Building Six Articles About Building

The recursive article. How we structured, sequenced, and deployed a 6-article series documenting a mega-session — using the same tools the articles describe.

The Meta-Problem

We had just completed a massive session: built The Mirror Experiment intro page, restructured categories, rebuilt navigation, created author pages, synced 52 articles from Obsidian YAML. J’s instruction: “I want you to create all these post pages and use the build and document to make a masterpiece How-we-did-this for these 6 post pages.”

The task: turn a single session’s work into 6 atomic, interlinked articles — each documenting one architectural decision.

The SKILL That Emerged

SKILL: Article Sequence Build

Build a series of interlinked articles from Obsidian notes to WordPress, with consistent styling, sequence navigation, author assignment, and category structure.

Obsidian (structure) → WordPress (create) → SSH (slugs + authors) → Abilities (categories) → Obsidian (backfill wp_post_id)

PHASE 1 Obsidian — Create Article Notes

Article 1 already existed as post ID 204. We created 5 new Obsidian notes, each following the same structure: excerpt → starting point → tool calls with phase markers → what we learned → series nav.

#1-5 create_file × 5 MCP Obsidian

mcp__obsidian__create_file × 5 (parallel)

path: WickedEvolutions/Site/Blog/Draft Articles/How We Built This — *.md

5 article notes created with YAML frontmatter: series_number, author, category, related_to links

#	Title	Post ID
1	Building the AI Team Page	204
2	The AIM Page	243
3	Series Pages That Build Themselves	244
4	When Team Cards Became Author Pages	245
5	Syncing 52 Articles to Their Authors	246
6	Rebuilding Site Navigation	247

PHASE 2 WordPress — Create Draft Posts

#6 content-update WP Abilities

mcp__wordpress__content-update → post 204

added: Phases 4-6 (card footers, lumi green, pill fix) + series navigation component

Article 1 updated — now includes the full build story

#7-11 content-create × 5 WP Abilities

mcp__wordpress__content-create × 5 (parallel)

5 draft posts created: IDs 243, 244, 245, 246, 247
Each includes full CSS + tool-call markup + series-nav component

PHASE 3 SSH — Authors and Slugs

#12 wp post update × 6 SSH

Bash (SSH) → wp post update {id} –post_author=7 –post_name={slug}

author: Product Researcher (user 7)
slugs: building-the-ai-team-page, how-we-built-this-the-aim-page, etc.

6 posts updated. All assigned to Product Researcher, slugs set for cross-linking.

PHASE 4 Abilities — Category Assignment

#13-18 taxonomies-assign-to-content × 6 WP Abilities

mcp__wordpress__taxonomies-assign-to-content × 6

terms: The Mirror Experiment (8) + How We Built This (15)

All 6 posts categorized. Will appear on the “How We Built This” series page automatically.

PHASE 5 Obsidian — Backfill and SKILL

#19-23 update_frontmatter × 5 MCP Obsidian

mcp__obsidian__update_frontmatter × 5

field: wp_post_id → 243, 244, 245, 246, 247

Dual system in sync. Obsidian YAML now references the correct WordPress post IDs.

#24 create_file MCP Obsidian

mcp__obsidian__create_file → SKILLs/SKILL Article Sequence Build.md

SKILL extracted. The reusable pattern for building article series from Obsidian to WordPress.

The Recursion

This article documents building 6 articles that each document building something else. The articles use the same CSS patterns, the same tool-call blocks, the same series navigation component. The SKILL that emerged from building them is now available for the next series.

The recursion isn’t clever — it’s structural. The process of documenting creates the next piece of documentation. The mirror reflects itself.

The Full Sequence

PHASE 1: STRUCTURE (Obsidian — 5 calls) create_file × 5 → 5 article notes with YAML frontmatter PHASE 2: BUILD (WordPress — 6 calls) content-update (post 204) → Article 1 updated with missing phases content-create × 5 → Articles 2-6 as drafts (IDs 243-247) PHASE 3: ASSIGN (SSH — 1 batch call) wp post update × 6 → author=7 (Product Researcher), slugs set PHASE 4: CATEGORIZE (WordPress — 6 calls) taxonomies-assign-to-content × 6 → categories 8 + 15 PHASE 5: SYNC (Obsidian — 6 calls) update_frontmatter × 5 → wp_post_id backfilled create_file (SKILL) → pattern extracted for reuse

What We Learned

Atomic articles > one long article. Each article has one architectural decision, one set of tool calls, one set of learnings. They interlink but stand alone.
CSS style blocks per article. Each post includes its own CSS in a wp:html block. No external dependency. Portable.
Series navigation is a component. The same ordered list appears in every article, with the current one bolded. Simple HTML, no plugin.
Obsidian first, WordPress second. Structure the content in the vault, then deploy. The vault YAML tracks what’s been built and what hasn’t.
The SKILL is the artifact. The article series is useful. The SKILL that lets you build the next series is more useful.

HOW WE BUILT THIS — Series

Building the AI Team Page
The AIM Page
Series Pages That Build Themselves
When Team Cards Became Author Pages
Syncing 52 Articles to Their Authors
Rebuilding Site Navigation
Building Six Articles About Building ← you are here

How We Built This #7 — 24 tool calls, 1 SKILL extracted, 6 articles that document building while being built. The mirror reflects itself.