Tag taxonomy

Every claim in a Distillary brain is tagged across 6 dimensions. Each dimension answers a different question about the claim. Together they let you filter the graph from any angle — see only the core arguments, only the speculative claims, only what the author criticizes, only the methodology advice.

The design principle: tags do the filtering, wikilinks do the linking. Tags live in YAML where tools can query them. Relationships live in the body as wikilinks where the graph view renders them.

priority/ — how central is this claim?

This dimension answers: “If I removed this claim, would the source’s argument collapse?”

Value	Meaning	When to use
core	Removing this damages the central thesis	The claim IS the argument — without it, the book falls apart. Be strict: most claims are NOT core.
key	Important supporting claim	Strengthens the thesis significantly, but the argument survives without it.
support	Evidence, examples, illustrations	Provides color or evidence for a key claim. The default for most claims.
aside	Tangential observation	The author mentions it but it’s not part of the main argument.

The priority dimension is intentionally harsh. A 300-page book should have ~20 core claims, ~50 key claims, and ~200 support claims. If half your claims are “core,” the extraction agent wasn’t being strict enough.

Why priority matters

Filtering to priority/core gives you the book in 30 seconds. Filtering to priority/core + priority/key gives you the book in 5 minutes. This is the zoom control for the pyramid.

certainty/ — how solid is this claim?

This dimension answers: “How confident should I be that this is true?”

Value	Meaning	When to use
established	Broadly accepted, empirically grounded	Widely agreed upon, backed by data or consensus. Not controversial.
argued	Author defends against alternatives	The author makes a case for this, acknowledging that others disagree. Most claims in persuasion books.
speculative	Author flags as conjecture	The author explicitly hedges — “perhaps,” “I suspect,” “it remains to be seen.”

This is an epistemological dimension. It tracks not whether the claim is true, but how the author presents its certainty. A claim marked established in one source might be argued in another — that disagreement is itself interesting.

Speculative claims are where fact-checking matters most

Filter to certainty/speculative to find every claim worth double-checking. These are the author’s guesses — some brilliant, some wrong.

stance/ — what does the AUTHOR think?

This dimension answers: “Is the author for this, against this, or just describing it?”

Value	Meaning	When to use
endorsed	Author advocates this view	The author believes this and wants you to believe it too.
criticized	Author argues against this view	The author describes this view to tear it down. A claim about an opposing view is criticized even if the view is widely held.
neutral	Author describes without taking sides	The author presents this factually without opinion. Rare in persuasion books, common in textbooks.

Stance separates “what the author wants you to believe” from “what the author is arguing against.” This is critical for reading polemical books honestly — a claim with stance/criticized is something the author DISAGREES with, not something they endorse.

domain/ — what field is this about?

An open vocabulary tag identifying the intellectual domain. Common values:

methodology, strategy, measurement, entrepreneurship, psychology, manufacturing, growth, organization, economics, management

The domain dimension uses open vocabulary because books cross fields unpredictably. A lean startup book has claims about manufacturing, psychology, and organizational theory — forcing them into a fixed taxonomy would lose information.

Domains enable cross-source queries: “show me all claims about domain/psychology across every source in my brain.” When three books from different fields all make claims about psychology, the pattern is interesting.

role/ — what kind of intellectual work is this?

This dimension answers: “What is this claim DOING in the argument?”

Value	Meaning	When to use
fact	Empirical observation, no controversy	”IMVU had 5 co-founders.” Verifiable, not argued.
argument	Reasoning toward a conclusion	”Validated learning is better than shipped features because…” The author is making a case.
prediction	Testable forecast	”Companies that adopt this will outperform.” Can be checked against reality.
definition	Stipulates what a term means	”A pivot is a structured course correction.” Defines vocabulary.
example	Illustration of a more general claim	”Zappos tested demand by posting shoe photos.” Concrete case supporting an abstract point.
methodology	How to do something	”Run split tests on every feature.” Practical instruction.

The role dimension separates types of intellectual work. A book of mostly fact claims is descriptive. A book of mostly argument is interpretive. A book of mostly methodology is prescriptive. This fingerprint reveals how an author thinks.

Powerful cross-role queries

• role/prediction across old vaults → find predictions history has now confirmed or falsified
• role/definition → extract a glossary from any source
• role/fact → find the empirical core that should hold up to fact-checking
• role/methodology → extract all practical advice

source/ — which source does this come from?

Every claim carries its source tag: source/ries-lean-startup, source/fitzpatrick-mom-test, etc. This is what makes multi-source brains work. When two sources are combined, the source/ tag keeps every claim attributable to its origin.

Bridge concepts that span sources get source/cross-vault — a special tag marking them as cross-source synthesis, not content from any single source.

How tags work together

A single claim carries all 6 dimensions simultaneously. Each combination tells a story:

• priority/core + certainty/speculative + stance/endorsed → the author’s core bet that isn’t proven yet. High-stakes, worth watching.
• priority/support + role/example + certainty/established → a well-known case study supporting the argument. Good for citation.
• priority/core + stance/criticized + role/argument → the author’s main target. The thing they wrote the book to argue against.

The tag system gives you 6 independent lenses on the same content. Switch between them in Obsidian’s graph view to see the vault from different angles.