ECHO Routing Map

This document is canonical and complete. Every write destination in the vault appears here exactly once, with the condition that routes content to it, what lands there, and why it is distinct from its neighbours. The rule for the whole system: if a path is not in this map, nothing is written to it. A path that cannot justify its separateness from a neighbour is a merge candidate, not a valid destination.

Views of the same truth: scripts/routing.json is the machine-readable canonical source (one route per destination, as a regex pattern + trigger + reason); vault-lint.sh loads it and flags any vault path that matches no route (and any write to a retired path). This prose map is the human-readable authority and must stay in sync with routing.json. The SKILL.md Where to Write table is the quick-reference and vault-layout.md is the physical tree. When they disagree, routing.json + this map win and the others are fixed to match.

How to read a row

Trigger — the observable condition that sends content here. If two rows could both fire, the more specific trigger wins.
What lands — the unit of content written.
Distinct because — the one reason this path is not merged into its nearest neighbour. This is the load-bearing column; a row without it is a bug.
Method — the dominant REST verb (see api-reference.md for mechanics).

inbox/ — unsorted intake

Path	Trigger	What lands	Distinct because	Method
`inbox/captures/inbox.md`	"Save this, sort later" — destination genuinely unknown at capture time	One date-prefixed line	The only path whose contract is deferred routing; everything else here has a known home	POST
`inbox/imports/<slug>.md`	Raw external material dropped in wholesale (export, paste, dump)	The raw artifact, unedited	Holds un-triaged bulk, vs `captures` which holds single lines	PUT
`inbox/processing-log/YYYY-MM-DD.md`	An inbox item is routed to its real home	One line: `<original> → <destination path>`	Audit trail of moves — never holds memory itself, only the record of routing	POST

Captures and imports are temporary by contract. Triage drains them into the homes below and logs the move; the original is left until Jason okays deletion.

journal/ — the one append-only time-series stream

Rollups are coarser-grained journal entries over the same timeline, so they live in the same tree. There is no separate reviews/ tree.

Path	Trigger	What lands	Distinct because	Method
`journal/daily/YYYY-MM-DD.md`	First agent activity on a given day	`## Agent Log` line(s) + day notes	Finest grain; the only journal note PATCHed repeatedly within its period	PATCH (auto-create)
`journal/weekly/YYYY-Www.md`	First substantive session of a new ISO week — opt-in, offer first	Light digest: open `active/` threads, aging inbox, week's scope changes	Coarser than daily, finer than monthly; ISO-week grain	PUT
`journal/monthly/YYYY-MM.md`	First substantive session of a new month — offered alongside Vault Health	Month digest, same shape as weekly	Month grain; separate cadence and trigger from weekly	PUT
`journal/quarterly/YYYY-Qn.md`	Manual / on request only	Quarter-scale narrative review	Strategic grain; never auto-fires	PUT
`journal/annual/YYYY.md`	Manual / on request only	Year-scale narrative review	Coarsest grain; never auto-fires	PUT
`journal/templates/`	Bootstrap only (seeded from plugin masters)	Note templates	Holds templates, not journal content; never a runtime routing target	PUT (seed)

projects/ — work with an end state

Lifecycle folders; status: frontmatter MUST equal the folder name (the linter checks this).

Path	Trigger	What lands	Distinct because	Method
`projects/active/<slug>.md`	Work in motion now	Project note (Status PATCHed fresh)	Default state for anything being worked	PUT + PATCH
`projects/incubating/<slug>.md`	Idea captured, work not started	Project note	Pre-work; promote to `active/` when work begins	PUT
`projects/on-hold/<slug>.md`	Paused but still tracked	Project note	Resumable; distinct from `archived` (which is terminal)	PUT
`projects/archived/<slug>.md`	Done, abandoned, or rolled up	Project note	Terminal; kept for history, never deleted	PUT

Project vs area: has an end state → projects/. Never "done" → areas/.

areas/ — standing responsibilities, no finish line

Path	Trigger	What lands	Distinct because	Method
`areas/<domain>/<slug>.md`	Ongoing domain Jason maintains indefinitely (`<domain>`: business/personal/learning/systems)	Area note	No end state — the one thing that disqualifies it from `projects/`	PUT

resources/ — reference material about the world

Path	Trigger	What lands	Distinct because	Method
`resources/people/<name>.md`	A fact about a specific person	Person note (kebab-case slug)	Keyed to a person, not a topic or event	PUT / PATCH
`resources/companies/<slug>.md`	A fact about an organization (client, vendor, partner, employer)	Company note (kebab-case slug)	Keyed to an organization, not an individual (`people/`) or an external source (`references/`)	PUT / PATCH
`resources/concepts/<slug>.md`	A reusable concept/idea Jason wants on file	Concept note	An idea, vs a `reference` which is an external source	PUT
`resources/references/<slug>.md`	An external source/link worth keeping	Reference note	Points outward (a source), vs `concepts` (an idea)	PUT
`resources/meetings/YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>.md`	Notes/recap tied to a specific meeting or call	Meeting note; mirror decisions to `decisions/by-date/`, commitments to the project	Event-anchored to a meeting, vs a project's ongoing thread	PUT

decisions/ — non-obvious decisions (ADR)

