Orphans Skill

Find orphan notes - notes that have no backlinks (no other notes link to them).

Purpose

Orphan notes represent disconnected knowledge that isn't integrated into your vault's knowledge graph. Finding orphans helps you:

Identify notes that may be forgotten or lost
Connect isolated knowledge to related concepts
Improve vault connectivity
Discover notes that might need better naming/tagging

When to Use

Invoke when you want to:

Find disconnected notes: "orphans" or "orphan notes"
Audit vault connectivity: "show orphans" or "find isolated notes"
Improve linking: "disconnected notes" before linking campaign
Vault maintenance: Part of quarterly vault gardening

Process

1. Call MCP Tool

Call: mcp__flywheel__find_orphan_notes
Parameters: { folder: optional }

2. Categorize Orphans

Group orphans by type for better analysis:

By Folder:

tech/: 50 orphans
work/: 80 orphans
personal/: 30 orphans
daily-notes/: 40 orphans
other: 50 orphans

By Age:

Recent (last 30 days): 20 orphans (may still need time)
Medium (30-90 days): 50 orphans (needs attention)
Old (90+ days): 180 orphans (likely forgotten)

3. Display Report

Orphan Notes Report
═══════════════════════════════════════════════

Found 250 orphan notes (25% of vault)
Total notes: 1,000

BREAKDOWN BY FOLDER:
  work/: 80 orphans (32%)
  tech/: 50 orphans (20%)
  daily-notes/: 40 orphans (16%)
  personal/: 30 orphans (12%)
  other: 50 orphans (20%)

BREAKDOWN BY AGE:
  Recent (<30 days): 20 (8%)
  Medium (30-90 days): 50 (20%)
  Old (90+ days): 180 (72%) ⚠️

HIGH-PRIORITY ORPHANS (20 shown):
📄 work/projects/data-platform.md
   Created: 2024-05-15 | Modified: 2024-05-15
   Tags: #work #project
   → CRITICAL: Major project with no links!

Options:
1. Show full list (all orphans)
2. Filter by folder/age/tags
3. Export to CSV for manual review
═══════════════════════════════════════════════

Implementation Details

Orphan Criteria

A note is an orphan if:

✅ It exists in the vault
✅ It has zero backlinks (no other notes link to it)
❌ Excluded: Template files
❌ Excluded: System files (.claude/, .obsidian/)

Priority Scoring

Score orphans by importance (0-100):

python

priority_score = 0

# Deduct for age (older = lower priority)
days_old = (today - created_date).days
if days_old < 30:
    priority_score += 30  # Recent
elif days_old < 90:
    priority_score += 20  # Medium
else:
    priority_score += 10  # Old

# Add for folder importance
if 'projects' in path:
    priority_score += 40
elif 'work' in path:
    priority_score += 30
elif 'tech' in path:
    priority_score += 20
else:
    priority_score += 10

# Add for tags
important_tags = ['project', 'goal', 'person', 'client']
priority_score += len([t for t in tags if t in important_tags]) * 10

Related Skills

backlinks: Shows existing backlinks (orphans have ZERO)
unlinked-mentions: Find mentions not yet linked (helps connect orphans)
health: Overall vault health (orphan % is key metric)
hubs: Opposite of orphans (highly connected notes)

Performance

MCP call: ~500ms-1s for large vaults
Categorization: ~200ms for 250 orphans
Total: Usually <2 seconds

Search AI Tools

vault-orphans

Install this agent skill to your Project

SKILL.md