Auto Link

In the current implementation, auto_link is not a separately registered Job. It is a capability of the Integrate stage in auto_dream: when dream_integrate_step writes a memory unit to digest/, it also recalls digest nodes, makes a deduplication decision, links sources, and weaves wikilinks to related nodes into the result.

For the complete dream flow, see Auto Dream. For general wikilink, frontmatter, and workspace-relative path semantics, see Memory as File. For question-answering retrieval, see Memory Search.

Where It Runs

The default auto_dream flow is:

auto_dream:
  steps:
    - dream_extract_step
    - dream_integrate_step   # where auto_link actually happens
    - dream_topics_step
    - dream_finish_step

The Integrate stage processes each unit independently. A unit is written to exactly one target digest node, but that node may link to multiple sources and multiple related digest nodes.

Goals

auto_link addresses graph quality at write time:

Problem	Handling
The same memory already exists	Recall and update the existing node instead of creating a duplicate.
New and existing material are related	Write workspace-relative wikilinks into the body.
A digest node is disconnected from its sources	Point back to daily/resource source material with derived_from:: [[...]].
A node contains only isolated prose	Add links to related digest nodes on both CREATE and UPDATE.

Toolchain

dream_integrate_step exposes these tools to the agent:

node_search
read
frontmatter_read
write
edit
frontmatter_update

node_search is digest-only node retrieval designed for dream integration. It returns node-level signals such as the digest node's path and the name and description from frontmatter. It does not expand the body and does not perform the link expansion used by ordinary search.

read and frontmatter_read are used only for candidates that may be relevant, avoiding expansion of every recalled result into a large context.

Linking Flow

1. Recall candidate nodes

The agent first calls node_search with the unit's triggers, verbs, nouns, synonyms, and possible failure modes. Broad recall, for example limit=20-30, is recommended by default because this step serves both deduplication and link discovery.

Recalled results are internally classified into three groups:

Classification	Meaning	Next action
same_abstraction	The trigger or underlying abstraction is the same, with substantial content overlap.	Use as the UPDATE target.
related	An adjacent process, prerequisite, failure mode, concept, preference, or upstream/downstream knowledge.	Write a body wikilink.
unrelated	Only superficially similar or unrelated.	Ignore.

2. Choose a write action

Every unit must select one action:

Action	Linking semantics
CREATE	Write a new digest/<bucket>/<slug>.md and add source and related-node links to its body.
CORROBORATE	The same abstraction appeared again; append a new derived_from:: [[...]] and strengthen the description when needed.
REFINE	New material extends the existing node; insert the additional content in the appropriate section and preserve existing links.
CORRECT	New material corrects the existing node; use source links to identify the basis for the correction.

An UPDATE should be additive whenever possible: do not delete existing wikilinks or derived_from entries. This prevents later graph indexing and retrieval from losing edges.

3. Write source edges

Source edges use Markdown wikilinks:

derived_from:: [[daily/2026-06-20/session.md]]
derived_from:: [[resource/2026-06-20/paper.md]]

These edges represent the evidence behind a digest node. Plain-text descriptions do not count as source edges because only wikilinks can be parsed reliably by the file graph. For the complete parsing rules, see Memory as File.

4. Write relationships between digest nodes

Relationships between digest nodes also use complete workspace-relative paths:

relates_to:: [[digest/wiki/hybrid-search.md]]
depends_on:: [[digest/procedure/rebuild-index.md]]
blocks_on:: [[digest/personal/team-review-preference.md]]

Predicates are open-ended. Common forms include relates_to::, depends_on::, and blocks_on::. The predicate sits outside the brackets, while the target path goes inside [[...]] and should include the .md suffix.

Bucket Differences

auto_link adjusts the shape of its output according to the unit bucket:

Bucket	Writing focus
procedure	Write a runbook with triggers, steps, inputs, and failure modes. Link prerequisites, substeps, and related preferences.
personal	Write user-, team-, or project-specific facts and preferences. Link related projects, habits, and decision context.
wiki	Write general knowledge, principles, observations, and decision precedents. Link concepts, methods, and adjacent knowledge.

Regardless of bucket, preserve source edges and weave recalled related digest nodes into the body whenever possible.

Relationship to Search

auto_link uses node_search, not the question-answering search.

Capability	Purpose
search	External question answering; returns chunks and can expand upstream/downstream link context.
node_search	Dream integration; recalls only digest node-level summaries for deduplication and related-link decisions.

This boundary matters. The Integrate stage needs to decide whether the same abstraction already exists and which nodes should be linked; it should not load large numbers of body chunks into context. Memory Search handles question-oriented chunk retrieval, RRF fusion, and link expansion.

Failure and Retry

If integration of a unit fails, dream_integrate_step records failed_units and failed_paths. dream_finish_step does not checkpoint those source paths, so the next auto_dream run processes them again.

This makes auto_link writes retryable: a failure does not mark the input as complete or silently discard digest edges that should have been created.