PHASE D / CORE ARCHITECTURE

OpenViking Index

OpenViking is a rebuildable semantic index. It improves discovery; it does not become the authority.

Humandecides what to index

Obsidiancurated source notes

OpenVikingbuilds the index

Hermesqueries for retrieval

Evidenceconfirmation of relevance

IMPLEMENTATION

Build a curated, allowlisted, rebuildable retrieval layer

Create a semantic index over approved canonical material only, with explicit manifest control and smoke-test verification.

Start with an allowlist

List only the notes, maps, and summaries you want indexed.

Ingest with the CLI

Use ov add-resource for local files; MCP add_resource for remote URLs.

Wait for completion

Poll task status; successful submission is not the same as finished embedding.

Verify semantic relevance

Run smoke queries for known concepts; check abstracts and source paths.

Control duplicates

Maintain a manifest and prune/stale resources before they affect recall.

STRUCTURED REFERENCE

Manifest example

# OpenViking seed manifest
- hermes/hermes-local-environment.md
- hermes/hermes-health-check-runbook.md
- osint/osint-deep-research-default.md
- osint/rsi-tlea-monitoring-runbook.md
- tools/local-security-tool-stack.md
- skills/skill-index-osint.md
- preferences/zach-agent-preferences.md

FAILURE MODES

Common pitfalls and mitigations

Indexing raw session dumps

Never bulk-index `.obsidian`, `.git`, raw logs, or unattributed transcripts.

Assuming immediate availability

Always poll task status and verify with a semantic smoke query.

Letting the index grow unbounded

Prune duplicates and stale resources on a regular cadence.

Copyable public prompt

Design a safe OpenViking seed pack for [VAULT]. Include curated maps, procedures, summaries, retrieval tests, and no secrets or raw sessions.

Public boundary

Use placeholders for paths, accounts, endpoints, identities, and credentials. Never publish secret values, private records, or a live control surface.

Verification gate

Verify scope and inputs
Run a focused test
Check outputs and evidence
Confirm no private data leaked