---
name: distill-notes
description: Distill raw notes into a sharp set of standalone maxims — distillation, not summarization. Keeps the vital few, drops 40-60% of ideas, compresses survivors to maxims of 8 words or fewer, promotes the most foundational idea to a headline, and sharpens contrasts into antithesis ("Give problems, not answers") or couplets ("Fewer tasks, bigger impact"). Returns flat, loosely clustered bullets in chat, then asks whether to also save them to a new .md file. Use when the user says "distill these notes", "turn my notes into maxims", "compress this to principles", "boil this down to maxims", or wants raw notes reduced to a vital few transferable principles. Accepts pasted text, a local file path, or an Obsidian note reference. Do NOT use to summarize while keeping all the ideas, to highlight key takeaways inside a note in place, or to build a reusable advisor persona from interview transcripts.
---

# Distill Notes

Turn raw notes into a distilled set of maxims. This is distillation, not summarization. Drop
ideas, compress the survivors, sharpen them.

## Core principle

Keep the vital few. Compress to maxims. Sharpen. Cut the rest. Expect to delete 40-60% of
ideas, not shorten them.

## Inputs

Accept any one of:

- **Pasted text** — raw notes inline in the request.
- **Local file path** — read the file.
- **Obsidian note reference** — glob `**/*<name>*.md` under the vault, excluding `.trash`. On
  multiple matches, list them numbered and ask the user to pick. Confirm the resolved path
  before distilling.

Read the whole source. Do not truncate — keepable ideas can sit anywhere.

## Workflow

### Step 1 — Offer a target count (optional)

Ask once whether to set a target bullet count up front. A target forces the ranking when
selection is close (see Known limit). If the user declines, distill to your own judgment.

### Step 2 — Select what survives

- Keep transferable principles and mental models.
- Cut domain-specific observations unless central.
- Cut examples, anecdotes, personal-practice notes, tactical asides.
- Fold duplicates into one bullet.
- Synthesize what is implied. Do not just extract.

### Step 3 — Pick the lead

Pick the single most foundational idea. Promote it to a headline, not a bullet.

### Step 4 — Compress each bullet

- One idea each. Target 8 words or fewer.
- Strip framing scaffolding → "principle for...", "the secret is...", "a good way to...".
- Drop articles and pronouns when it still reads.
- Use shorthand → PMF, etc.
- Present tense, certain → "thoughts follow" not "thoughts will follow".
- Flip negated comparatives to positive → "not more tasks" becomes "fewer tasks". Direct reads
  as certain.

### Step 5 — Sharpen

Classify the contrast before sharpening. Competing moves, or two dials on one system.

- **Competing moves, pick one** → antithesis, keep "not" → "Give problems, not answers".
- **Two dials on one system** → couplet, drop "not", end on payoff → "Fewer tasks, bigger
  impact".
- **Couplet form** → matched adjective-noun pairs, equal length. Last word is the payoff.
- **Sequence for processes** → "Make it small, perfect it, find PMF, then scale".
- Imperative for actions. Bare maxim for laws.

### Step 6 — Format

- Flat bullets. Loose thematic clustering → philosophy, then product, then people.
- Clean markdown. No asterisks, semicolons, em-dashes, emojis. Use arrows, periods, commas.
- Parenthetical only for a short "why" tag, rare → "(its a gift)".
- English, no diacritics.

### Step 7 — Self-test before output

- Could each bullet stand alone on a wall? If it needs context, rewrite or cut.
- Did I drop enough? If more than 60% of source ideas survived, I kept too much.
- Any bullet still a summary sentence instead of a maxim? Fix it.
- Did I reach for antithesis on a couplet? If poles are two dials, drop the "not".

### Step 8 — Output

**Print the distilled set in chat** — the headline followed by the clustered bullets.

Then ask once whether to also save it to a new .md file. Do not save unless the user says yes.

- **On yes** — write the same content to `outputs/<slug>-distilled.md`, creating `outputs/` in the
  current working directory if it does not exist.
  - `<slug>` = the source note or file name in kebab-case when the input came from a file or
    vault note; otherwise a short kebab-case slug from the headline.
  - If that file already exists, append a numeric suffix (`-2`, `-3`, ...) so nothing is
    overwritten.
  - Report the saved path in chat.
- **On no** — stop. Leave nothing on disk.

## Known limit

Selection is partly taste. Strong, on-theme ideas can still lose on feel. To force the ranking,
set a target bullet count up front. Couplet is not the default. Without the dials test it
flattens real antitheses.