Jotbook pencil review

Review the pencil backlog

The user is reviewing the pencils (provisional long-form drafts) to decide which are worth promoting to inked entries, which need a revise pass, and which should be dropped. Your job is to surface and recommend — never delete, promote, or regenerate unilaterally. Every action needs explicit confirmation.

Resolve configuration

Read .claude/jotbook.local.md if present. From its frontmatter, extract:

field	default	meaning
pencils_dir	docs/jotbook/_pencils/	where pencils live
jots_dir	docs/jotbook/_jots/	needed to verify source-jot existence

If pencils_dir doesn't exist or contains no pencils, report that in one line and stop.

Procedure

1. Inventory

List every *.md and *.html file under pencils_dir (excluding any README.md). For each:

• Read the metadata block — YAML frontmatter for .md pencils, the top HTML comment for .html pencils. Extract:
  • status (should be pencil — flag anything else as suspicious)
  • drafted: date
  • revised: date (if present)
  • from_jots: list
• Compute age as today − (most recent of revised, drafted).
• Check that each entry in from_jots: still resolves to a real file in jots_dir. Note any missing source jots — the pencil can still be promoted, but its source-jot cleanup will be partial.
• Record the format (md or html).

Sort by age, oldest first.

2. Present

Output a compact, scannable summary. Don't over-format — the user is making decisions from this view.

Suggested shape:

Pencils (N total):

  ▸ 2026-05-12  cache-eviction-policy        (10d)  md
    From jots: 2026-05-02-cache-eviction-policy

  ▸ 2026-05-15  feature-flag-system          (7d)   html
    From jots: 2026-05-04-flag-rollout, 2026-05-05-flag-telemetry
    Revised:   2026-05-18

  ▸ 2026-05-18  webhook-retry-semantics      (4d)   md
    From jots: 2026-05-10-webhook-retry-semantics  [MISSING]

Recommendations:
  • cache-eviction-policy: ready to ink — concrete, sources still present,
    no revise history.
  • feature-flag-system: ink or keep — recent revise suggests it's settled.
  • webhook-retry-semantics: source jot is gone; still promotable but
    flag this to the user before inking.

Lead with the inventory; put your recommendations at the end. Keep the whole thing scannable — short lines, no walls of prose.

3. Solicit decisions

Ask the user in plain language. Don't present a numbered menu — let them respond free-form. Mention all five available actions so the surface is visible:

Decisions? You can say things like "ink cache-eviction-policy", "drop feature-flag-system", "revise feature-flag-system — focus on rollout only", "edit webhook-retry-semantics" (no regen, just give me the path), or "keep everything for now".

4. Apply

For each decided action:

• Ink <slug> — hand off to jotbook-ink with the slug. The ink skill detects the pencil's existence and runs its Promotion path (skipping gather/plan/render, swapping pencil frontmatter for entry-appropriate frontmatter per output_format, writing to entries_dir, updating cross-links into related entries, deleting the pencil + source jot(s)). Confirm with the user before running if you noticed missing source jots in the inventory.

• Drop <slug> — delete the pencil file. Before deleting, ask one question:

  "Drop pencil <slug>. Source jot(s) (<list>) can stay (default) so you can redraft later, or be deleted alongside the pencil. Which?"

  Default to keeping source jots. If the user explicitly says delete-all, also remove the source jots.

• Revise <slug> — <notes> — invoke jotbook-pencil with the slug and pass the user's notes to its revise sub-procedure. The pencil skill applies the notes to the existing pencil in place and bumps revised: to today. If the user said revise without notes, ask once for the notes before proceeding.

• Edit <slug> — no-op. Surface the file path so the user can hand-edit it. Mention they can re-run /jot review pencils once they're done.

• Keep — no-op for now.

After applying, give a one-line summary:

Inked N, dropped M, revised R, edited E, kept K. Source jots deleted: <list>.

Omit the "Source jots deleted" tail if no source jots were deleted.

What NOT to do

• Don't promote, drop, or regenerate without explicit confirmation.
• Don't read source files referenced by sources: during review — the pencil body is enough to evaluate. Save deep reading for the user (or for ink time).
• Don't propose drafting new pencils — that's /jot pencil <slug>. This skill only acts on existing pencils.
• Don't proceed if pencils_dir is empty — report and stop.
• Don't silently invoke jotbook-ink or jotbook-pencil for an action the user hasn't explicitly marked.