box write

box-write (on-prem variant)

Save a memory to the local Box Drive workspace. Append-only — never overwrites. Box Drive handles cloud sync on its own schedule.

Usage

/box-write [content] [--kind=<kind>] [--title=<title>] [--team=<team>] [--tags=<a,b,c>]

What it does

Same as the cloud variant in spirit, with FS-only operations:

1. Verify workspace and backend (box-drive-detect)
2. Generate ULID + slug
3. Check slug collision in local _index.json
4. Build frontmatter (ASCII only, no em-dashes — Cowork strictness)
5. Compose body
6. Acquire workspace lock
7. Write file atomically: <filename>.tmp → fsync → rename
8. Compute SHA256 locally (no API call)
9. Update folder _index.json
10. Release lock
11. Report

Differences from cloud variant

• No Box MCP calls — all FS operations
• No metadata template instance — Box API would be required
• file_id in index entry is null — Box Drive assigns Box file IDs only after sync; reconciliation is out of scope for v0.0.x
• local_path is the canonical pointer — relative path from workspace root
• No URL link to the file in Box — file only exists locally until Box Drive syncs

When to expect Box-cloud visibility

After writing, Box Drive syncs on its own schedule:

Workflow	Latency
Same agent reading via local _index.json	Instant
Another machine reading via Box Drive (on-prem variant)	Seconds to minutes (Box Drive sync)
Cloud variant reading via Box MCP	Seconds to minutes after sync + ~10 min for Box search index
Box AI / Hubs Q&A (cloud variant only)	~10 min Hub warm-up

Plan workflows accordingly.

Quality bar

Same as cloud variant:

• Title is searchable
• Body explains WHY, not just WHAT
• Tags sparse (2-5)
• Wikilinks intentional

Errors

• No workspace → run /box-init first
• Lock not acquired → another writer active OR stale lock; /box-index-rebuild to inspect
• Mount lost mid-write (Box Drive crashed) → write may be incomplete; surface clearly

See also

• Schema — frontmatter spec
• box-recall — find what was written (local only)
• box-companion — for binaries (note: no Box AI Extract available)
• box-index-rebuild — if you suspect index drift
• Source: skills/box-write/SKILL.md