---
name: knowledge
description: >
  Knowledge management awareness — explains how a project's knowledge base works,
  how to navigate it, and what to do when the tome plugin isn't installed. Each
  project declares its own approach in project.md.
---

# Knowledge Management

Spire agents (Igor, adepts, athanor) need to orient themselves in a project's knowledge base. How that knowledge is structured varies per project.

## How projects declare their knowledge approach

The project's `project.md` (loaded by Igor's skill and by athanor) should describe:

- Where authoritative docs live (CLAUDE.md files, topic docs, wiki/)
- How to navigate them (tome plugin, direct file reads, AGENTS.md routing tables)
- What the entry point is (root CLAUDE.md, boot.md, AGENTS.md)

## When the tome plugin is installed

If the project has `tome@reliquary` enabled:

- Use `/tome:navigate` before substantial work in an unfamiliar area
- Use `/tome:check` to verify knowledge-layer health after structural changes
- Use `/tome:curate` for knowledge maintenance
- Use `/tome:handoff` when transitioning between sessions or agents

Tome provides structured navigation (wiki/, NAV files, boot.md) and automated curation methods. It's the full-featured path.

## When tome is not installed (fallback)

Most projects work fine without tome. The fallback strategy:

1. **Read the root CLAUDE.md / AGENTS.md** — this is always the entry point
2. **Follow @-includes and links** — CLAUDE.md files reference each other; follow the chain relevant to your task
3. **Check for module-level CLAUDE.md** — many projects have per-module docs (`src/foo/CLAUDE.md`)
4. **Use `find` or `glob`** for `**/CLAUDE.md` to discover what documentation exists
5. **Read topic docs** if they exist (`docs/topics/`, `docs/`, or similar)

The fallback is manual but sufficient. Tome automates what fallback does by hand.

## Installing tome

To add tome to a project:

```json
{
  "enabledPlugins": ["tome@reliquary"]
}
```

Then run `/tome:init` to scaffold the knowledge structure. This is a one-time setup that creates the wiki/, boot.md, and folder navigation. See the tome plugin's README for details.