archive-crawler — The Universal Archivist

Convention: see conventions/quality.md for citation rules, exact-phrasing requirements when capturing the user's reactions, and back-link enforcement.

Convention: see _brain-filing-rules.md — this skill is schema-generic: it reads the user's filing rules from the rules JSON instead of hardcoding any specific era / archive layout.

Safety gate (REQUIRED, no exceptions)

archive-crawler refuses to run unless archive-crawler.scan_paths: is explicitly set in gbrain.yml. This is a deliberate safety fence against the agent over-scoping a scan and ingesting sensitive content (tax PDFs, medical records, credentials).

# gbrain.yml — the allow-list is mandatory
archive-crawler:
  scan_paths:
    - ~/Documents/writing/
    - ~/Dropbox/Archive/
    - /mnt/backup/old-letters/
  # Optional deny-list inside the allow-list:
  # deny_paths:
  #   - ~/Documents/finances/
  #   - ~/Documents/medical/

If scan_paths is empty or missing, the skill exits with:

archive-crawler: refusing to run. No `archive-crawler.scan_paths:` allow-list
in gbrain.yml. Add explicit paths the agent is permitted to scan, then re-run.
This is a safety fence — the agent will not infer what's safe to read.

This contract is enforced by src/core/storage-config.ts (mirrors the db_tracked / db_only allow-list pattern from v0.22.11 storage tiering).

What this is

Generic engine for exploring any tree of personal content within an explicit allow-list. Works on local mounts, Dropbox API targets, Backblaze B2, Gmail takeouts (.mbox), and similar archives. Filters for "gold" (the user's own writing, ideas, relationships) and surfaces it interactively for review. Skips noise (system files, configs, binary blobs).

Concepts

Source

A source is any tree of files to explore. Sources have:

• type: local | dropbox | backblaze | gmail-takeout | mbox | pst
• root: filesystem path, Dropbox path, B2 prefix, mbox path
• manifest: a brain page tracking progress at projects/<archive-slug>/STATUS.md

Manifest

Every archive exploration gets a manifest brain page that tracks:

1. Tree inventory — folders / files / sizes / types
2. Triage status — each item: ⬜ unseen / 👀 reviewed / ✅ ingested / ⏭️ skip / 🔥 high-signal
3. User reactions — exact quotes when they react (per conventions/quality.md exact-phrasing rule)
4. Priority queue — what to explore next, ranked
5. Session log — timestamped record of what was shown per session

Gold filter

Before showing anything to the user, apply the gold filter:

Keep (show)	Skip (note existence, don't show)
Personal writing (journals, letters, reflections, essays)	System files, configs, package.json, node_modules
Conversations (IM logs, email threads with substance)	Binary blobs (images / video)
Ideas, theses, frameworks	Receipts, invoices, tax docs
Relationship material (letters to / from people who matter)	Spam, newsletters, mailing-list bulk
Creative work (poetry, stories, code with soul)	Corrupted / null files
Origin stories (first versions of things that became important)
Emotional content (anger, love, grief, discovery)

Protocol

Phase 1: Inventory

When pointed at a new source:

1. Confirm scan_paths is set (safety gate). Exit if not.
2. Map the tree — list folders + files + sizes + date ranges.
3. Classify folders — group by likely content type (writing, email, code, photos, docs, system).
4. Create manifest — write projects/<archive-slug>/STATUS.md with the full inventory.
5. Propose priority queue — rank folders by likely gold density.
6. Present to user — show the map and proposed order. Let them override.

Phase 2: Crawl

Work through folders in priority order:

1. Read before showing — open each candidate file, apply the gold filter, skip noise.
2. Show one at a time — present gold items individually for review.
3. Capture exact reaction — track the user's response in the manifest using their exact words (per conventions/quality.md).
4. Ingest if worth keeping — create a brain page immediately.
5. Update manifest — mark item status after each interaction.
6. Never re-show — check the manifest before presenting anything.

Phase 3: Ingest

When an item is worth keeping, file it by primary subject per _brain-filing-rules.md:

• User's own writing / ideas / origin-story content → originals/<slug>.md
• Reflections / personal-life content → personal/<slug>.md
• Product / business ideas → ideas/<slug>.md
• Letters or threads about a specific person → people/<person>/timeline back-link plus the letter at personal/<slug>.md or originals/<slug>.md

The skill is schema-generic. It does NOT bake in any specific era-folder structure (e.g., originals/archive/ for pre-2003, originals/yc-era/ for post-2019, etc.). The user's filing rules from _brain-filing-rules.json are read at runtime; the agent decides per-page where content lands within those sanctioned directories.

