setup

name	setup
description	First-time setup wizard for the Obsidian plugin. Guides the user through configuring vault path, domain taxonomy, and routing rules, then writes obsidian.local.md. Triggers on "/obsidian:setup", "set up obsidian", "configure obsidian plugin", "obsidian first run".
version	1.0.0

Obsidian Plugin Setup

Interactive first-run wizard. Writes obsidian.local.md from user answers so routing works correctly for their vault.

When to Run

• User invokes /obsidian:setup
• obsidian.local.md does not exist (first install)
• User says their routing is going to the wrong folder

Steps

1. Check for Existing Config

Resolve any existing config (checks the stable path and legacy locations):

EXISTING="$(bash "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/lib/resolve-config.sh")"

If $EXISTING is non-empty, tell the user (show the resolved path):

Config already exists at $EXISTING. Running setup will overwrite it. