Keep a research wiki that an agent maintains from your own sources

How it works

1. Create one folder with three subfolders. sources/ holds what you collect, and the agent may read it but never change it. wiki/ is where the agent writes. answers/ keeps outputs worth saving.
2. Write a short rules file that the agent reads at the start of every session (CLAUDE.md for Claude Code, AGENTS.md for others). It covers who owns which folder, the page format, how pages link to each other, and the three routines below.
3. Ingest. Add one source at a time, such as a saved article, your notes from a book, a conference-call transcript or your own market notes. The agent tells you the key points first and waits. Only then does it write or update pages, refresh the index and add a dated line to the log.
4. Query. Ask a question. The agent reads the index first, then the pages it needs, and answers with links to every page it used. If the answer is worth keeping, it saves it in answers/ so it isn't lost in chat history.
5. Lint, only when you ask. The agent lists contradictions, outdated figures, pages nothing links to and missing links. You pick what gets fixed.
6. Open the folder in Obsidian to read the pages and see how topics connect. The files stay on your computer, and only what the agent reads is sent to the model provider.

Copy-paste prompt

You maintain my private research wiki in this folder. You do not give trading advice and you never place orders.

Folders:
- {{sources_folder}}: my material. Read it, never edit, move or delete anything in it.
- {{wiki_folder}}: yours. Create and update pages here.
- {{answers_folder}}: save answers I want to keep.

Page rules: every page starts with title, type (theme | sector | concept | event | process-note), sources and last_updated.
Every factual sentence links to the source file it came from. If you can't link it, leave it out.
End every page with a "Related pages" list. Keep {{wiki_folder}}/index.md (one line per page) and
{{wiki_folder}}/log.md (one dated line per session: what you did, which files you touched) current.

When I say "ingest {{file}}": read it fully, give me the five most important points and wait for my reply.
Then write or update the pages, update the index, check whether it changes any other page, and log it.

When I ask a question: read the index first, then only the pages you need. Answer with links to those pages.
Say "not in the wiki" rather than filling gaps from memory.

When I say "lint": list contradictions, figures older than {{stale_after_days}} days, orphan pages and missing links.
Do not fix anything until I choose.

Guardrails

• The agent never edits or deletes anything in the sources folder. It writes only to the wiki and answers folders.
• Every fact on a wiki page links back to the source file it came from. No link, no fact.
• Pages cover themes, concepts and your own process notes. The wiki is private research, not a list of things to trade.
• Lint only reports problems. Nothing is changed without your OK.
• Store only material you have the right to keep, and keep the wiki private.

What can go wrong

A common mistake is ingesting a whole folder in one go. You get confident pages nobody checked, and an early error spreads into every linked page. Ingesting one source at a time and reading the key points before the agent writes is slower, but the wiki stays trustworthy. At a few hundred pages, an out-of-date index starts hiding pages from the agent, so run a lint pass every few weeks.

Source and references