daily-notes

name	daily-notes
description	Manage an Obsidian daily notes vault — scaffold a new vault, generate weekly summaries, or summarize individual meetings. Triggers on "set up daily notes", "scaffold a notes system", "update weekly summary", "summarize meeting", or "extract action items".

Daily Notes

Calendars

See references/calendars.md for ISO week number lookup tables (2025–2026).

Routing

Match the user's request to one of these workflows:

• "set up daily notes" / "scaffold" / "create a vault" → Setup Workflow
• "update weekly summary" / "update weekly summary for [date range]" → Weekly Summary Workflow
• "summarize meeting" / "extract action items" / "summarize the meeting on..." → Ad-hoc Summary Workflow

Setup Workflow

Scaffold an Obsidian vault with daily notes, weekly summaries, and ad-hoc meeting summaries.

What Gets Created

<vault-name>/
├── CLAUDE.md                              # Claude Code project instructions
├── .obsidian/                             # Obsidian settings
│   ├── app.json                           # Editor config (attachments path, open-on-daily)
│   ├── daily-notes.json                   # Daily notes plugin config (folder, date format)
│   └── core-plugins.json                  # Core plugin toggles
├── attachments/                            # File attachments (images, PDFs, etc.)
├── daily/                                 # Daily notes (user-created, never modified by Claude)
│   └── YYYY/MM/YYYY-MM-DD.md
└── summaries/                             # Claude-generated summaries
    ├── README.md                          # Usage guide and example prompts
    ├── weekly-overview.md                 # Living cumulative weekly highlights
    └── YYYY-MM-DD.md                      # Ad-hoc meeting summaries

Steps

Before creating any files, confirm the target location with the user:

1. If the user specifies a path (e.g., "set up daily notes in ~/my-vault"), confirm it before proceeding
2. If no path is given, ask: "Where should I create the vault? Please provide the full path (e.g., ~/Documents/my-notes)"
3. If the current directory looks like it could be the vault (e.g., it already has a .obsidian/ or daily/ folder), ask: "It looks like the current directory might already be a vault — should I set up here, or create a new one elsewhere?"
4. Do not create any files until the user has confirmed the location

Once the location is confirmed:

5. Create the directory structure above
6. Copy CLAUDE.md and summaries/ template files into the vault
7. Obsidian settings — check if .obsidian/ already exists in the vault:
   • If any of app.json, daily-notes.json, or core-plugins.json already exist, show the user what would change and ask before overwriting each file
   • If .obsidian/ doesn't exist yet, copy all config files and let the user know what was set
8. Tell the user to open the folder in Obsidian and show the available commands

Daily Note Format

Users write daily notes as markdown with H1 or H2 headers per meeting/topic:

# Team standup

Discussion points, decisions, action items...

# 1:1 with Alice

Feedback, project updates...

Notes are stored at daily/YYYY/MM/YYYY-MM-DD.md.

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Safety Rules

These rules apply to all workflows:

• NEVER modify existing daily notes in the daily/ folder unless explicitly asked
• ONLY create or modify files in summaries/ for generated content
• ONLY read notes in the daily/ folder — don't read any other notes
• NEVER remove existing content from weekly-overview.md — only add new entries
• Always confirm file paths before writing
• Preserve all existing markdown formatting and links

Obsidian Settings

The assets/.obsidian/ folder contains starter config files:

• app.json — Attachments folder set to attachments/, opens to daily note on launch
• daily-notes.json — Daily notes stored at daily/YYYY/MM/YYYY-MM-DD.md
• core-plugins.json — Enables daily-notes, templates, outline, backlinks, graph, and other useful core plugins

Recommended Community Plugins

After opening the vault in Obsidian, install these from Settings > Community Plugins:

• Tasks — Task management with due dates, creation/completion tracking
• Dataview — Query and display data from notes

Customization Notes

• The CLAUDE.md template is minimal — users should add project-specific sections as needed
• The weekly summary instructions omit a calendar reference file by default; users can add one for accurate week number lookups (see the calendar skill)
• The summaries/ folder is in .obsidian/ ignore list by default in CLAUDE.md to avoid Claude reading its own output
• Users can customize behavior by editing the skill's SKILL.md directly

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Weekly Summary Workflow

See references/weekly-summary.md for full instructions, format, and examples.

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Ad-hoc Summary Workflow

See references/adhoc-summary.md for full instructions, format, and examples.