Turn a rambly spoken or stream-of-consciousness transcript into a clean, faithful first-person knowledge-base note under kb/riffs/. Use when the user pastes a dictated voice dump, says “riff” or “add a riff,” or asks to clean up a journal-style transcription. Preserve every useful idea, aside, hedge, attribution, and coined term; execute embedded transcriber research requests; use attachments as context without embedding the raw files.
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---
name: riff
description: >-
Turn a rambly spoken or stream-of-consciousness transcript into a clean,
faithful first-person knowledge-base note under kb/riffs/. Use when the user
pastes a dictated voice dump, says “riff” or “add a riff,” or asks to clean up
a journal-style transcription. Preserve every useful idea, aside, hedge,
attribution, and coined term; execute embedded transcriber research requests;
use attachments as context without embedding the raw files.
---
# Clean up a riff
Write the result to:
```text
kb/riffs/<YYYY-MM-DD>-<descriptive-slug>.md
```
Create a finished, self-contained note that reads as if the speaker wrote it deliberately. Follow `WRITING.md`: lead with the point, prefer active voice, name concrete details, and cut filler.
## Preserve the person
- Repair run-ons, punctuation, dropped words, and obvious transcription mistakes.
- Keep every useful idea, aside, uncertainty, hedge, attribution, and coined term.
- Keep the note in first person and preserve the speaker's vocabulary.
- Reorder scattered threads into a coherent arc when needed. Use headings only when the note genuinely spans multiple topics.
- End on the strongest natural beat. Do not manufacture a conclusion or add a recap.
## Resolve transcriber instructions
Treat “sidebar for the transcriber,” “look this up,” “flesh this out,” and similar phrases as instructions, not prose to preserve.
- Perform the requested lookup or research and integrate the result into the finished note.
- Put substantial companion research in an appropriately named `kb/` note and link it once from the riff.
- State what remains open only when the follow-up cannot be completed.
- Attribute additions only when a reader could otherwise mistake them for the speaker's claim.
An optional editorial note must be brief, clearly labeled, and genuinely additive. Omit it when it only restates the riff.
Use attached screenshots, whiteboards, or documents to verify names and recover meaning. Describe relevant content in prose; do not copy or embed the raw attachment in the riff.
Read the entire transcript before writing, complete embedded follow-ups, write the note and any companion files, then report the paths created and any material inference that remains uncertain.
