Dg Random Note

Digital Garden - Random Note Route

Adds a /random route to an Obsidian Digital Garden (Eleventy) site. Visiting /random/ redirects the visitor to a randomly chosen published note.

The whole feature is one file - src/site/~random.njk. It builds an inline list of published note URLs at build time, then a tiny script picks one and redirects. No build scripts, no dependencies, no plugin-core edits.

When to Use This Skill

Use when a Digital Garden user wants a "surprise me" / shuffle / random-note link - e.g. "add a random button destination", "give me a /random page", "let visitors jump to a random note".

This skill installs the destination route only. If the user also wants a floating shuffle button, that lives in the dg-floating-tray skill (its "random" action links to /random). This route is what that button points at.

Do not use to install other DG features, or on non-DG stacks (Quartz, Astro, plain Eleventy) - the collections.note collection and dg-publish flag are DG-specific.

DG invariants respected

1. User-owned path. src/site/~random.njk is a new file the plugin never ships, so upstream

git pull never clobbers it. The ~ prefix avoids clashing with a potential random.md note. It's a root page (not a components/user/ slot) because a route needs its own permalink - see references/architecture.md for why that's still upstream-safe.

1. No autoloading needed. A page route is not a slot component, so there's no dynamics.js

glob or filename-prefix ordering to worry about.

1. Theme via tokens. The redirect page reuses the site's own pageheader.njk and theme body

classes, so it inherits light/dark automatically. No hardcoded color.

1. Accessibility / graceful degradation. `` path plus a visible "Go home" link, and

meta robots noindex so the transient redirect page isn't indexed.

1. One config knob. FALLBACK_URL (inline, top of the ``) - where to send visitors if

no published notes exist. Nothing else to tune.

Prerequisites (verify first)

• An Obsidian Digital Garden (oleeskild plugin + Eleventy) repo with a working collections.note

collection and the standard components/pageheader.njk include.

• Notes use the dg-publish frontmatter flag (the DG default). The random pool = published notes.

Instructions

1. Confirm prerequisites (above). Abort with a plain explanation if the target isn't a DG

repo.

1. Copy the route file into the site root:

`` assets/~random.njk → src/site/~random.njk ``

1. (Optional) Set the fallback. Edit FALLBACK_URL at the top of the ` if /` isn't

the desired empty-pool destination.

1. (Optional) Pool tuning. By default the pool excludes notes flagged dg-hide. If the user

wants every published note eligible, remove and not note.data['dg-hide'] from the {% if %}. If they want to exclude more (e.g. a /logs/ prefix), extend that condition.

1. Build and verify with references/verify.md.
2. Wire an entry point (only if asked): a nav link or Surprise me.

If dg-floating-tray is installed, its shuffle button already targets /random - no change needed.

Reference Files

• references/architecture.md - how the build-time loop + runtime pick work, and why a root page

is upstream-safe.

• references/verify.md - post-build QA checklist (route, pool correctness, back-button, fallback).

Assets

• assets/~random.njk - the single self-contained route (build-time list + runtime redirect).

Risk Level

L1 (low). Adds a single new page file (src/site/~random.njk). No build scripts, no secrets, no network calls, no core/layout edits. Fully reversible: delete the one file.

Validate & Package

npx skills-ref validate skills/dg-random-note/
zip -rq dg-random-note.zip dg-random-note

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: palol
• Source: palol/skills-zoo
• License: MIT
• Homepage: http://skillz.paologabriel.com/

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.