AugmentClaude

Archive Backfill

Import large archives into your vault in controlled batches with cost tracking.

Installation

  1. Make sure Claude is on your device and in your terminal.

    Skills load from ~/.claude/skills/ when Claude Code starts up — so you need it on your machine first. If you don't have it yet, install it once with the command below, then run claude in any terminal to verify.

    One-time setup
    npm i -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code

    Already have it? Skip ahead.

  2. Paste into Claude Code or into your terminal.

    This copies the whole skill folder into ~/.claude/skills/second-brain-backfill-undefined-ui/ — the SKILL.md plus any scripts, reference docs, or templates the skill ships with. Safe default: works for every skill.

    Faster alternative (instruction-only skills)

    Skips the clone and grabs only the SKILL.md file. Don't use this if the skill ships Python scripts, reference markdowns, or asset templates — they won't be downloaded and the skill will fail when it tries to load them.

    Quick install (SKILL.md only)
    Sign up to copy
  3. Restart Claude Code.

    Quit and reopen Claude Code (or any other agent that loads from ~/.claude/skills/). New skills are picked up on startup.

  4. Just ask Claude.

    Skills auto-activate when your request matches the skill's description — no slash command needed. Trigger phrases live in the skill's own frontmatter; you can read them in the “What this skill does” section above.

Prefer to read the source first? Open on GitHub.

When Claude uses it

Import a large archive into the vault in controlled batches: triage what is worth ingesting, process oldest first, checkpoint after every batch, and keep cost visible. Use this skill whenever the user wants to import years of bookmarks, an export from another notes app, a downloads folder, a chat history dump, or says "backfill", "bulk import", "process my archive". Do NOT use for ingesting one or a few new sources, which is second-brain-ingest.

What this skill does

Backfill an archive

A backfill is where cost and quality both go wrong quietly. Done in the wrong order it also inverts the vault's history, because later sources should update pages that earlier ones created.

Core rule

Oldest first, ten sources per batch, stop for a go-ahead between batches.

Workflow

  1. Triage before ingesting. Read titles and first paragraphs. Sort into worth-ingesting, keep-in-raw, and delete. Most archives are half dead links and things saved but never opened.
  2. Order by date, oldest first. Run it the other way and every old source arrives as a contradiction against a page that already has the final answer.
  3. Batch of ten. Ingest following second-brain-ingest.
  4. Checkpoint: update index.md, append to log.md, commit with the batch range in the message, report counts.
  5. Stop and wait before the next batch.
  6. Full lint at the end. Large imports always leave orphans and duplicates.

Output format

Batch <n>/<total>: <range>
Ingested: <n> sources -> <n> new pages, <n> updated, <n> links
Skipped: <n> (reason)
Running total: <n> of <n>
Next batch: <what it contains>

Calibration

Read every page the first batch produced, all of them. A flaw you let through in batch one is a flaw in four hundred pages by the end, and fixing it afterwards costs more than the original run.

If the archive is over about two hundred sources, propose a filter before starting rather than quoting the full cost.

Related skills