diff --git a/refresh_sources.lua b/refresh_sources.lua
index 8b3c95e..f39b259 100644
--- a/refresh_sources.lua
+++ b/refresh_sources.lua
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@
 package.path = (arg[0]:match("@?(.*/)") or arg[0]:match("@?(.*\\)")) .. "lib" .. package.config:sub(1, 1) .. "?.lua;" .. package.path
 local utility = require "utility"
 
+local json = utility.require("dkjson")
+local text_processing = utility.require("text_processing")
 local timing = utility.require("timing")
 
 -- TODO make utility have a function for getting/setting defaults where locking is only used to set defaults if they aren't present
@@ -17,7 +19,9 @@ if not config.models then
   utility.save_config()
 end
 
-local refresht_file_list = function(data_source)
+-- TODO recognize uninitialized source and initialize it
+--  this would need to be in the config
+local refresh_file_list = function(data_source)
   timing.mark("Assembling file list.")
 
   os.execute("cd " .. ("PRIVATE_DATA" .. utility.path_separator .. data_source.path):enquote() .. " && " .. data_source.refresh_command)
@@ -32,9 +36,11 @@ local refresht_file_list = function(data_source)
     file_list[#file_list + 1] = file_name
   end)
 
+  timing.mark("Finished assembling file list.")
   return file_list
 end
 
+-- returns nothing when too much text is sent
 local generate_embeddings = function(text)
   if #text > config.models.embedding.max_chunk_size then
     return nil, "generate_embeddings() must only be passed appropriately-sized chunks!"
@@ -42,21 +48,68 @@ local generate_embeddings = function(text)
 
   local result = utility.llm_prompt(text, config.models.embedding.model)
 
-  -- skipping unnecessary decoding to an array and putting back into text for saving
-  -- this would cause problems if we intended to use the results immediately
-  return setmetatable({}, {
+  result = setmetatable({}, {
     __tojson = function() return result end,
   })
+
+  return json.decode(result)
 end
 
-local process_file = function(file_name)
+-- returns nothing for empty files
+local process_file = function(data_source, file_name)
   local text = utility.read_file(file_name)
-  if w
+
+  if data_source.strip_frontmatter then
+    text = text_processing.strip_frontmatter(text)
+  end
+
+  if #text == 0 then
+    print(file_name .. "\n is empty and being skipped.")
+    return
+  end
+
+  local chunk_size = config.models.embedding.max_chunk_size
+  local half_chunk_size = math.floor(chunk_size / 2)
+  local chunks = { text }
+
+  while #text > chunk_size do
+    local first_chunk = text:sub(1, chunk_size)
+    local overlap_chunk = text:sub(half_chunk_size, chunk_size + half_chunk_size)
+
+    chunks[#chunks + 1] = first_chunk
+    chunks[#chunks + 1] = overlap_chunk
+
+    text = text:sub(chunk_size)
+    if #text > half_chunk_size and (not #text > chunk_size) then
+      -- last chunk would be skipped if we didn't handle this here
+      chunks[#chunks + 1] = text
+    end
+  end
+
+  local embeddings = {}
+  for i = 1, #chunks do
+    embeddings[i] = generate_embeddings(chunks[i])
+  end
+
+  if embeddings[1] == nil then
+    -- TODO average all other embeddings to this one
+  end
+
+  return chunks, embeddings
 end
 
-local to_be_named_generate_file_embeddings = function(text)
-  if #text > config.models.embedding.max_chunk_size then
-    -- TODO, split, process each chunk, return both a total and each chunk
+-- TODO somewhere near the top of this function chain needs to be the ability to recognize a file as unchanged and skip re-generating embeddings
+--  this means running the same shasum command I will put below on that source file before trying to generate an embedding
+--    something something merging new changes into the old data structure means we need to load that data structure first so we only replace modified chunks
+local refresh_sources = function()
+  local sources = utility.load_data("PRIVATE_DATA/sources.json")
+  for _, data_source in pairs(sources) do
+    local file_list = refresh_file_list(data_source)
+    for _, file_name in ipairs(file_list) do
+      local chunks, embeddings = process_file(file_name)
+      -- TODO decide how these will be stored
+      -- for chunks, save to a specific local tmp file to shasum, then mv that file based on the sum
+      -- for embeddings, store sum = embedding ? (look at how generate_embeddings.lua worked)
+    end
   end
-  -- return just the file and its embedding
 end