TOW — Tag Ontology for Wiki

A plugin for Claude Code, Codex, and Google Antigravity to search and maintain a tag-first Obsidian wiki.

Version: 0.1.1.

Overview

TOW is a variant of Karpathy's LLM Wiki that organizes notes by tags first. A vault that follows it uses three layers:

PARA folders: Projects, Areas, Resources, Archives.
Classification fields in frontmatter: category, type, status, kind.
A concept tag ontology: a tag dictionary with aliases and broader/narrower relations.

The full conventions are in docs/methodology.md.

TOW installs four workflows into your local coding agent. You name the vault and notes; the agent reads the relevant files, searches classifications and concept tags, and proposes scoped changes for your approval. The files stay in your Obsidian vault.

The package contains skills, shared conventions, and the Python helper scripts/tow.py. That helper checks classification rules and calls the tag-ontology npm CLI for note parsing, tag queries, and dictionary validation/changes. Your agent host supplies the model and file tools.

tag-ontology@0.1.2        dictionary checks, queries, edits, note parsing
      ▲  npx tag-ontology … --json
tow (this plugin)         vault convention checks, skills
      ▲  Claude Code / Codex / Antigravity
your Obsidian vault

Skills

Skill	When to use it	Changes
`tow-query`	Find project notes about RAG, or notes matching a category/concept	Read-only; opens notes before summarizing them
`tow-check`	Check frontmatter, headings, tables, math, and references	Reports first; fixes only approved formatting
`tow-tag-suggest`	Recommend concept tags for selected notes	Applies only the additions/removals you select
`tow-tag-sync`	Register new tags, resolve aliases, or reconcile the dictionary	Proposes first; applies approved dictionary/tag changes

All three hosts share these skills, the conventions, and the CLI. In Claude Code, invoke /tow:tow-query; in Codex, select tow-query with $ or /skills; in Antigravity, invoke /tow-query.

Requirements

Claude Code, Codex, or Google Antigravity with plugin support
Git, for installation from GitHub
Node.js 22.18 or later, with npm/npx on PATH, for the tag-ontology CLI
Python 3.10 or later (standard library only)

The skills read the vault files you scope and apply only the changes you approve. Your agent host processes opened note content under its own model and privacy settings. TOW has no hosted backend; npm downloads the pinned CLI, and the host controls file access.

Install from GitHub

Install directly from this public repository. Official-directory registration is optional. The commands below use main; after installation, start a new host session. See the installation and troubleshooting guide for verification, vault settings, and updates.

Claude Code

/plugin install tow --marketplace NamhyeonKo/tag-ontology-wiki

On Claude Code older than 2.1.275:

/plugin marketplace add NamhyeonKo/tag-ontology-wiki
/plugin install tow@tag-ontology-wiki

Codex

Run in your shell:

codex plugin marketplace add NamhyeonKo/tag-ontology-wiki --ref main
codex plugin add tow@tag-ontology-wiki

Antigravity

Run in your shell, then start a new Antigravity session:

agy plugin install https://github.com/NamhyeonKo/tag-ontology-wiki

First use

Open the vault as your host's workspace, or grant it access to that directory. In a new session, select tow-query using the host-specific invocation above, then send:

My vault is /absolute/path/to/vault. Find project notes about RAG by category
or concept, excluding superseded documents. Read matching notes before
summarizing them and return their paths and count. Do not modify files.

For an existing vault, check its folder/dictionary paths first. TOW reads tow.json at the vault root; omitted settings use the defaults in the setup guide. Installation does not create or migrate a vault.

CLI and setup checks

The helper uses npx --yes tag-ontology@0.1.2; npm fetches that exact version when needed. Manual helper commands use the installed scripts/tow.py path. The name tow in the conventions is shorthand for that path.

Neither TOW 0.1.1 nor tag-ontology 0.1.2 has a doctor command. Start with:

python3 --version
node --version
npx --yes tag-ontology@0.1.2 --version

Then follow the setup checks to verify the installed plugin, configuration, dictionaries, and note tags. lint covers classification fields and tag counts; the check skill adds the note-by-note formatting/reference review. A clean lint result alone does not cover every skill check.

Development

uv sync
uv run ruff check
uv run ruff format --check
uv run pyright
uv run pytest

The skills call scripts/tow.py, which reads notes through npx --yes tag-ontology@0.1.2. The exact version makes the downloaded executable reproducible for plugin distribution. To use another build of the CLI, set TOW_TAG_ONTOLOGY to its command, for example TOW_TAG_ONTOLOGY="node /path/to/cli.js".

The real CLI integration tests are optional locally. Point TOW_TAG_ONTOLOGY at a CLI to run them alongside the unit tests:

TOW_TAG_ONTOLOGY="npx --yes tag-ontology@0.1.2" uv run pytest

Without this variable, the integration tests are skipped. They copy the synthetic vault into temporary directories and never use your own vault. See evaluation for the skill scenarios and verification limits.

License

MIT