Agent-Skills.md

Agent Skills: Cortex Frontmatter Skill

Knows the frontmatter contract for all Cortex knowledge systems. Routes to the correct base fields + system-specific extras when writing docs. Other skills delegate to this skill for doc creation.

UncategorizedID: nathanvale/side-quest-marketplace/cortex-frontmatter

Repository

nathanvale/side-quest-marketplace
nathanvaleLicense: MIT

Install this agent skill to your local

pnpm dlx add-skill https://github.com/nathanvale/side-quest-marketplace/tree/HEAD/plugins/cortex/skills/cortex-frontmatter

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plugins/cortex/skills/cortex-frontmatter/SKILL.md

Skill Metadata

Name
cortex-frontmatter
Description
Knows the frontmatter contract for all Cortex knowledge systems. Routes to the correct base fields + system-specific extras when writing docs. Other skills delegate to this skill for doc creation.

Cortex Frontmatter Skill

You are the single source of truth for how Cortex documents are structured. When any other skill (research, brainstorm, etc.) needs to write a document, it delegates to you for correct frontmatter and section structure.

Base Frontmatter (all systems)

Every Cortex document starts with these YAML frontmatter fields:

---
created: YYYY-MM-DD        # required -- today's date
title: "Human-readable title"  # required
type: research              # required -- see doc types below
tags: [tag1, tag2]          # lowercase, no spaces, kebab-case
project: my-project         # kebab-case project identifier
status: draft               # draft | reviewed | final | archived
---

Field rules

| Field | Required | Format | Notes | |-------|----------|--------|-------| | created | Yes | YYYY-MM-DD | Always today's date for new docs | | title | Yes | String | Human-readable, sentence case | | type | Yes | Enum | See doc types below | | tags | No | String array | Lowercase, kebab-case, 3-8 tags recommended | | project | No | String | Kebab-case. Omit for global/cross-project docs | | status | No | Enum | Defaults to draft | | updated | No | YYYY-MM-DD | Set when editing existing docs |

Systems

Default system

Used for engineering repos and project documentation. Base fields only -- no extras needed.

PARA system

Used for personal organization and global docs. Adds one field:

para: project | area | resource | archive

When to use PARA: Only when the user explicitly requests it or when writing to a personal knowledge base (not a project repo).

Doc Types and Section Structures

research

## Summary
One paragraph overview of findings.

## Key Findings
- Finding 1
- Finding 2

## Details
Extended analysis, organized by subtopic.

## Sources
- [Source 1](url) -- brief annotation
- [Source 2](url) -- brief annotation

## Open Questions
- Unanswered question 1
- Unanswered question 2

brainstorm

## Context
What prompted this brainstorm. Link to prior research if it exists.

## Questions
Key questions we're trying to answer.

## Approaches
### Approach 1: Name
- Pros
- Cons
- Effort estimate

### Approach 2: Name
- Pros
- Cons
- Effort estimate

## Decision
Which approach and why. Or "No decision yet -- needs more research."

## Next Steps
- [ ] Action item 1
- [ ] Action item 2

plan

## Context
Link to brainstorm/research that led to this plan.

## Acceptance Criteria
- [ ] Criterion 1
- [ ] Criterion 2

## Implementation Order
1. Step 1
2. Step 2

## Verification
How to confirm the plan worked.

meeting

## Attendees
- Person 1
- Person 2

## Agenda
1. Topic 1
2. Topic 2

## Notes
Discussion notes organized by agenda item.

## Action Items
- [ ] @person -- action item

decision

## Context
What decision needed to be made and why.

## Options Considered
### Option 1: Name
- Pros / Cons

### Option 2: Name
- Pros / Cons

## Decision
What was decided and the reasoning.

## Consequences
What this decision means going forward.

diagram

## Source
Link to the brainstorm/research/plan that this diagram visualizes.

## Diagram
The Mermaid source in a fenced code block.

## Export Notes
Theme used, paper size, any rendering notes.

Additional frontmatter field for diagram docs:

source: docs/brainstorms/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>.md  # path to the origin document

File Naming Convention

All Cortex documents follow this naming pattern:

YYYY-MM-DD-<descriptive-slug>.md
  • Date prefix for chronological sorting
  • Slug is kebab-case, descriptive, 3-6 words
  • Examples: 2026-02-27-yaml-frontmatter-best-practices.md

File Location

| Context | Location | |---------|----------| | No project context / global | ~/code/my-agent-cortex/docs/<type>/ | | Working in a project repo | ~/code/<project>/docs/<type>/ |

Where <type> maps to the directory:

  • research -> docs/research/
  • brainstorm -> docs/brainstorms/
  • plan -> docs/plans/
  • meeting -> docs/meetings/
  • decision -> docs/decisions/
  • diagram -> docs/diagrams/

Writing Rules

  1. Never skip frontmatter -- every doc gets the full YAML block
  2. Title matches filename -- the title should be derivable from the slug
  3. Tags are discovery aids -- include technology names, domain terms, related projects
  4. Status starts as draft -- only the user promotes to reviewed/final
  5. Use em dashes sparingly -- prefer regular dashes (-) or double hyphens (--)