File

Files one matter — a document/record or an atomic self-fact — into a domain folder or Profile/. The subject is your own life, not the world (that is /ingest).

The vault root. Resolve it once, before anything else: VAULT_ROOT from the environment, defaulting to ~/Obsidian when unset (echo "${VAULT_ROOT:-$HOME/Obsidian}"). Every vault path below is built from $VAULT_ROOT, as shorthand: shell state does not persist between commands, so substitute the resolved path it printed into every command and file path, never the bare $VAULT_ROOT. If that directory does not exist, stop and say so — never create a vault.

Then read $VAULT_ROOT/CONVENTIONS.md (formatting).

Domains. The domain folders Personal/, Employment/, Ventures/ and Profile/, and the hubs Home.md and Finances.md, named below are the default example only. Read $VAULT_ROOT/CONTEXT.md (the domain model) for the vault's real domains and hubs: where they differ, the domains in the vault's own CONTEXT.md win.

Intake types

• Matter — a received record about your life: a PDF, scan, email, or a bundle of them on one subject. The matter is the unit — one note, many linked raws: a 26-file conveyancing pack is one matter, not 26 notes; a single policy is a one-item matter. OCR any scan on intake so the raw is searchable before you synthesise — see OCR.md.
• Fact — an atomic self-fact stated in text: a contact ("advisor's email is X"), a goal ("targeting bioinformatics"), a health note, an achievement.

Drain the Inbox

/file with no target: take the top item in $VAULT_ROOT/Inbox/ — one per invocation, the queue drains by being worked. Four outcomes: