diff --git a/get-operations.ts b/get-operations.ts
index a0fb058..ce1290d 100644
--- a/get-operations.ts
+++ b/get-operations.ts
@@ -13,9 +13,11 @@ const addOperations = async (
     .pipeThrough(new TextDecoderStream())
     .pipeThrough(new TextLineStream());
 
+  const didData = did.substring("did:plc:".length);
+
   for await (const line of lines.values()) {
-    if (!line.startsWith(did)) continue;
-    const [_did, _createdAt, _cid, rawEntry] = line.split("\u001f", 4);
+    if (!line.startsWith(didData)) continue;
+    const [_did, _createdAt, rawEntry] = line.split("\u001f", 4);
     const entry = JSON.parse(rawEntry) as unknown as ExportEntry;
     operations.push(entry);
   }
diff --git a/write-compacted.ts b/write-compacted.ts
index 1de90b8..0606ecd 100644
--- a/write-compacted.ts
+++ b/write-compacted.ts
@@ -1,10 +1,39 @@
-import { ensureDir } from "jsr:@std/fs@1";
-
-// TODO: automate compaction here
-// 1. take note of latest-date
-// 2. move data/plc/live/* to data/plc/compacting/*
-// 3. zstd data/plc/compacting/*
-// 4. move data/plc/compacting/*.zstd to data/plc/compacted/<date>/*.zstd
+import { ensureDir, exists, expandGlob, move } from "jsr:@std/fs@1";
 
 await ensureDir("./data/plc/compacted");
-await ensureDir("./data/plc/compacting");
+
+export async function createCompactedIndex() {
+  if (await exists("./data/plc/compacting"))
+    throw new Error("compaction already running!");
+
+  const date = new Date(await Deno.readTextFile("./data/latest-date"));
+
+  await move("./data/plc/live", "./data/plc/compacting");
+  await ensureDir("./data/plc/live");
+
+  const inputFiles = await Array.fromAsync(
+    expandGlob("./data/plc/compacting/*")
+  );
+  const process = new Deno.Command("zstd", {
+    args: inputFiles.map((it) => `./data/plc/compacting/${it.name}`),
+    cwd: Deno.cwd(),
+    stdout: "piped",
+    stdin: "null",
+    stderr: "piped",
+  }).spawn();
+  await process.status;
+  // TODO: run zstd *
+
+  const compactedDir =
+    "./data/plc/compacted/" +
+    date.toISOString().split("T")[0].replaceAll("-", "");
+  await move("./data/plc/compacting", compactedDir);
+
+  await Promise.all(
+    inputFiles.map((it) => Deno.remove(`${compactedDir}/${it.name}`))
+  );
+}
+
+if (import.meta.main) {
+  await createCompactedIndex();
+}
diff --git a/write-live.ts b/write-live.ts
index 021b50d..c1a237e 100644
--- a/write-live.ts
+++ b/write-live.ts
@@ -9,11 +9,23 @@ export async function writeLiveRecord(entry: ExportEntry, raw: string) {
   const prefix = entry.did.substring(didplc, didplc + 2);
   const out = "./data/plc/live/" + prefix;
 
-  await Deno.writeTextFile(
-    out,
-    [entry.did, entry.createdAt, entry.cid, raw].join("\u001f") + "\n",
-    {
-      append: true,
-    }
-  );
+  try {
+    await Deno.writeTextFile(
+      out,
+      [entry.did.substring(didplc), entry.createdAt, raw].join("\u001f") + "\n",
+      {
+        append: true,
+      }
+    );
+  } catch {
+    // directory probably does not exist, just try again
+    await ensureDir("./data/plc/live");
+    await Deno.writeTextFile(
+      out,
+      [entry.did.substring(didplc), entry.createdAt, raw].join("\u001f") + "\n",
+      {
+        append: true,
+      }
+    );
+  }
 }