Opus Vault

proposal-daily-changelog-split

2 min read

Proposal: Split watch changelog into daily files

What

Replace the single watch-changelog.md with daily files in vault/00_system/logs/changelog/YYYY-MM-DD.md. Update watch-notify.py and /status accordingly.

Why

The single changelog file grows unbounded. Daily files:

  • Scale naturally — old days don’t clutter today’s view
  • Are Obsidian-friendly (one note per day, easy to browse)
  • Make archiving/cleanup simple (delete files older than X days)
  • Allow /status to show only today’s unreviewed changes

Spec

1. New file structure

vault/00_system/logs/changelog/
├── 2026-03-19.md
├── 2026-03-18.md
└── ...

Each daily file:

---
type: log
protection: watch
created: 2026-03-19
---
# Changelog 2026-03-19
 
- [ ] 19:30 | main | e7ad864 | `.claude/skills/status/SKILL.md` | ~1 | summary
- [ ] 19:36 | main | e7ad864 | `vault/10_features/...` | +1 -0 | summary

2. Update watch-notify.py

Change the log target from:

changelog = root / "vault" / "00_system" / "logs" / "watch-changelog.md"

To:

today = datetime.now().strftime("%Y-%m-%d")
changelog_dir = root / "vault" / "00_system" / "logs" / "changelog"
changelog_dir.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
changelog = changelog_dir / f"{today}.md"

Create file with frontmatter if it doesn’t exist yet. Append entry if it does.

3. Update /status (step 8)

Change from:

8. Read vault/00_system/logs/watch-changelog.md and count unchecked entries

To:

8. Glob vault/00_system/logs/changelog/*.md, read the most recent file (today or last available).
   Count unchecked entries (- [ ]). Show "X watched file changes need review".
   If there are unchecked entries in older files too, mention: "(+ Y from previous days)"

4. Migrate existing data

Move entries from watch-changelog.md into the appropriate daily file based on timestamp. Then delete the old file.

5. Update /recap if it reads the changelog

Check if /recap references watch-changelog.md and update similarly.

Impact

  • watch-notify.py — new log target path
  • .claude/skills/status/SKILL.md — step 8 updated
  • .claude/skills/recap/SKILL.md — check and update if needed
  • vault/00_system/logs/watch-changelog.md — migrated and deleted
  • vault/00_system/logs/changelog/ — new directory with daily files

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