---
title: Swipe File
type: index
tags:
  - swipe-file
created: 2026-07-28
---

# Swipe File

A working library of other people's work, kept so that facing a blank page means
facing a stack of proven approaches instead.

> **The one rule that matters:** save it because you'd want to look at it again
> *while making something* — not because you agreed with it. Agreement is not a
> reason to keep something.

## How this is organised

Tag by **what you'd use it for**, not by topic. Search already handles topic;
what search can't tell you is whether a saved thing is a hook, a structure, or a
visual reference.

| Tag | What goes in it |
|-----|-----------------|
| `#hooks` | Opening lines that earned the second line |
| `#structure` | Formats worth reusing — threads, case studies, launches |
| `#voice` | Writing whose tone is worth learning from |
| `#visual` | Layout, colour, typography, motion |
| `#proof` | How someone credibly demonstrated a claim |

Five to ten tags you'll recognise in six months beats forty precise ones you'll
never reuse.

## The note that makes an entry useful

Every entry has a **Why** line. One sentence, written when you save it, saying
what you'd steal. Without it you're left re-deriving what you found interesting,
which is the reason most swipe files quietly stop being opened.

Bad: *"great thread"*
Good: *"Opens with the objection instead of the benefit."*

---

## Entry template

Copy the block below for each new entry, or use `swipe-file-entry-template.md`
as an Obsidian template.

```markdown
## [Author] — [one-line description]

*[Platform] · [Date]* · [Original](URL)

> The captured post text goes here, quoted so it stays visually
> distinct from your own notes underneath.

**Why:** [The one sentence. What would you steal?]

#hooks
```

---

## Entries

<!-- Newest first. Paste exported entries below this line. -->

## Example — thread structure worth copying

*X · 12 March 2026* · [Original](https://example.com)

> Most people think you need a big audience to launch.
> I launched to 200 followers and did $4k in week one.
> Here's the exact sequence:

**Why:** Puts the counter-intuitive claim in line one and the proof in line two,
so the "here's how" lands after the reader is already invested. The list itself
is unremarkable — the first three lines are doing all the work.

#hooks #structure

---

## Filling this automatically

Clipping posts by hand is where swipe files die. [SocialClipper](https://socialclipper.io)
captures whole posts — text, images, video and threads — from X, Instagram,
TikTok, Reddit, YouTube and LinkedIn, then exports to Markdown in exactly this
shape: frontmatter, blockquoted text, embedded media, inline tags. Drop the
export into this vault and the entries slot straight in.

Free for the first 50 posts.