vault

name	vault
description	Foundational Obsidian vault context skill. Make sure to use this skill whenever the user mentions Obsidian, notes, vault, PARA, "in my notes", "check my vault", "second brain", or any interaction that touches the personal knowledge system. Provides vault structure, CLI reference, and PARA rules that all other obsidian skills build on.

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• Archive = anything from the other three that's no longer active.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/YYYY/YYYY-Www.md             # Weekly notes (flat beside dailies)
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 Quick Map

Use the native obsidian CLI for concrete operations. Common verbs: read, create, append, prepend, move, files, search, search:context, tasks, task, orphans, deadends, unresolved, backlinks, links, vault info=files, tags, property:read, property:set, template:read, and base:query. Load references/cli-reference.md when exact syntax matters.

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 Planning.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