Brain page format:

---
title: "[Title or first line]"
type: original
source_type: "[local|dropbox|backblaze|gmail-takeout|mbox|pst]"
source_path: "[path within the allow-listed scan_paths]"
date: "YYYY-MM-DD"  # date from the file metadata or content
people: ["person-1", "person-2"]
tags: ["tag-1", "tag-2"]
---

# [Title]

[Summary: what it is, when it's from, why it matters]

**User's reaction:** [exact quote, no paraphrasing]

## Context

[Cross-links to people, concepts, projects.]

---

[Raw source material below the line — full text]

File-type handlers

Plain text / HTML / Markdown

Read directly. Strip HTML tags for display.

.mbox (email archives)

import mailbox
mbox = mailbox.mbox('/path/to/file.mbox')
for msg in mbox:
    body = ''
    if msg.is_multipart():
        for part in msg.walk():
            if part.get_content_type() == 'text/plain':
                body = part.get_payload(decode=True).decode('utf-8', errors='replace')
                break
    else:
        body = msg.get_payload(decode=True).decode('utf-8', errors='replace')
    # Apply gold filter

.doc / .docx

# .docx (modern)
python3 -c "
import zipfile, xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
with zipfile.ZipFile('/path/to/file.docx') as z:
    tree = ET.parse(z.open('word/document.xml'))
    print(''.join(t.text or '' for t in tree.iter('{http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/wordprocessingml/2006/main}t')))
"

# .doc (legacy, requires antiword or catdoc)
antiword /path/to/file.doc 2>/dev/null || catdoc /path/to/file.doc 2>/dev/null

.pst (Outlook archives)

# Validate first; many PSTs are null bytes
python3 -c "
with open('/path/to/file.pst', 'rb') as f:
    print('Valid PST' if f.read(4) == b'!BDN' else 'CORRUPT/NULL')
"
# If valid:
readpst -o /tmp/pst-output /path/to/file.pst

.zip / .tar / .tar.gz

Extract to a temp dir, then recurse through the extracted tree.

Images

Note existence + metadata (filename, size, date). Don't show unless the user asks. Flag scans / portraits as potentially personal.

Manifest template

---
title: "[Archive Name] — Ingestion Status"
type: project
created: YYYY-MM-DD
updated: YYYY-MM-DD
source_type: "[local|dropbox|...]"
scan_paths: ["paths from gbrain.yml"]
---

# [Archive Name] — Ingestion Status

## Source
- **Type:** [local|dropbox|...]
- **Allow-listed paths:** [from gbrain.yml]
- **Total files:** [N]
- **Total size:** [X GB]
- **Date range:** [earliest] — [latest]

## Inventory

### [Folder 1]
| Item | Type | Size | Status | Reaction |
|------|------|------|--------|----------|
| file1.txt | text | 2KB | ✅ ingested | 🔥 "exact quote" |
| file2.doc | doc | 15KB | ⏭️ skip | — |
| file3.html | html | 4KB | ⬜ unseen | — |

### [Folder 2]
...

## Priority Queue
1. [Highest priority — why]
2. [Next — why]
...

## Session Log

### YYYY-MM-DD — [Session topic]
- Reviewed: [list]
- Reactions: [exact quotes]
- Ingested: [brain pages created]
- Next: [what's queued]

Anti-Patterns

• ❌ Running without archive-crawler.scan_paths: set. Hard refusal. This is the safety contract — never bypass.
• ❌ Hardcoding era-specific filing paths (e.g., originals/archive/, originals/yc-era/). Read filing rules at runtime instead.
• ❌ Re-showing items already marked in the manifest. The user's time is the scarcest resource.
• ❌ Paraphrasing reactions. Exact words only.
• ❌ Wrapping found content in lessons or takeaways. Let stories breathe.
• ❌ Skipping back-links when content references people / companies who have brain pages. Iron Law per conventions/quality.md.

Related skills

• skills/voice-note-ingest/SKILL.md — same exact-phrasing pattern for audio capture
• skills/idea-ingest/SKILL.md — single-link-or-article ingest with the same primary-subject filing rule
• skills/conventions/quality.md — citations, back-links, voice

Contract

This skill guarantees:

• Routing matches the canonical triggers in the frontmatter.
• Output written under the directories listed in writes_to: (when applicable).
• Conventions referenced (quality.md, brain-first.md, _brain-filing-rules.md) are followed.
• Privacy contract preserved: no real names, no fork-specific filesystem path literals, no upstream-fork references.

The full behavior contract is documented in the body sections above; this section exists for the conformance test.

Output Format

The skill's output shape is documented inline in the body sections above (see "Output", "Brain page format", or equivalent). The literal section header here exists for the conformance test (test/skills-conformance.test.ts).