How to use the Knowledge Wiki agent skill (knowledge-wiki)

What the knowledge-wiki skill makes the agent do

An agent skill is a set of written instructions that tells an agent how to handle a particular kind of task. This one covers a personal knowledge wiki. When you share an article or document, the agent reads it, extracts the key facts, and writes a markdown page under a category in knowledge/. It then updates an index and appends an entry to a log.

The skill defines three operations. Ingest handles material you share. Synthesize saves insights that come out of a conversation as structured pages. Query answers your questions by checking the index, reading relevant pages, and, if needed, searching memory.

• Ingest: summarise a shared source into a page, file it under a category, update the index and log.
• Synthesize: save valuable conversation insights as a page and add cross-references to related pages.
• Query: find relevant pages in the index, read them, and answer with links to the pages used.

Install the knowledge-wiki skill

The skill is distributed as a ZIP file from the skill page. You can install it in one of two ways. For Claude Code style setups, unzip the download into ~/.claude/skills/ for personal use, or into a project's .claude/skills/ folder to limit it to that project. In the Claude apps, you can instead upload the ZIP under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.

The package contains a single file, SKILL.md, which holds the instructions. The skill is configured to be always active in CowAgent, so it does not need to be triggered manually once installed.

• Download the ZIP from the skill page.
• Unzip it into ~/.claude/skills/ (personal) or your project's .claude/skills/ (per project).
• Alternatively, upload the ZIP in the Claude apps under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.

Check your workspace before you start

The skill writes into a knowledge/ directory in the agent's workspace, so the agent needs write access to it. The instructions also rely on two agent tools: read for reading files and memory_search for searching memory. If either is unavailable, the query step will be weaker.

The skill's index and log live at knowledge/index.md and knowledge/log.md. Categories are created as subfolders of knowledge/ as the wiki grows.

• A CowAgent workspace with a knowledge/ directory the agent can write to.
• The read tool and the memory_search tool available to the agent.

Trigger the skill with natural requests

You do not need special syntax. The skill's description tells the agent to act when you share an article or document, when you ask it to organise knowledge, when a conversation yields insights worth keeping, or when you ask about the knowledge base. Plain sentences are enough.

Be explicit when you want a page saved, and be explicit when you want an answer drawn from the wiki rather than from general knowledge.

• Share a link or pasted text and say: save this to my wiki.
• Say: file the key points from this report into my knowledge base.
• Say: remember the decision we just reached as a knowledge page.
• Ask: what does my knowledge base say about rate limiting?

Read the output: pages, index and log

Each saved source becomes a page with a title, a Source line, key points and a Related section. Because the index is a flat list grouped by category, you can open knowledge/index.md to browse everything. The log records each ingest or synthesize action with a date.

Replies that cite pages use full workspace paths, for example knowledge/<category>/<slug>.md, so you can find the file directly.

• Page format: title, Source line, content, Key Points, Related links.
• File names are lowercase kebab-case, such as machine-learning.md.
• Each page should link to related pages, and related pages link back.

Safety notes: scripts, network and privacy

This skill runs no scripts and uses no network access according to its listing. The wiki is stored as plain markdown files in the agent's workspace. The skill does not describe any encryption or access control, so anything you share is kept as readable files.

Summaries are written by the agent and may be inaccurate or leave out context. Check important pages against the original source before relying on them.

• Do not store sensitive or confidential documents unless you are comfortable with plain-text files in the workspace.
• Treat the wiki as a convenient memory, not as a verified source of truth.
• Open the original source when accuracy matters.

Tips for a useful wiki

Ingest one source at a time so the agent can place it in a sensible category. Ask the agent to link new pages to existing ones, since the skill expects cross-references and only links to pages that already exist. Periodically ask for a summary of a category to see whether the structure still makes sense.

• Keep one topic per page and let the agent link between pages instead of copying text.
• Ask the agent to update an existing page rather than create a duplicate.
• Review the index occasionally to spot mis-filed pages.