zettelkasten

zettelkasten-skills

Claude Code skill for applying modern digital Zettelkasten methodology to local markdown note systems. Works with Obsidian, plain .md files, or any directory of markdown notes.

What it does

Two modes in one skill:

Capture — Give Claude a raw idea, URL, or text snippet and it produces a properly typed note with frontmatter, a concept-oriented title, and wikilink suggestions.

Connect — Point Claude at a vault or directory and it finds orphaned notes, surfaces missing links between related notes, and generates Maps of Content for topic clusters.

Installation

Option 1 — Claude Code CLI (recommended)

Marketplace를 등록하고 플러그인을 설치합니다:

claude plugin marketplace add byounghoonkim/zettelkasten-skills
claude plugin install zettelkasten

설치 후 Claude Code를 재시작하면 모든 세션에서 zettelkasten:zettelkasten 스킬이 활성화됩니다.

업데이트:

claude plugin update zettelkasten

제거:

claude plugin uninstall zettelkasten
claude plugin marketplace remove zettelkasten-skills

Option 2 — Plugin (manual)

Clone the repo and load it as a plugin:

git clone https://github.com/byounghoonkim/zettelkasten-skills ~/.claude/plugins/zettelkasten-skills

Then add to your ~/.claude/settings.json:

{
  "pluginDirectories": ["~/.claude/plugins/zettelkasten-skills"]
}

The skill is available as zettelkasten:zettelkasten in any Claude Code session.

Option 4 — Personal skill (all projects)

git clone https://github.com/byounghoonkim/zettelkasten-skills /tmp/zettelkasten-skills
cp -r /tmp/zettelkasten-skills/skills/zettelkasten ~/.claude/skills/
rm -rf /tmp/zettelkasten-skills

Available as zettelkasten in any Claude Code session.

Option 5 — Project skill (this project only)

git clone https://github.com/byounghoonkim/zettelkasten-skills /tmp/zettelkasten-skills
mkdir -p .claude/skills
cp -r /tmp/zettelkasten-skills/skills/zettelkasten .claude/skills/
rm -rf /tmp/zettelkasten-skills

Available as zettelkasten in Claude Code sessions within this project.

Verify installation

설치된 플러그인 목록 확인:

claude plugin list

Claude Code를 열고 스킬 동작 확인:

/zettelkasten

Claude should respond describing capture and connect modes.

Usage

Capture mode

Trigger by giving Claude raw material to turn into a note:

"문득 생각났는데, 습관은 환경 설계로 바꾸는 게 의지력보다 훨씬 쉬운 것 같아. 노트 만들어줘."

"James Clear의 Atomic Habits에서 습관 루프 개념 정리해줘. 출처는 이 책이야."

"저장해줘 — 복잡한 시스템은 단순한 규칙에서 출현한다."

Claude automatically detects the note type, applies the right template, and writes the file (Obsidian CLI → Bash → markdown output, in that order).

Connect mode

Trigger by pointing Claude at an existing vault:

"내 vault ~/notes에 있는 노트들 분석해서 연결 상태 알려줘."

"~/notes 에서 고아 노트 찾아서 연결해줘."

"습관 관련 노트들로 MOC 만들어줘."

Claude scans the vault, reports orphans and link candidates before touching anything, then asks for confirmation if 3+ files need updating.

Note types

Type	When to use	Lifespan
Fleeting	Quick capture, unpolished idea	Temporary — process within 48h
Literature	Key ideas from a specific source, in your own words	Semi-permanent
Permanent	One atomic idea stated as a complete claim	Permanent
MOC	Navigation hub linking related Permanent notes	Permanent, grows over time

Vault folder structure

The skill automatically discovers your vault's folder layout — no configuration needed. It scans your vault and matches folder names by keyword:

Note type	Recognised folder names
Fleeting	inbox, capture, fleeting, quick, scratch, 0-inbox, 임시
Permanent / Literature	notes, permanent, zettel, slipbox, ideas, 영구, 노트
MOC	moc, map, index, overview, topics, 맵, 인덱스

If multiple folders match, Claude asks you to pick. If none match, it writes to the vault root and tells you.

Common layouts that work out of the box:

vault/inbox/          vault/00-inbox/       vault/fleeting/
vault/notes/          vault/slipbox/        vault/10-permanent/
vault/moc/            vault/maps/           vault/overview/

File write priority

1. Obsidian CLI — if obsidian version exits 0, uses obsidian create
2. Bash — if a vault path is provided, writes .md directly
3. Output only — prints the note as a markdown block with the suggested save path

Skill files

skills/zettelkasten/
  SKILL.md        # Main workflow (both modes)
  note-types.md   # Templates and quality criteria per note type
  naming.md       # Frontmatter schema and filename conventions

Methodology