Draft TIL Skill

Creates a TIL blog post draft in Notion following the user's voice and style.

Voice Guide

Spirit

1. Learning in public - I'm sharing things I found helpful; you might too
2. We don't take ourselves seriously - Coding is fun, not solemn
3. Respect your time - Get to the point quickly
4. Keep it light - Direct but not dry

Every technique below serves these principles.

Two TIL Formats

Ultra-short (50-150 words)

• Single tip with one code example
• Minimal explanation
• Best for simple gotchas or quick references

Standard (300-500 words)

• Problem → bad solution → good solution structure
• Multiple code examples
• More explanation and personality
• Best for concepts that need unpacking

Voice Characteristics

1. Direct titles - State exactly what the reader will learn

   • Good: "The filter(Boolean) trick"
   • Good: "A '!' prefix makes any Tailwind CSS class important"
   • Bad: "Understanding Array Methods in JavaScript"

2. Problem-first opening - Start with the issue

   • "If you try to .gitignore files after committing them, you'll notice it doesn't work"
   • "You have an array... But hiding in that array are some unusable null or undefined values"

3. Conversational tone

   • Use "you" to address reader directly
   • Contractions are fine
   • Second person throughout

4. Code examples always included

   • Show the problem code
   • Show the solution code
   • Inline comments can have personality

5. No fluff

   • Get to the point quickly
   • Short paragraphs
   • Scannable structure

Rhythm and Tonal Variation

Critical: Don't be relentlessly direct. Alternate rapid-fire teaching with moments of personality.

The pattern: Direct instruction → tonal break → direct instruction → tonal break

Types of tonal breaks (use 2-4 per standard post):

1. Playful asides - Brief moments of humor

   • "Illegal! Now you're a criminal."
   • "Really, really no vertical margins"
   • "Oh noooo..."

2. Casual satisfaction - Express relief or confidence

   • "Happily, there's a cleaner way."
   • "It worked like a charm."
   • End with "😎" after a satisfying solution

3. Honest reflection - Admit limitations or show thought process

   • "the example I showed above doesn't actually work out very well!"
   • "After trying a number of workarounds..."
   • "this was a fun exercise in the meantime"

4. Varied closings - Don't repeat the same signoff

   • "Hope that clears things up."
   • "That's the trick."
   • Or just end on the last code example (no closing needed)

Example rhythm:

[Direct: state problem]
[Direct: show bad code]
[Tonal break: "Illegal! Now you're a criminal."]
[Direct: explain solution]
[Direct: show good code]
[Tonal break: casual closing or 😎]

What NOT to Do

• Don't be formal or academic
• Don't over-explain obvious things
• Don't use passive voice
• Don't add unnecessary caveats
• Don't start with "In this post, I'll show you..."

Notion Databases

Writing Database

Data Source ID: c296db5b-d2f1-44d4-abc6-f9a05736b143

TIL Assessed Commits Database

Data Source ID: cba80148-aeef-49c9-ba45-5157668b17b3

Property Mappings

When creating a TIL page in the Writing database, set these properties:

Creation Process

1. Determine format - Ultra-short or standard based on topic complexity
2. Write title - Direct, specific, states what reader will learn
3. Write content - Follow voice guide above
4. Generate slug - Lowercase title with hyphens, no special chars
5. Write description - One sentence summarizing the takeaway
6. Publish via Notion MCP - Two-step process:

Step 1: Create Writing Page

Use mcp__notion__notion-create-pages with Writing data source:

{
  "parent": {"data_source_id": "c296db5b-d2f1-44d4-abc6-f9a05736b143"},
  "pages": [{
    "properties": {
      "Title": "Your TIL Title Here",
      "Status": "Claude Draft",
      "Type": "how-to",
      "Destination": "blog",
      "Description": "One-line summary here",
      "Slug": "your-til-title-here"
    },
    "content": "Your markdown content here..."
  }]
}

Capture the Writing page URL from the response - you'll need it for step 2.

Step 2: Create Tracker Entry

Use mcp__notion__notion-create-pages with TIL Assessed Commits data source:

{
  "parent": {"data_source_id": "cba80148-aeef-49c9-ba45-5157668b17b3"},
  "pages": [{
    "properties": {
      "Commit Hash": "full-sha-hash",
      "Message": "original commit message",
      "Repo": "owner/repo",
      "date:Commit Date:start": "2025-01-15",
      "date:Commit Date:is_datetime": 0,
      "date:Assessed:start": "2025-01-22",
      "date:Assessed:is_datetime": 0,
      "Writing": "[\"https://www.notion.so/writing-page-url\"]"
    }
  }]
}

Important: The Writing property must be a JSON array of URLs as a string: "[\"url\"]"

Both operations return URLs - display both to the user.

Example: Ultra-Short TIL

Title: Tmux's version command is -V

Content:

Most CLI tools use `--version` or `-v` to show their version.

Tmux uses `-V` (capital V):

```bash
tmux -V
# tmux 3.4

The lowercase -v enables verbose mode instead.

**Properties**:
- Status: Claude Draft
- Type: how-to
- Destination: ["blog"]
- Description: Check tmux version with -V (capital V), not -v
- Slug: tmux-version

---

## Example: Standard TIL

**Title**: The filter(Boolean) trick

**Content**:
```markdown
Here's a trick I often find helpful.

## Bad array. Very, very bad.

You have an array of whatever:

```javascript
const array = [{ stuff }, { moreStuff }, ...]

But hiding in that array are some unusable null or undefined values:

const array = [{ good }, null, { great }, undefined]

Looping over null data

If you try to perform actions on every item in the array, you'll run into errors:

const newArray = array.map(item => {
  const assumption = item.thing
})

// 🚨 Error: Cannot read property "thing" of undefined.

Illegal! Now you're a criminal.

The truth and only the truth

Here's my favourite way to quickly remove all empty items:

const truthyArray = array.filter(Boolean)
// [{ good }, { great }]

The filter(Boolean) step passes each item to Boolean(), which coerces it to true or false. If truthy, we keep it. 😎

**Properties**:
- Status: Claude Draft
- Type: how-to
- Destination: ["blog"]
- Description: How to remove empty values from an array
- Slug: javascript-filter-boolean

---

## Safety Rules

1. **Always use Status="Claude Draft"** - Never use any other status
2. **Never edit existing pages** - Only create new ones
3. **Show draft to user first** - Display content before creating page
4. **Link sources via relations** - Don't modify source pages

---

## After Creation

After both MCP operations complete successfully:

1. Display both URLs:
   - Writing page URL (for reviewing/editing the draft)
   - Tracker page URL (confirms commit was marked as assessed)
2. Remind user they can review and edit in Notion
3. Offer to draft another or return to suggestions

The tracker entry is automatically linked to the Writing page via the relation property.