obsidian-archive

Obsidian Archive

Distil the current conversation into a concise reference note and save it to the user's Obsidian vault under the configured archive folder, one file per conversation.

The goal is a future-user-friendly note: something they can grep or backlink to months later and immediately recall what was figured out. Not a transcript. Not a stenographer's record. A distillation.

Configuration

Before using this skill, set the archive folder below to a path that exists (or should exist) in your vault. It's a vault-relative path — no leading slash, trailing slash optional. The skill will save every note under this folder.

archive_folder: AI/Conversations/

If the value above is left at a placeholder, looks empty, or obviously doesn't match the user's vault, ask once which folder to use and proceed with that for this call — don't guess, and don't silently fall back to the example value. If the user specifies a different folder inline (e.g. "save it under Notes/Chats/ instead"), respect that override for the call but don't treat it as a permanent change to the configured default — that's an edit to this file.

Throughout the rest of this skill, <archive_folder> refers to the configured value above.

When to use

Trigger on any of:

• "Archive this conversation", "save this chat", "add this to Obsidian", "log this"
• "Save what we learned", "capture this", "write this up", "file this away"
• "Remember this for later", "turn this into a note"

If the user's intent is ambiguous (e.g. "save this" could mean saving a file they uploaded), ask one quick clarifying question before proceeding.

Requirements

• The mcp-obsidian MCP server, connected to the user's Obsidian vault.
• The Local REST API Obsidian community plugin, installed and enabled in that vault.
• Obsidian running while the skill is used (the REST API needs the app to be open).

Dependencies

This skill orchestrates tools from the mcp-obsidian MCP server. If these aren't loaded into context, call tool_search(query="obsidian") first to load them.

Tool names below use the fully qualified ServerName:tool_name form per Anthropic's best practices. This skill assumes the server is registered in the MCP client as mcp-obsidian. If it's registered under a different name in your config, substitute that name for the mcp-obsidian: prefix everywhere below.

Tool	Purpose
mcp-obsidian:obsidian_list_files_in_dir	Check for filename collisions inside <archive_folder>
mcp-obsidian:obsidian_append_content	Create the note (creates the file and parent folders if they don't exist)
mcp-obsidian:obsidian_get_file_contents	Read existing archive when the user wants to update it

If the MCP server isn't connected, stop and tell the user — don't fall back to a different vault location or save strategy.

Workflow

Step 1: Decide the filename

Format: YYYY-MM-DD - <slug>.md

• Use the current date (today, not the conversation's start date unless that's obviously different).
• The slug is a 3–6 word kebab-case summary of the conversation's main subject. Examples:
  • 2026-04-19 - obsidian-cli-move-files.md
  • 2026-04-19 - nestjs-bullmq-rate-limiter.md
• Avoid generic slugs like chat, conversation, discussion.

Before writing, call mcp-obsidian:obsidian_list_files_in_dir(dirpath="<archive_folder>") (substitute the configured value) to check for collisions. If the exact filename exists, append -2, -3, etc.

If the folder doesn't exist yet, mcp-obsidian:obsidian_append_content will create it — no need to create it separately.

Step 2: Build the note content

Use this exact structure. Sections may be omitted only if genuinely empty (don't pad with filler).

---
date: YYYY-MM-DD
tags: [conversation, <2-4 topical tags>]
---

# <Descriptive title — same subject as the slug, but human-readable>

> One-to-two sentence TL;DR of what this conversation was about and what came out of it.

## Key decisions & conclusions

- <Bullet. What was decided or concluded. Terse. Active voice.>
- <Another. Include the *why* when non-obvious.>

## Code & commands that worked

```<language>
<only commands/snippets that were confirmed working — not drafts that failed>
```

Add brief context above each block if needed (one line).

## Follow-ups & open questions

- [ ] <Thing explicitly deferred, or a natural next step>
- [ ] <Open question that wasn't resolved>

## Related

- [[<Existing vault note if relevant>]]
- <External URL with short description, if a key reference>

Content rules — important:

• Distil, don't transcribe. A 40-turn conversation might compress to 15 lines. That's fine. That's the point.
• Include what failed only if the failure is instructive. "We tried X, it didn't work because Y, so we switched to Z" is worth capturing. Dead ends that taught nothing are not.
• Preserve working commands verbatim. Don't paraphrase shell commands, API calls, or code. These are the highest-value content.
• Tag thoughtfully. 2–4 topical tags in the frontmatter (e.g. obsidian, cli, nestjs, forex). Always include conversation as one tag. Don't use spaces in tags.
• Backlink opportunistically. If the conversation touched a topic likely to have a note in the vault, include a [[wikilink]] in Related. Don't invent links to notes that don't exist.
• No "Claude said" / "User asked" framing. Write in third person / impersonal style, like an engineering lab notebook entry.

