study-source

What it does and when to use it

Start a topic from lectures, books or links (PDFs in the vault, URLs) and work through them one part at a time, into study notes and cards. Use when the user points to sources or a folder of slides, gives new ones, or asks for the next lecture or chapter.

How it works

SKILL.md has no level-two headings · 25 lines, 302 words

---
name: study-source
description: Start a topic from lectures, books or links (PDFs in the vault, URLs) and work through them one part at a time, into study notes and cards. Use when the user points to sources or a folder of slides, gives new ones, or asks for the next lecture or chapter.
---
# Study a source

The deck's `Overview.md` holds the brief (frontmatter) and the sources map (`## Sources`).
Read only the frontmatter and that section: the card table below it isn't needed here.

1. **New topic?** `asl topic "<name>" --home "<card home>" --sources "<folder|file|url>"
   --notes "<notes folder>"` (or `--no-notes`: cards straight from the sources); the card home
   is in the CLAUDE.md study-loop block. Then ask for the goal and what the user already knows
   and fill the brief (`goal`, `builds_on: [rust]`). New sources later (also from chat): add to
   `sources:` (a folder, vault file, `[[link]]`, URL; `{url, key, parts: ["#anchor"]}` for a
   long page), then `asl sources <deck>` (a new PDF takes up to a minute, once). Slides in
   `.pptx`: ask the user to export to PDF next to them.
2. **Pick one part:** the user's choice, else the next useful `todo` for the goal. Say in one
   line: part, ~tokens, expected cards (`~N cards` once shown), and days of new cards already
   queued (map header). More than one part, or a `⚠ split` row → ask first.
3. **Read only that part:** `asl sources <deck> --read <part>` for PDFs; never Read the whole
   PDF, and open page images only for a figure the text needs. Links: fetch only that part.
4. **Filter by the goal** (and `focus` / `skip` lists, if set): card what serves it, in depth for
   `focus`; name what you skipped in one line.
   `builds_on`: prefer contrast cards ("Rust `Box<T>` → C++?") and say where the analogy breaks.
5. **Write:** `notes:` folder → `study-note` per idea with `source: "[[Book.pdf#page=N]]"` in
   its frontmatter, then `write-cards` from the notes. `notes: false` → `write-cards` with
   `source: "[[Book.pdf#page=N]]"` (or the URL with its anchor) on every card.
6. `asl fix <deck>`: the part's status updates. Report the part, new ids, and what's next.

Versions

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Database snapshot: 13.11.2026 · package version d9e71d11b088 (SHA-256 digest of the entire package)

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