Path	Trigger	What lands	Distinct because	Method
`decisions/by-date/YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>.md`	A non-obvious decision worth recording	ADR: Context → Decision → Consequences	The chronological system of record for decisions	PUT

Mirror, don't duplicate: if the decision belongs to an existing projects/active/ note, PATCH a [[wikilink]] to the ADR under that project's ## Key Decisions. No matching project → skip the mirror; the by-date ADR stands alone.

_agent/ — the agent's own working substrate

Path	Trigger	What lands	Distinct because	Method
`_agent/echo-vault.md`	Bootstrap / schema migration only	Marker: `schema_version`, bootstrap date	Plugin-owned probe; never hand-edited	GET / PUT
`_agent/context/current-context.md`	Active scope changes; task focus shifts	`## Scope`, `## Scope History`, priorities	Single live scope pointer, vs episodic which is a past record	PATCH / PUT
`_agent/memory/semantic/operator-preferences.md`	A preference/pattern about Jason	Append under `## Observations`; promote to `## Fact / Pattern` when stable	The one curated profile; distinct from ad-hoc semantic notes	PATCH
`_agent/memory/semantic/<slug>.md`	A durable fact/pattern that isn't a Jason-preference	Semantic note	Timeless fact, vs episodic (time-stamped event) and working (transient)	PUT
`_agent/memory/episodic/<slug>.md`	A record of what happened, when	Episodic note	Anchored to an event in time; not a standing fact	PUT
`_agent/memory/working/<slug>.md`	Short-lived state needed only for the current effort	Working note	Explicitly transient/time-boxed; safe to go stale	PUT
`_agent/sessions/YYYY-MM-DD-HHMM-<slug>.md`	A substantive session ends (decisions/artifacts/commitments)	Session log (see template)	Per-session record; the unit loading Step 4 scans	PUT
`_agent/health/YYYY-MM-vault-health.md`	First substantive session of a month (Vault Health pass)	Health-audit findings	Agent self-maintenance about vault integrity — NOT Jason's work narrative, so not in `journal/`	PUT
`_agent/heartbeat/last-session.md`	End of every session, after the session log is written	One line: `<session-log-path> @ <ISO-timestamp>`	O(1) orientation pointer read first at load (Step 4); overwritten, never grows	PUT
`_agent/templates/`	Bootstrap only (seeded from plugin masters)	Canonical note templates	Holds templates, not memory; never a runtime routing target	PUT (seed)
`_agent/skills/active/<slug>.md`	Jason authors/installs a skill and wants it catalogued	Skill capability entry	Catalogs a capability, vs `projects/` which tracks the build effort	PUT
`_agent/skills/archived/<slug>.md`	A catalogued skill is retired	Skill entry (moved from `active/`)	Terminal state of the skill catalog	PUT

Retired paths — explicitly never written

Listed so they are recognised as dead and never recreated. Any one of these appearing in a live vault is a migration miss (see bootstrap.md Migrations).

Path	Status	Where it went instead
`reviews/` (weekly/monthly/quarterly/annual)	Retired in schema 2	Journal rollups → `journal/{weekly,monthly,quarterly,annual}/`; vault-health → `_agent/health/`
`decisions/by-project/`	Retired in schema 1	ADR mirrored as a `[[wikilink]]` under the project's `## Key Decisions`
`archive/` (top-level)	Never existed	Project archival → `projects/archived/`; skill archival → `_agent/skills/archived/`
`CLAUDE.md` / `BOOTSTRAP.md` / `STRUCTURE.md` / `index.md` (in-vault)	Retired in schema 1	All control logic lives in the plugin (`references/`), not the vault

Routing decision tree (the calls that get mis-made)

Destination unknown right now? → inbox/captures/. Known? → route directly; never park a known fact in the inbox.
Is it about Jason's work over time? → journal/ (pick the grain by cadence). About the vault's mechanical health? → _agent/health/. These two look similar monthly but answer different questions.
Does the effort have an end state? → projects/ (folder = status:). No finish line? → areas/.
A fact about the world: timeless → semantic/; a thing that happened → episodic/; needed only for now → working/. A fact about a person → resources/people/; a fact about an organization → resources/companies/.
A decision: always decisions/by-date/; mirror into a project only if one already exists.
A capability (skill/plugin): _agent/skills/ catalogs the capability; projects/ tracks building it. Both can exist for the same skill.

11 KiB Raw Blame History