obsidian-vault-conventions

name	obsidian-vault-conventions
description	Obsidian vault conventions for this repo (EMS/Dataview/Templater). Use when creating or editing notes or when referencing vault files in responses: always format vault file references as Obsidian wikilinks (not inline code file paths), follow frontmatter patterns, and store/consult the canonical conventions note in the vault.

Obsidian Vault Conventions

Canonical conventions note: [[utilities/Assistant Conventions]].

File References In Responses

1. Always use Obsidian wikilinks for vault files
   • Good: [[atlas/notes/Welcome to the Room - Jeffrey Snover]]
   • Good: [[atlas/notes/Welcome to the Room - Jeffrey Snover|Welcome to the Room]]
   • Avoid: inline code paths like atlas/notes/Welcome to the Room - Jeffrey Snover.md
2. Wikilink format rules
   • Use vault-relative paths, omit the .md suffix.
   • Prefer [[path/to/note|Label]] when the basename is long or ambiguous.
   • If you are not sure about the exact path, search first; do not guess.

CLI-First Vault Operations

When Obsidian is running, prefer CLI commands over direct file manipulation. See the obsidian-cli skill for full command reference.

Operation	Preferred	Avoid
Create a note	obsidian create path=...	Write tool with manual YAML frontmatter
Set/read properties	obsidian property:set/read	Manually editing YAML frontmatter
Append/prepend content	obsidian append/prepend	Edit tool on frontmatter-containing files
Move or rename notes	obsidian move/rename	File system mv (breaks links)
Search vault content	obsidian search	Grep across vault files
Query a Base collection	obsidian base:query	Glob + Read + parse filters manually
Check backlinks	obsidian backlinks	Grep for wikilink patterns
Find broken links	obsidian unresolved	Manual link validation

Why CLI over file tools?

• Property typing — property:set stores dates as dates, numbers as numbers, links as links. Manual YAML assembly often produces strings instead.
• Link awareness — move and rename update all wikilinks across the vault. File system operations break links silently.
• Frontmatter safety — append and prepend are frontmatter-aware. Edit tool can corrupt frontmatter delimiters if not careful.
• No hardcoded paths — CLI uses vault-relative paths. No need for absolute path constants.

When file tools are still appropriate

• Bulk creation (100+ files) — Node.js scripts with direct file writes are faster.
• Reading note content — The Read tool and obsidian read are both fine.
• Non-vault files — .base file editing, entity-schemas.json, scripts, etc. remain file-tool territory.

Conventions Source Of Truth

• If this skill conflicts with [[utilities/Assistant Conventions]], follow [[utilities/Assistant Conventions]].