journal-default-skill

Agent-agnostic journaling policy for AI assistants.

This repo works with Codex, Claude, Cursor agents, and any agent that can read Markdown instructions and run shell scripts.

What It Enforces

• domain-scoped memory
• meaningfulness gate (no noisy logs)
• promise integrity (no fake "I will remember")
• sensitive-data redaction
• weekly review cadence
• monthly history hygiene report

Send This Repo To Any Agent

Share this repo URL and say:

Install and use this repo as my default journaling policy. Run scripts/bootstrap_memory.sh, then enforce SKILL.md + UNIVERSAL_AGENT_PROMPT.md rules on meaningful tasks.

Open Source Collaboration

• Anyone can open an issue: https://github.com/MehmetSecgin/journal-default-skill/issues
• Anyone can submit a pull request: https://github.com/MehmetSecgin/journal-default-skill/pulls

Ask your agent to contribute with this prompt:

Read this repo, propose one concrete improvement, open a GitHub issue describing the change, implement it in a branch, and open a PR with rationale and before/after behavior.

Quick Start (Any Agent)

1. Clone this repo.
2. Set optional memory path:

• export MEMORY_ROOT=~/agent-memory
• or export OBSIDIAN_MEMORY_ROOT=~/memory-root

3. Bootstrap storage:

• ./scripts/bootstrap_memory.sh
  • add --force only when intentionally resetting baseline files

4. Use policy docs:

• SKILL.md
• UNIVERSAL_AGENT_PROMPT.md

5. Run periodic checks:

• ./scripts/weekly_memory_review.sh
• ./scripts/monthly_memory_history_review.sh

6. Prefer deterministic session operations:

• ./scripts/write_session.sh --domain engineering --title "..." --summary "..."
• ./scripts/check_index_consistency.sh

Prerequisites

• bash
• python3
• rg (ripgrep)
• git (recommended for memory history checks/lint)
• obsidian-cli (optional; used when available for vault discovery)

Update Skill From Repo

When an agent is asked to "update the skill from its repo", run:

1. git fetch --all --prune
2. git pull --ff-only
3. bash -n scripts/*.sh
4. ./scripts/check_index_consistency.sh --help
5. Re-read SKILL.md and UNIVERSAL_AGENT_PROMPT.md and apply the new policy.

If this repo is copied into another tool-specific skills folder, sync these files exactly:

• SKILL.md
• UNIVERSAL_AGENT_PROMPT.md
• references/domain-routing.md
• scripts/*.sh

Files

• SKILL.md: core policy
• UNIVERSAL_AGENT_PROMPT.md: copy-paste policy for non-Codex agents
• references/domain-routing.md: routing hints
• scripts/bootstrap_memory.sh: deterministic memory layout + trackers
• scripts/memory_lint.sh: commit-blocking linter for memory repos
• scripts/weekly_memory_review.sh: weekly review generator
• scripts/monthly_memory_history_review.sh: monthly history hygiene report
• scripts/resolve_memory_root.sh: shared memory-root resolver
• scripts/write_session.sh: deterministic session write + index append
• scripts/check_index_consistency.sh: verify/fix session index links

Storage Path

All scripts use MEMORY_ROOT when set. Then OBSIDIAN_MEMORY_ROOT if set. Fallback default is ~/memory-root.

Codex-Specific Install

Copy this folder into $CODEX_HOME/skills/journal-default.