Substack Table of Contents Generator

What This Does

Automatically generates a working table of contents for your Substack articles with proper anchor linking, sequential numbering, and professional formatting.

Key Features:

• ✅ Extracts headings automatically
• ✅ Creates properly formatted anchor links
• ✅ Adds sequential numbering to sections
• ✅ Inserts visual separators between sections
• ✅ Optional: Python auto-extraction of POST_ID
• ✅ Optional: Learns your TOC formatting style through RCI
• ✅ HC-compliant output for future reference

Why Use This: Substack doesn't auto-generate TOCs. Manual creation is tedious and error-prone. This skill does it perfectly in 2 minutes.

How to Use

Quick Start (3 Steps)

1. Launch: Click a button below to open in your preferred LLM
2. Provide: Your Substack domain, POST_ID, and article content
3. Get: Formatted article with working TOC - ready to paste into Substack

Launch Links

With Neural Registry (Advanced)

For consistent formatting across all your TOCs:

1. Create your Neural Registry: 5-minute setup
2. First use: Provide your registry URL when prompted
3. Subsequent uses: Skill references your past TOC formatting
4. Result: Consistent style through Recursive Context Injection (RCI)

Requirements

Essential Inputs

• Substack Domain: Your subdomain (e.g., "yourname.substack.com")
• POST_ID: Unique identifier for your article (auto-extracted if Python available)
• Article Content: Full text with headings (markdown format)

System Requirements

• LLM: Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini (any with web_fetch capability)
• Optional: Code Execution (for auto POST_ID extraction)
• Optional: Neural Registry (for RCI/personalization)

Finding Your POST_ID

Examples

Domain: example.substack.com
POST_ID: 123456789
Content: 
## Introduction
...content...
## Main Point One
...content...
## Main Point Two
...content...
## Main Point Three
...content...
## Conclusion
...content...
                

## Table of Contents

1. [Introduction](#introduction)
2. [Main Point One](#main-point-one)
3. [Main Point Two](#main-point-two)
4. [Main Point Three](#main-point-three)
5. [Conclusion](#conclusion)

---

## 1. Introduction
...content...

---

## 2. Main Point One
...content...

[etc...]
                

Integration Guide

First Time Use (No Neural Registry)

1. Click launch link above
2. LLM asks: "Load Neural Registry?" → Choose "no" for now
3. Provide domain, POST_ID, article content
4. Copy generated output
5. Paste into Substack editor
6. Publish article
7. TOC links work!

With Neural Registry (Recommended)

1. Setup (once): Create registry at skills.masterymade.com/setup
2. First use: Provide registry URL when skill asks
3. Generate TOC: Skill creates formatted article
4. Save artifact: Add output to your registry
5. Next time: Skill references this TOC for formatting consistency
6. Compound effect: Quality improves with each use

Team Use

Scenario: Multiple team members write for same Substack

1. Create shared Neural Registry (team's formatting standards)
2. All team members reference same registry URL
3. Result: Consistent TOC formatting across all authors
4. Benefit: Professional cohesive brand experience

Automation Setup (Advanced)

For power users who create TOCs frequently:

1. Set up n8n workflow (guide: automation docs)
2. Workflow: Receives article → Generates TOC → Saves to registry → Returns formatted output
3. Result: Say "Deploy this" and entire process automated
4. Time: 30 seconds vs. 3 minutes manual

Troubleshooting

TOC Links Don't Work

Most Common Issue: POST_ID doesn't match published article

Solution:

1. Publish your article first
2. Copy POST_ID from published URL
3. Re-run skill with correct POST_ID
4. Update article with new TOC

Python Auto-Extraction Failed

Cause: Code Execution not available or network issue

Solution: Skill automatically falls back to manual input. Just provide POST_ID manually.

Can't Find POST_ID

Step-by-step:

1. Publish article to draft or live
2. Open article in browser
3. Right-click → "View Page Source"
4. Search for "post_id" or "data-post-id"
5. Copy the alphanumeric value

Or: Provide full article URL to skill and let Python extract it

Neural Registry Won't Load

Checklist:

• □ Is registry URL publicly accessible?
• □ Does dashboard.html have proper structure?
• □ Can you open URL in browser?
• □ Is <script id="artifact-registry"> present?

Quick test: Open registry URL in browser. Should see HTML page with your artifacts listed.

Formatting Looks Wrong in Substack

Check:

• Are you pasting into markdown editor (not visual)?
• Did horizontal rules (---) paste correctly?
• Are heading levels preserved (##)?

Fix: Switch to markdown mode in Substack editor before pasting

Skill Won't Execute

Possible causes:

• LLM lacks web_fetch: Verify your LLM can fetch URLs
• URL incorrect: Check skill URL is exact
• Network issue: Try again or paste skill URL directly

Technical Details

How Anchor Links Work

Substack uses anchor format:

Example:

• Heading: "Introduction to Growth"
• Anchor: #introduction-to-growth
• Full link: https://example.substack.com/p/123456789#introduction-to-growth

Kebab-Case Conversion Rules

1. Convert to lowercase
2. Replace spaces with hyphens
3. Remove special characters (keep: a-z, 0-9, hyphens)
4. Remove consecutive hyphens
5. Trim leading/trailing hyphens

HC Standard Compliance

This skill follows HyperContext Standard v1.0:

• ✅ Valid HTML5 structure
• ✅ JSON-LD metadata for discovery
• ✅ YAML frontmatter for classification
• ✅ Embedded Python helpers (optional)
• ✅ Hidden LLM instructions
• ✅ Human-readable documentation
• ✅ Neural Registry integration
• ✅ RCI-enabled outputs
• ✅ Quality gates enforced

Output Format

All artifacts include HC-compliant YAML frontmatter:

• Unique artifact_id
• ISO 8601 timestamps
• Semantic tags
• Parent/related artifact links
• 50-100 token summary (for lazy loading)
• Provenance tracking

Purpose: Makes artifacts referenceable by future skills through Neural Registry