| 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
- 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
- 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]].
