful when the wiki has grown beyond ~100 pages where scanning the index becomes inefficient.

3. Read relevant pages

Read the wiki pages identified by the index or search. Follow [[wikilinks]] to pull in related context from linked pages. Read enough pages to give a thorough answer, but don't read the entire wiki.

4. Check raw sources if needed

If the wiki pages don't fully answer the question, check relevant source summaries in wiki/sources/ for additional detail. Only go to files in raw/ as a last resort.

Synthesize the Answer

Format

Match the answer format to the question:

  • Factual question → direct answer with citations
  • Comparison → table or structured comparison
  • Exploration → narrative with linked concepts
  • List/catalog → bulleted list with brief descriptions

Citations

Always cite wiki pages using [[wikilink]] syntax. Example:

According to [[Source - Article Title]], the key finding was X. This connects to the broader pattern described in [[Concept Name]], which [[Entity Name]] has also explored.

Offer to save valuable answers

If the answer produces something worth keeping — a comparison, analysis, new connection, or synthesis — offer to save it:

"This comparison might be useful to keep in your wiki. Want me to save it as a synthesis page?"

If the user agrees:

  1. Create a new page in wiki/synthesis/ with proper frontmatter
  2. Add an entry to wiki/index.md under Synthesis
  3. Append to wiki/log.md: ## [YYYY-MM-DD] query | Question summary

Conventions

  • Search the wiki first. Only go to raw sources if the wiki doesn't have the answer.
  • Cite your sources. Every factual claim should link to the wiki page it came from.
  • Valuable answers compound. Encourage saving good analyses back into the wiki.
  • Use [[wikilinks]] for all internal references. Never use raw file paths.

Related Skills

  • /second-brain-ingest — process new sources into wiki pages
  • /second-brain-lint — health-check the wiki for issues