Create topic note

Create a new topic note that groups related notes under a common theme. Synthesizes provided notes into a lightweight hub.

Arguments

$ARGUMENTS should contain:

Topic title (required) — name for the new topic note
Notes to group — wikilinks or file paths to notes that share a theme

If no notes are provided, prompt for them. If no title is given but notes are provided, suggest a title based on the notes' common theme.

Process

1. Read the provided notes

Read each note's frontmatter (especially description) and skim content to understand:

Common themes and concepts
Shared vocabulary or framing
The throughline that connects them

2. Expand context (optional)

Use available tools to discover additional relevant notes not explicitly provided:

Semantic search — When qmd is available (MCP query tool or qmd query CLI), use it for semantic search — vec or expand queries that find notes by meaning rather than keywords. The qmd skill documents query types. For keyword search, use obsidian search or the methods below; qmd's lex/BM25 adds nothing beyond what obsidian already provides.
Follow wikilinks in the provided notes to find related children or siblings
Check related properties for existing connections worth including
Search for shared tags or vocabulary

If you find notes that clearly belong under this topic, propose adding them to the group. Ask the user before including notes they didn't explicitly provide.

3. Create the topic note

Create a new file in 03-Records/Topics/ with this structure:

---
aliases:
  - {alternative names if useful}
icon:
description: "{1-2 sentence summary synthesized from the grouped notes}"
related: []
tags: [index, {relevant topical tags, drawn from the grouped notes}]
---

{Optional 1-2 sentences of context if needed, otherwise leave blank}

![[Related.base]]

Description guidelines

Describe the bucket, not the current members. A topic note's membership grows over time, so the description must stay true as notes accumulate: name the theme and its recurring dimensions, never specific member notes, sources, examples, or events ("performance as a product-feel discipline, not just an engineering fix" — not "Linear and Raycast breakdowns, parser speedups"). If a detail would go stale when ten more notes join, it doesn't belong.
Synthesize a shorthand summary that captures what connects the grouped notes
Use terse telegraphic style: semicolons, commas, dashes over conjunctive adverbs
Stay under 200 characters when possible
Focus on the conceptual throughline, not an exhaustive list

Tag selection

Pull relevant tags from the grouped notes
Add topics tag if not present
Keep to 5-10 tags max

4. Update source notes

For each note provided, add the new topic note to its related property:

related:
  - "[[New Topic Note Title]]"
  - ... existing related items

If related doesn't exist, create it. Place new items at the beginning of the list.

Output

The new topic note file
Confirmation of which notes were updated with the related backlink

Example

Input: "Group these under a topic about attention economy critique: [[Platforms engineer compulsive consumption]], [[Optimizing for attention undermines quality experience]], [[Social media commoditizes intrinsic needs]]"

Creates: 03-Records/Topics/Attention economy critique.md with description synthesized from those notes

Updates: Each input note gets "[[Attention economy critique]]" added to its related property

create-topic-note