vault

Vault Context

Core knowledge layer for the Obsidian vault. Always load before any vault operation — this provides the map that makes every other skill accurate.

Ask, Don't Assume

These skills act on the user's personal knowledge — the interpretation is theirs, not yours. This principle is shared by every ritual skill (daily, close-day, weekly, goals, spot-drift).

• If you don't know something — a path, a date range, what counts as a "win", which goals are active — ask. Don't infer it from context or pick a default silently.
• Before writing any synthesis or judgment into a note, present your draft with its source and get explicit confirmation. Let the user correct, add, or cut before anything is written.
• Missing or ambiguous data is not permission to invent. Surface the gap and ask — a sparse or missing note does not mean nothing happened.
• One question at a time for judgment calls; batch only purely factual unknowns.

Vault Path

/Users/kriscard/obsidian-vault-kriscard

PARA Structure

Layer	Path	What belongs here
Inbox	0 - Inbox/	Unprocessed captures, raw ideas
Projects	1 - Projects/	Active deliverables with outcome + deadline
Areas	2 - Areas/	Ongoing responsibilities (no end date)
Resources	3 - Resources/	Reference material, TIL, wiki pages
Archives	4 - Archives/	Inactive projects, old resources

PARA rule of thumb:

• Project = outcome + deadline. No deadline → Area.
• Area = standard to maintain, not a finish line to cross.
• Resource = potentially useful reference, not actionable.
• Archive = anything from the other three that's no longer active.

Key Paths

2 - Areas/Daily Ops/YYYY/YYYY-MM-DD.md          # Daily notes
2 - Areas/Daily Ops/Weekly/M - Month YYYY/YYYY-Www.md  # Weekly notes
2 - Areas/Goals/Quaterly/Quaterly Goals - QN YYYY.md   # Quarterly goals (typo preserved)
2 - Areas/Goals/Monthly/M - Month YYYY.md        # Monthly goals
2 - Areas/Goals/OKR Dashboard.base               # OKR base query
3 - Resources/TIL/til-YYYY-MM-DD.md             # TIL notes
0 - Inbox/                                       # Processing queue

Note: the quarterly folder is spelled "Quaterly" — preserve this to match the existing vault structure.

Obsidian CLI Reference

obsidian read path="<path>"                      # Read a note
obsidian create path="<path>" template="<name>"  # Create from template
obsidian create path="<path>" content="..." overwrite  # Overwrite a whole note
obsidian append path="<path>" content="..."      # Append to end of note
obsidian prepend path="<path>" content="..."     # Prepend to top of note
obsidian move path="<src>" to="<dst>"            # Move/rename note
obsidian files folder="<path>" format=json       # List files
obsidian search query="<q>"                      # Full-text search
obsidian search:context query="<q>" limit=10     # Search with surrounding lines
obsidian tasks todo path="<daily-note path>"     # Today's open tasks (path, not folder)
obsidian task path="<path>" line=N done          # Mark a task done
obsidian orphans                                 # Orphaned notes
obsidian deadends                                # Notes with no outgoing links
obsidian unresolved verbose counts               # Broken links
obsidian backlinks path="<path>" counts          # Backlinks to a note
obsidian links path="<path>"                     # Outgoing links from a note
obsidian vault info=files                        # Vault stats
obsidian tags counts sort=count                  # All tags with usage counts
obsidian property:read path="<path>" name="<k>"  # Read a frontmatter property
obsidian property:set path="<path>" name="<k>" value="<v>"  # Set a property
obsidian template:read name="<name>" resolve title="<t>"  # Render template
obsidian base:query path="<path>" format=json    # Query a .base file

No patch command. The CLI cannot edit a specific section in place. To write to a note: append/prepend when landing the content anywhere in the note is fine. When it must update or replace a named section, ask the user: use the MCP obsidian_patch_content tool (supports heading/block/frontmatter targeting), or recreate the note via read + create ... overwrite.

No daily:* commands. daily is only a flag on task/tasks, and that flag needs the Daily Notes core plugin enabled (currently disabled). Work the daily note by its path: TODAY="2 - Areas/Daily Ops/$(date +%Y)/$(date +%Y-%m-%d).md", then obsidian read path="$TODAY" / append / prepend. Today's open tasks: obsidian tasks todo path="$TODAY" (note tasks path= takes a file, not a folder).

If any obsidian command fails: tell the user "Obsidian CLI isn't working — update Obsidian with CLI enabled."

Templates Location

Templates/ folder in vault root. Key templates:

• Templates/Daily Notes.md
• Templates/Weekly.md
• Templates/Project.md
• Templates/TIL.md

References

Priority	Load when	Reference
1 — High	Full CLI command needed beyond the inline reference	references/cli-reference.md
2 — High	obsidian-utils script commands or invocation syntax	references/obsidian-utils.md
3 — Medium	Complete folder tree, metadata patterns, or naming conventions	references/detailed-structure.md
4 — Medium	Tag taxonomy or tagging best practices	references/tagging-system.md
5 — Medium	Which template to use for a note type	references/templates-guide.md