Why
The plugin currently positions itself as a hub-spoke thinking system — Athena as a thinking-partner agent, eight spokes as her tools, "you talk to Athena, she delegates."
This made sense when Claude models were colder. With Opus 4.7 and the 2026 landscape, default Claude already does Socratic exploration, refraction, and style adaptation natively. The persona has become flavor, not capability — and structurally, the Athena-as-subagent surface is one-shot and filtered through the orchestrator, which the README's "you only talk to Athena" framing obscures.
The plugin's distinctive value isn't the thinking. It's the bookkeeping underneath: vault routing, capture-type discipline (IDEA / EXPLORATION / DECISION / SESSION / THREAD / TASK / MEETING), audit-trail enforcement (scribe writes, pyre deletes), worktree-aware trunk resolution, retrieval discipline. That system doesn't need a persona — it needs honest direct surfaces.
What's changing
New name: cairn-notes. Cairn — trail markers your agents leave in your vault.
New surfaces: /capture (capture-first entry, delegates to scribe with type detection) and /recall (retrieval, wraps archivist).
Retired: the athena and prism agents are deleted. @athena will return Unknown agent post-v0.6.0. kindle and sage become skill-internal helpers (drop "athena-only" framing; skills delegate via Task).
Rename scope: repo, plugin directory, plugin namespace (/athena-notes:* → /cairn-notes:*), slash commands (/athena-setup → /cairn-setup), internal skill (skills/athena-notes/ → skills/cairn-notes/), identity path (~/.claude/athena/ → ~/.claude/cairn/), #athena tag retires.
Version: v0.6.0 (minor bump, signals breaking but pre-1.0).
What's NOT changing
- Vault routing rules (project
.notes/ vs personal vault)
- Note-type system and templates
- Worktree-aware trunk resolution
- Surviving spokes: scribe, archivist, sage, pyre, forge, scout, kindle, impl-reviewer, ticket-analyst
- Obsidian conventions (wikilinks, frontmatter, hidden-dir filtering)
- Plugin install mechanism
Phase plan
- Phase 0 (this issue): triage every open issue against the new framing. Label affected ones
reframing-2026. No PR.
- Phase 0.5 (single PR): atomic rename event. Repo + directory + slash commands + namespace + identity path. No persona retirement yet — just the name swap.
- Phase A (single PR): add
/capture and /recall skills additively. Old surfaces still work alongside.
- Phase B (single PR): retire
agents/athena.md and agents/prism.md. Rewrite README, AGENTS.md, plugin.json + marketplace.json descriptions, CONTRIBUTING.md, all surviving spoke description: fields.
- Phase C (single PR): clean up residual
@athena references in skill bodies.
- Phase D (single PR): release cut. Promote
[Unreleased] to [0.6.0]. Tag + GH release.
How to know if an idea is still in scope
If the work strengthens capture, retrieval, vault routing, audit-trail, or a workflow built on those primitives — yes, still in scope.
If the work extends a thinking-partner persona, adds spoke orchestration through a hub, or assumes "the user talks to Athena who delegates" — probably out, but flagged here for case-by-case decision.
Bucket assignments (open issues at time of writing)
Survives unchanged — no comment, no label:
#17, #28, #60, #63, #64, #66, #73, #81, #83, #84, #85, plus portability-epic placeholders #11, #15, #16, #18, #19, #20, #21, #22
Needs reframing — comment + reframing-2026 label:
#23 (TELOS docs), #52 (workday update/wrap-up), #67 (interview-mode planner), #69 (/external-source-review), #71 (find-perspective), #82 (question-web note type)
Rename — comment + reframing-2026 label:
#65 (/athena-doctor → /cairn-doctor)
How to use this issue
When you open a reframing PR, link it here from the PR description with a phase tag (Phase 0.5, Phase A, etc.). I'll comment back to mark each phase landed.
When you pick up a reframing-2026-labeled issue, read the comment thread first — implementation guidance for the new framing is in there.
Closing condition: Phase D release tag is cut, GH release page exists, and this issue gets a final comment summarizing what landed.
Why
The plugin currently positions itself as a hub-spoke thinking system — Athena as a thinking-partner agent, eight spokes as her tools, "you talk to Athena, she delegates."
This made sense when Claude models were colder. With Opus 4.7 and the 2026 landscape, default Claude already does Socratic exploration, refraction, and style adaptation natively. The persona has become flavor, not capability — and structurally, the Athena-as-subagent surface is one-shot and filtered through the orchestrator, which the README's "you only talk to Athena" framing obscures.
The plugin's distinctive value isn't the thinking. It's the bookkeeping underneath: vault routing, capture-type discipline (IDEA / EXPLORATION / DECISION / SESSION / THREAD / TASK / MEETING), audit-trail enforcement (scribe writes, pyre deletes), worktree-aware trunk resolution, retrieval discipline. That system doesn't need a persona — it needs honest direct surfaces.
What's changing
New name:
cairn-notes. Cairn — trail markers your agents leave in your vault.New surfaces:
/capture(capture-first entry, delegates to scribe with type detection) and/recall(retrieval, wraps archivist).Retired: the
athenaandprismagents are deleted.@athenawill return Unknown agent post-v0.6.0.kindleandsagebecome skill-internal helpers (drop "athena-only" framing; skills delegate via Task).Rename scope: repo, plugin directory, plugin namespace (
/athena-notes:*→/cairn-notes:*), slash commands (/athena-setup→/cairn-setup), internal skill (skills/athena-notes/→skills/cairn-notes/), identity path (~/.claude/athena/→~/.claude/cairn/),#athenatag retires.Version:
v0.6.0(minor bump, signals breaking but pre-1.0).What's NOT changing
.notes/vs personal vault)Phase plan
reframing-2026. No PR./captureand/recallskills additively. Old surfaces still work alongside.agents/athena.mdandagents/prism.md. Rewrite README, AGENTS.md, plugin.json + marketplace.json descriptions, CONTRIBUTING.md, all surviving spokedescription:fields.@athenareferences in skill bodies.[Unreleased]to[0.6.0]. Tag + GH release.How to know if an idea is still in scope
If the work strengthens capture, retrieval, vault routing, audit-trail, or a workflow built on those primitives — yes, still in scope.
If the work extends a thinking-partner persona, adds spoke orchestration through a hub, or assumes "the user talks to Athena who delegates" — probably out, but flagged here for case-by-case decision.
Bucket assignments (open issues at time of writing)
Survives unchanged — no comment, no label:
#17, #28, #60, #63, #64, #66, #73, #81, #83, #84, #85, plus portability-epic placeholders #11, #15, #16, #18, #19, #20, #21, #22
Needs reframing — comment +
reframing-2026label:#23 (TELOS docs), #52 (workday update/wrap-up), #67 (interview-mode planner), #69 (
/external-source-review), #71 (find-perspective), #82 (question-web note type)Rename — comment +
reframing-2026label:#65 (
/athena-doctor→/cairn-doctor)How to use this issue
When you open a reframing PR, link it here from the PR description with a phase tag (
Phase 0.5,Phase A, etc.). I'll comment back to mark each phase landed.When you pick up a
reframing-2026-labeled issue, read the comment thread first — implementation guidance for the new framing is in there.Closing condition: Phase D release tag is cut, GH release page exists, and this issue gets a final comment summarizing what landed.