From obsidian
Manages an Obsidian inbox triage session — sorting clippings, fleeting notes, and other inbox items into their correct vault locations (Areas, Reference, Archive, or deletion). Use this skill whenever the user is going through inbox files and deciding where each one belongs, discussing what to do with a clipping or note, or explicitly calls /obsidian-triage. Proactively invoke at the start of any inbox-sorting workflow, even if the user just says "let's go through my inbox" or "let's sort these notes". The skill maintains a live Triage Session note in the vault that tracks every decision and outstanding to-do as the conversation progresses.
How this skill is triggered — by the user, by Claude, or both
Slash command
/obsidian:obsidian-triageThe summary Claude sees in its skill listing — used to decide when to auto-load this skill
This skill manages a structured triage session for sorting Obsidian inbox items. It keeps a live session note in the vault updated after each decision, so nothing is lost and the user has a permanent record.
This skill manages a structured triage session for sorting Obsidian inbox items. It keeps a live session note in the vault updated after each decision, so nothing is lost and the user has a permanent record.
Before diving in, check how many files are in scope. If there are more than ~10 files, offer the user a choice:
"You have X clippings. Want to go one by one, or should I scan them all first and give you a grouped overview by topic so you can triage in batches?"
Either way, initialise the session note first.
At the start of a triage session, create the session note if it doesn't already exist:
obsidian create name="Triage Session YYYY-MM-DD" content="<initial content — see template below>" silent
Use today's actual date. If a session note for today already exists, continue appending to it rather than creating a new one.
---
created: <ISO timestamp>
tags: [triage]
status: in-progress
scope: <folder being triaged, e.g. 0.1 Inbox/Clippings>
mode: <one-by-one or batch>
total: <file count, set after scanning>
processed: 0
---
# Triage Session <YYYY-MM-DD>
## Decisions Log
| File | Origin | Destination | Rationale |
|------|--------|-------------|-----------|
## Action Items
## Deferred
After every file is decided, update the session note. Use obsidian append to add to specific sections.
Append a row to the Decisions Log and increment the processed count:
obsidian append file="Triage Session YYYY-MM-DD" content="\n| [[<filename>]] | <origin path> | <destination or DELETED> | <one-line rationale> |"
obsidian property:set name="processed" value=<new count> file="Triage Session YYYY-MM-DD"
Track the count yourself — increment by 1 after each decision.
Action items always go in the session note's Action Items section — not appended to the clipping file itself. The session note is the single place the user checks after triage.
obsidian append file="Triage Session YYYY-MM-DD" content="\n- [ ] <action item, e.g. 'Watch and take notes from [[How to Get into FLOW Every Time You Work]]'>"
To target a section directly:
obsidian append file="Triage Session YYYY-MM-DD" section="Action Items" content="- [ ] <item>"
(If the CLI supports section=, prefer it. Otherwise append at the end — the heading structure will still group them visually.)
obsidian append file="Triage Session YYYY-MM-DD" content="\n- [[<filename>]] — <reason deferred>"
Use the obsidian CLI for all moves so Obsidian's link index stays consistent:
# Move a file
obsidian move path="0.1 Inbox/Clippings/<filename>.md" to="03 Reference/<filename>.md"
# Move to a subfolder
obsidian move path="0.1 Inbox/Clippings/<filename>.md" to="02 Areas/Woodwork/<filename>.md"
# Delete (no CLI delete — tell the user to delete manually, or use Bash rm as a last resort)
For deletion, prefer telling the user to delete from within Obsidian (right-click → Delete) to keep the link index clean. Only use filesystem deletion if the user explicitly requests it.
When discussing each file with the user, the key question is: what is this and will I ever return to it?
| Type | Destination |
|---|---|
| Evergreen how-to, reference material, build plans | 03 Reference/ — organised by topic (Woodwork, Programming, PKM, etc.) |
| Ongoing responsibility or practice (health, PKM, flying) | 02 Areas/ — under the relevant area |
| Completed or one-off project resource | 04 Archive/ |
| No notes captured, no clear future use | Delete or defer |
| Needs further engagement before filing | Add to-do, defer in session note |
For clippings with no notes captured (just the video description or article summary), surface this explicitly: "There are no notes here — just the auto-captured description. Do you want to watch/read it first, or file it as a bookmark-level reference?"
Always format file names as Obsidian wikilinks in the session note: [[Note Name]] (no path, no extension). Obsidian resolves these automatically.
When the user is done (or explicitly wraps up), mark the session complete:
obsidian property:set name="status" value="complete" file="Triage Session YYYY-MM-DD"
Then give a brief summary: how many processed, any outstanding action items, any deferred files.
If the user returns to triage later in the same conversation, check whether the session note already exists before creating a new one. If it exists, read it to restore context (what's been processed, what's pending) before continuing.
Creates, edits, and optimizes skills for Claude Code, including drafting, evaluating with test prompts, iterating on performance, and improving skill descriptions for better triggering accuracy.
npx claudepluginhub jetmech/claude-plugins --plugin obsidian