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ADR-0028: Call making concept notes synthesis, and keep distillation for marking

Proposed

Status: proposed · 2026-10-27

Context​

ADR-0023 named the command that turns a book's marks and reading notes into concept notes coach distill. In the method the owner follows, distillation is the marking itself: bolding, highlighting and summarising a chapter. Turning that material into a concept note of one idea is synthesis. The command name taught the wrong word for each step.

Decision​

  1. The loop is read, distill, synthesize, spar, judge, study. Distill is the learner marking a chapter in Obsidian; synthesize is making concept notes from those marks.
  2. coach distill [book] becomes coach synthesize [book], with the same behaviour as ADR-0023 and ADR-0026 describe. distill is no longer a command.
  3. The code follows the words: the use case is Synthesizing, the port SynthesisPartner, the adapter OllamaSynthesisPartner, the CLI conversation synthesize.ts and the domain module synthesis.ts.
  4. Everything else in ADR-0023 stands.

Consequences​

  • The command names the step it performs, and the README's loop matches the method.
  • Anyone used to coach distill gets "unknown command" and must type coach synthesize.
  • Accepted ADRs keep saying "distill" for the command; this ADR is where the rename is recorded.