@athola/digital-garden-cultivator

---
name: digital-garden-cultivator
description: 'Consult this skill when cultivating and maintaining digital gardens.
  Use when managing note collections, creating link structures, maintaining knowledge
  bases, tending garden health and growth. Do not use when creating memory palace
  structures - use memory-palace-architect. DO NOT use when: evaluating new knowledge
  - use knowledge-intake.'
category: cultivation
tags:
- digital-garden
- knowledge-base
- linking
- curation
- documentation
dependencies:
- leyline:storage-templates
scripts:
- garden_metrics.py
usage_patterns:
- garden-management
- knowledge-curation
- content-lifecycle
complexity: intermediate
estimated_tokens: 500
---
## Table of Contents

- [What It Is](#what-it-is)
- [Quick Start](#quick-start)
- [Calculate Garden Metrics](#calculate-garden-metrics)
- [Output Formats](#output-formats)
- [When to Use](#when-to-use)
- [Content Maturity Levels](#content-maturity-levels)
- [Core Workflow](#core-workflow)
- [Garden Layout Template](#garden-layout-template)
- [Maintenance Cadence](#maintenance-cadence)
- [Success Metrics](#success-metrics)
- [Detailed Resources](#detailed-resources)
- [Integration](#integration)


# Digital Garden Cultivator

Design, manage, and evolve digital gardens as living knowledge bases. Digital gardens are interconnected note collections that grow organically, emphasizing evolution over perfection.

## What It Is

A digital garden approach to knowledge management that:
- Builds dynamic knowledge bases that evolve over time
- Connects notes through bidirectional links
- Incubates ideas before formalizing as documentation
- Creates discovery paths for information navigation
- Tracks content maturity and maintenance needs

## Quick Start

### Calculate Garden Metrics
```bash
python scripts/garden_metrics.py path/to/garden.json --format brief
```
**Verification:** Run `python --version` to verify Python environment.

### Output Formats
- `json` - Full metrics as JSON
- `brief` - One-line summary
- `prometheus` - Prometheus exposition format

## When To Use

- Building dynamic knowledge bases that evolve over time
- Connecting notes, skills, and palaces through bidirectional links
- Incubating ideas before formalizing as documentation
- Creating discovery paths for navigating information
- Managing content lifecycle (seedling → growing → evergreen)

## When NOT To Use

- Creating memory palace
  structures - use memory-palace-architect
- Evaluating new knowledge
  - use knowledge-intake
- Creating memory palace
  structures - use memory-palace-architect
- Evaluating new knowledge
  - use knowledge-intake

## Content Maturity Levels

| Level | Status | Description |
|-------|--------|-------------|
| **Seedling** | New/rough | Early ideas, incomplete thoughts |
| **Growing** | Developing | Being actively refined |
| **Evergreen** | Mature | Stable, well-developed content |

## Core Workflow

1. **Collect Sources** - Gather notes, bookmarks, ideas
2. **Plan Structure** - Define garden organization
3. **Create Links** - Build bidirectional connections
4. **Schedule Maintenance** - Establish tending cadence
5. **Document Outputs** - Convert mature ideas to formal docs

## Garden Layout Template

```yaml
garden:
  sections: ["research", "patterns", "experiments"]
  plots:
    - name: "My First Note"
      purpose: "reference"  # reference | evergreen | lab
      maturity: "seedling"  # seedling | growing | evergreen
      inbound_links: []
      outbound_links: []
      last_tended: "2025-11-24T10:00:00Z"
```
**Verification:** Run the command with `--help` flag to verify availability.

## Maintenance Cadence

| Action | Frequency | Purpose |
|--------|-----------|---------|
| Quick prune | Every 2 days | Remove dead links, fix typos |
| Stale review | After 7 days inactive | Assess content freshness |
| Archive | After 30 days inactive | Move to archive or delete |

## Success Metrics

- **Link density** - Average links per piece of content
- **Bidirectional coverage** - % of links that are reciprocal
- **Freshness** - Time since last update per area
- **Maturity ratio** - Evergreen content / total content

## Detailed Resources

- **Linking Patterns**: See `modules/linking-patterns.md`
- **Maintenance Guide**: See `modules/maintenance.md`
- **Metrics Integration**: See `modules/maintenance.md`

## Integration

- `memory-palace-architect` - Host garden within palace structure
- `knowledge-locator` - Search garden content
- `session-palace-builder` - Seed garden from session insights
## Troubleshooting

### Common Issues

**Pre-commit hooks failing**
Run `SKIP=... git commit` to bypass temporarily, then fix issues

**Merge conflicts**
Use `git merge --abort` to reset, then resolve conflicts carefully

**Commit rejected**
Check hook output and fix reported issues before committing again