Note → Action

Each new note is checked for something worth acting on. If there is, the work that needs no input from you gets done, and you get back the questions only you can answer.

The example here is a business idea. Any kind of note works the same way.

The four moves

1. Notes arrive

You write as usual; it syncs to Nextcloud. The notes machine pulls the vault and compiles it into per-directory markdown with an index.

2. Triage — is there anything here?

note_triage asks one cheap question per note: is there a real idea in this?

• Only new and changed notes: the vault is hashed each run and diffed against the last.
• Keep it strict. A triage that passes everything produces a folder of unread reports.

3. Do what can be done unattended

For notes that pass, follow-up work is chained, each step its own message:

• Market research: who does this, what they charge, where the gap is. Firecrawl reads the pages.
• A draft plan: shape, rough costs, what must be true, first three steps.
• Your own notes: anything else in your vault that bears on it.

4. Come back with the right questions

The output ends with the two or three questions whose answers change the conclusion:

Does the licensing apply to resale? Is this a weekend project or the thing you leave your job for? The plan branches on that.

They're written beside the original note. Answer them and the next run picks up from there.

The four machines

Machine	Does	Swap it when
notes	Pulls the vault from Nextcloud into /data/notes	Your notes live elsewhere
note_triage	Diffs the vault, judges each new note, checks the ledger, chains the next step	Never
note_develop	(default) Researches and drafts one document	You want the fan-out
idea_workup	(alternative) Sends the idea to three departments	You want one document

Setting it up, step by step

1. Turn it on

./existential.sh flow on note-triage

This copies note-triage.md into volumes/workspace_data/.decree/cron/. Its TRIAGE_ROUTINE param picks note_develop (default) or idea_workup.

The fan-out path uses the research and sales departments, files in workspace/.decree/lib/departments/. Nothing to provision.

2. Watch it do nothing

The first run does nothing, on purpose

It records your vault as seen without triaging, so a 5,000-note vault doesn't fire 5,000 model calls. To scan the backlog once:

echo | docker exec -i automation decree emit --machine note_triage --param TRIAGE_BOOTSTRAP=true

3. Check it before trusting it

echo | docker exec -i automation decree emit --machine note_triage --param TRIAGE_DRY_RUN=true

A dry run prints a verdict per note, chains nothing and writes no ledger entries.

Prerequisites

• Notes in /data/notes: turn on notes-to-dropbox, or point NOTES_DIR at a vault you sync.
• A chat model (EXIST_MODEL_URL_CHAT or EXIST_MODEL_URL). The departments run it through pi, which ships in the image.

Swap the judgment

TRIAGE_CRITERIA in the cron file decides what the flow is for:

TRIAGE_CRITERIA: "a business idea — something the author could plausibly build, sell, or start"

If it fires too often, make it narrower: "a product someone would pay for that I could build a first version of in a month".

Is it new? The idea ledger

/data/note-triage/ideas.tsv lists every idea already processed. A passing note gets one more call: is it the same as one on the list? Duplicates stop there.

2026-08-14T09:11:04Z	A tool-rental service for the neighborhood, booked from a phone
2026-08-22T17:40:55Z	A newsletter that summarizes local council minutes

Edit it freely; delete a line to let an idea through again.

Param	Default	Does
TRIAGE_LEDGER	true	false chains every pass, duplicates included
TRIAGE_LEDGER_MAX	100	Past ideas checked, most recent first

On an error or unclear answer the idea counts as new.

Swap the work

TRIAGE_ROUTINE names what runs on a pass.

note_develop — one document

The default. One file: what the idea is, what can be worked out, and two to four questions for you. Needs only a chat model. Output goes to /data/note-triage/output, and beside the note when NOTE_OUTPUT_RCLONE_DEST is set.

idea_workup — three departments, three answers

TRIAGE_ROUTINE: idea_workup

It emits three messages, each to the department with the right tools:

Question	Department	Why
Who else is doing this?	research	Web access, Firecrawl, qmd
How big is the market?	research	Same tools, separate document
What is my value proposition?	sales	Pricing and positioning

Each answer is its own file in workspace/ai/, with its own notification:

workspace/ai/tool-rental-competition.md
workspace/ai/tool-rental-tam.md
workspace/ai/tool-rental-value-prop.md

Why three messages

A department carries only the tools its question needs, so a narrow one costs a fraction of every tool in the prompt, and each question retries and logs on its own. See Routing to Departments.

Writing a third one

Write a machine, add it to TRIAGE_ROUTINE's enum and the emits: list in automation/plugins/note_triage.md, and name it in the cron file. It receives note_path and note_reason. See Writing a Plugin.

Swap the input

Triage takes text and a name, so any input works. Only the first step changes.

<anything> ──▶ message ──▶ note_triage ──▶ ledger ──▶ idea_workup ──▶ departments

Email

gmail_sync archives mail into automation/emails/ (/work/.decree/emails in the container). Point NOTES_DIR there and set the criteria to what you want caught. See Gmail.

A file you dropped somewhere

• In the workspace: a file handler line in .decree/handlers.yml.
• Through Nextcloud: a file event reaches file_router, which matches a file processor by path and optional content gate:

PATTERN="^nextcloud:workspace/.*\.md$"
CRITERIA="a business idea"

See File Change Processing.

A sensor, or something you said out loud

A Home Assistant automation POSTs the decree webhook. See HAwake.

Cost and pacing

• Decree runs one message at a time, and a department call can take up to 900 seconds (agent_task's agent_timeout). A three-question fan-out can take most of an hour. Watch it in volumes/workspace_data/.decree/runs/ or Grafana's Decree Overview.
• Triage is two short calls per note, only for new or changed notes over TRIAGE_MIN_CHARS. TRIAGE_MAX_NOTES caps a run.

Settings reference

Cron file params::

Setting	Default	Does
TRIAGE_CRITERIA	a business idea	What counts as worth acting on
TRIAGE_ROUTINE	note_develop	What runs on a pass: idea_workup, or your own
TRIAGE_DRY_RUN	false	Log verdicts, chain nothing, write no ledger
TRIAGE_LEDGER	true	The "is this idea new?" check
TRIAGE_MAX_NOTES	20	Ceiling per run
TRIAGE_BOOTSTRAP	false	One run that scans the existing vault

Environment, in automation/.env:

Variable	Default	Does
TRIAGE_LEDGER_MAX	100	Past ideas the ledger check sees
TRIAGE_MIN_CHARS	120	Shorter notes are skipped without a model call
TRIAGE_MAX_CHARS	6000	Note text is cut to this before judging
MODEL_TIMEOUT	120 (300 in note_develop)	Seconds per model call
NOTE_OUTPUT_RCLONE_DEST	(unset)	Where note_develop's draft is copied, e.g. nextcloud:Notes

Don't point the output at your vault cache

/data/notes is an rclone sync cache, so anything written there is deleted. Drafts go to /data/note-triage/output and are copied back over rclone.

What ships and what you write

Part	Status
Vault sync and compilation	Ships. notes
Detecting new and changed notes	Ships. note_triage
The triage call and the chain	Ships. note_triage → decree emit
Knowing an idea was already evaluated	Ships. /data/note-triage/ideas.tsv
Research, draft, open questions	Ships. note_develop, with Firecrawl when enabled
Competition, market size, value proposition	Ships. idea_workup → agent_task
Indexing notes	Ships. workspace/ searchable with qmd within a minute of a change (the search flow)
Notifying you	Ships. notify → ntfy
What counts as worth acting on	Yours. TRIAGE_CRITERIA