Smith Idea Bank

Capture ideas mid-conversation and store them in the vault for later processing. The bank is a section of the vault where ideas get deposited for safekeeping until you're ready to withdraw them.

Arguments: $ARGUMENTS

Vault Logging

Log significant events to the vault session log. Read the session log path from .smith/vault/.current-session. If missing, skip logging silently.

Append entries using this format:

### [HH:MM:SS] /smith-bank <event>

**User Request:**
> <verbatim user message or idea description that triggered this action>

**Action:** <banked|listed|processed|edited|removed|prioritized>
**Bank ID:** <BANK-NNN>
**Title:** <idea title>
**Outcome:** <what happened>
**Systems affected:** <system IDs>

Behavior

No Arguments — Bank an Idea

When invoked with no arguments (or via natural language trigger), capture the current conversation's idea:

1. Analyze the conversation to understand the idea being banked — what it is, how it came up, what problem it solves, and any initial requirements discussed
2. Auto-detect systems the idea would likely impact by scanning .specify/systems/system-*/spec.md descriptions against the idea content. Set primary_system and also_affects.
3. Determine next bank ID by scanning .smith/vault/bank/ for existing files. Extract the highest BANK-NNN from frontmatter id: fields, then increment. Start at BANK-001 if none exist.
4. Generate the bank file at .smith/vault/bank/YYYY-MM-DD_HHMMSS-<slug>.md with this format:

---
id: BANK-NNN
title: "<concise title>"
created: "YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS"
source_session: "<current session log filename>"
primary_system: "<detected system or 'unassigned'>"
also_affects: []
status: banked
priority: medium
---

# <Title>

## Origin

<2-3 sentences describing the conversation context that led to this idea — what were we working on, what triggered the thought, why it seemed worth saving>

## Idea

<Clear description of the feature or improvement, written with enough detail that someone reading this cold could understand what to build>

## Requirements (Draft)

<Bullet points capturing any requirements that were discussed, even loosely. Include edge cases or constraints mentioned>

## Systems Affected

- **Primary:** <system name and why>
- **Also affects:** <other systems and why, or "none identified">

## Open Questions

<Any obvious questions that would need answering before this could be built. Pre-populate with the most important unknowns based on the conversation>

## Conversation Reference

Session: <link to vault session log>
Approximate timestamp: <when in the session this idea came up>

5. Confirm to the user: "Banked as BANK-NNN: . Resume anytime with /smith-bank process BANK-NNN."
6. Return to the original conversation without disruption — do NOT start any follow-up workflow.

list — Show All Banked Ideas

Display all banked ideas sorted by date descending. Read each .md file in .smith/vault/bank/ (exclude archive/ subdirectory), extract frontmatter fields.

Format:

Bank Vault — N ideas deposited

  BANK-001  [medium]  Trends article recommendation engine      2026-04-03
  BANK-002  [high]    Auto-generate component Storybook stories  2026-04-04
  BANK-003  [medium]  Email thread summarization endpoint        2026-04-05

Filters:

• list --priority <level> — filter by priority (critical, high, medium, low)
• list --system <system-id> — filter by primary_system or also_affects containing the system ID

If no ideas exist: "Bank vault is empty. Use /smith-bank to deposit your first idea."

process <id> — Withdraw and Build

Withdraws an idea from the bank and starts a /smith-new workflow:

1. Read the banked spec file matching the given ID (e.g., BANK-001)
2. Update the bank entry: set status: in-progress, add processing_started: <timestamp> and feature_branch: <TBD> to frontmatter
3. Invoke /smith-new with the idea description, draft requirements, systems affected, and open questions pre-loaded as the initial feature context. The user should NOT have to re-explain the idea.
4. When the /smith-new workflow completes:
   • If built and merged: update bank entry status: completed, add completed: <timestamp> and feature_branch: <branch-name>
   • If queued: update bank entry status: queued

edit <id> — Edit a Banked Idea

Open the banked idea file for the given ID. Read and display its current contents, then ask the user what they'd like to change. Support updating:

• Title
• Priority
• Requirements
• Open questions
• Systems affected
• Any free-form notes

Write the updated file back after changes.

remove <id> — Archive a Banked Idea

1. Find the bank file matching the given ID
2. Ask for confirmation: "Remove BANK-NNN: ? This moves it to the archive. (y/n)"
3. If confirmed: move the file to .smith/vault/bank/archive/ (create directory if needed)
4. Confirm: "BANK-NNN archived."

prioritize <id> --priority <level> — Change Priority

Quick shorthand to change priority without the full edit flow.

1. Find the bank file matching the given ID
2. Update the priority: field in frontmatter to the new level
3. Valid levels: critical, high, medium, low
4. Confirm: "BANK-NNN priority updated to ."

Implementation Notes

• Bank files live in .smith/vault/bank/, archived files in .smith/vault/bank/archive/
• Create .smith/vault/bank/ if it doesn't exist on first use
• ID matching: scan all .md files in bank/ for frontmatter id: field matching the requested ID
• Slug generation: lowercase the title, replace spaces with hyphens, remove special chars, truncate to 50 chars
• This skill should be handled directly in the main session — never delegate to a sub-agent