Web clips capture to Inbox/, promote at triage

Context and Problem Statement

The Obsidian Web Clipper (Firefox) saves web pages into the vault, with an Interpreter step (via OpenRouter) that generates a summary, key points, notable quotes, and topic tags. Clips previously landed in a top-level Clippings/ folder that was never part of the vault spec (see README top-level folder table) — an undocumented exception to the mode-based structure (0006-mode-based-top-level-structure).

Two questions needed resolving: where should the clipper deposit new clips, and how do clips fit the vault’s content taxonomy? A full clipped article is raw source material — the opposite of the atomic-note convention (0017-atomic-note-convention-overhaul): it is long, not one idea, and not in my own words. It therefore cannot land directly in Atlas/Notes/.

Considered Options

• Capture to Inbox/; promote or distill at triage.
• Capture directly to Atlas/Sources/ (treat every clip as a lit note).
• Keep a documented top-level Clippings/ staging folder.

Decision Outcome

Chosen option: “Capture to Inbox/”, because it is the only option consistent with the vault’s existing capture-then-triage model. Zen #2: decisions about where something belongs happen at triage, not capture. A fresh clip is un-triaged by definition, and Inbox/ is the designated capture mode. This avoids inventing a new top-level folder (zen #8: don’t optimize the system, use it) and defers the Sources-vs-References-vs-distill call to when I actually know what the clip is for.

The clipper’s Path field is set to Inbox/. The Interpreter template writes inbox as the first tag (matching the Inbox frontmatter spec in README) alongside AI-generated topic tags. Clip titles use the page title rather than the note YYYY-MM-DD HH-MM-SS quick-capture pattern — the Inbox filename spec is a convention for keyboard captures, not a hard constraint; Inbox is simply “anything not yet triaged,” and descriptive titles serve Quick Switcher better (zen #3).

Clippings/ is removed. The one existing clip was moved to Inbox/.

Triage paths (Inbox/ → destination)

At weekly triage, a clip resolves to one of:

• Distill → Atlas/Notes/ — extract the durable idea as an atomic note in my own words; the raw clip is then discarded (or archived to .trash). Preferred when the idea matters, not the source.
• Keep as lit note → Atlas/Sources/ — retain the full clip when the source itself is worth preserving (paper, talk, substantial article). Rename source-descriptive per README file-naming.
• Own reference → Atlas/References/ — when the clip functions as a how-to / checklist I’ll follow directly rather than a note about a source.

Interpreter tag hygiene

Obsidian tags cannot contain spaces. The Interpreter prompt requests single-token, lowercase, hyphenated tags to avoid invalid multi-word tags (e.g. wrinkle-free-travel, not wrinkle free travel).

Pros and Cons of the Options

Capture to Inbox/

• Good, because consistent with zen #2 (decide-at-triage) and the existing capture mode.
• Good, because adds no new top-level structure.
• Neutral: clip filenames deviate from the Inbox quick-capture naming pattern, accepted as Inbox holds any untriaged note.

Capture directly to Atlas/Sources/

• Bad, because it decides-at-capture that every clip is a keepworthy lit note, violating zen #2.
• Bad, because many clips are throwaway or should be distilled to Atlas/Notes/, not retained whole.

Documented top-level Clippings/

• Bad, because it adds a fourth capture-ish concept alongside Inbox/ for no gain (zen #8).
• Bad, because it splits untriaged material across two folders.