Step 3: Save via MCP

Call mcp-obsidian:obsidian_append_content with:

• filepath: <archive_folder>/YYYY-MM-DD - <slug>.md
• content: the full markdown from step 2

Since this tool appends (or creates if new), step 1's collision check ensures the file doesn't already exist.

Step 4: Confirm to the user

Reply with: the path that was saved, and a one-line summary of what's in it. Don't paste the full note back — they can open it in Obsidian.

Example: "Saved to <archive_folder>/2026-04-19 - obsidian-cli-move-files.md — covers the obsidian eval + fileManager.renameFile pattern for moving files with backlink updates." (In practice, <archive_folder> is replaced by the configured value.)

Examples

In these examples, <archive_folder> stands in for whatever the user has configured. The example calls below use AI/Conversations as the illustrative value — substitute the user's actual configured path.

Example 1: Technical deep-dive with working code

User says: "Archive this conversation before I lose it."

Context: A 25-turn conversation about moving files in Obsidian via CLI, culminating in a working two-step command. Configured archive_folder is AI/Conversations/.

Actions:

1. mcp-obsidian:obsidian_list_files_in_dir(dirpath="AI/Conversations") → no collision.
2. Build note with slug obsidian-cli-move-files, tags [conversation, obsidian, cli, mcp], TL;DR summarising the CLI-vs-MCP tradeoff, a Key Decisions section listing the fileManager.renameFile insight, a Code block with the working two-step command, and a Follow-ups entry to wrap it in a zsh function.
3. mcp-obsidian:obsidian_append_content(filepath="AI/Conversations/2026-04-19 - obsidian-cli-move-files.md", content=<markdown>).

Result: "Saved to AI/Conversations/2026-04-19 - obsidian-cli-move-files.md — covers the CLI move pattern with backlink updates."

Example 2: Too-short conversation

User says: "Save this chat to Obsidian."

Context: Three turns about the weather.

Action: Don't archive. Reply: "This conversation's pretty short — it covered today's forecast and nothing that'd benefit from a reference note. Want to archive it anyway, or skip?"

Example 3: Update an existing archive

User says: "Add today's findings to yesterday's conversation note."

Actions:

1. mcp-obsidian:obsidian_list_files_in_dir(dirpath="<archive_folder>") to find the most recent matching file.
2. mcp-obsidian:obsidian_get_file_contents to confirm it exists and read context.
3. mcp-obsidian:obsidian_append_content with a new ## Update 2026-04-19 section containing today's additions — don't rewrite the existing content.

Edge cases

• Multiple distinct topics. If the conversation genuinely covered unrelated subjects, offer to save two separate notes rather than one Frankenstein file. One file per conversation is the default, but topic coherence matters more.
• User asks for a different location/format for this call. Respect the override for that call, but don't treat it as a permanent change — permanent changes belong in the Configuration section of this file.
• Configured folder doesn't exist yet. That's fine — mcp-obsidian:obsidian_append_content will create it (and any missing parents) on first write. No pre-creation step needed.

Troubleshooting

Error: 404 Not Found from mcp-obsidian:obsidian_append_content Cause: Obsidian isn't running, or the Local REST API plugin is disabled/misconfigured. Solution: Ask the user to confirm Obsidian is open and the Local REST API plugin is enabled. Don't retry blindly.

Tool call fails with "tool not found" Cause: The mcp-obsidian tools aren't loaded in this session. Solution: Call tool_search(query="obsidian") first, then retry.

Filename collision after appending -2, -3, -4 Cause: The user is archiving many conversations on the same subject on the same day. Solution: Ask whether they want to update an existing file (see Example 3) rather than keep creating new ones.

Configured archive_folder is empty, clearly a placeholder, or doesn't fit the vault Cause: The skill hasn't been configured for this vault yet. Solution: Ask the user which folder to use, save there for this call, and recommend they update the Configuration section so the choice persists across sessions.

What NOT to do

• Don't save the raw conversation transcript. Ever.
• Don't include timestamps for individual turns — only the date in frontmatter.
• Don't speculate about the user's unstated intent when writing Key Decisions. If they didn't actually decide X, don't claim they did.
• Don't use emoji in the note body unless the user does. The vault is an engineering reference, not a scrapbook.
• Don't add a note you can't justify the existence of. Quality over quantity.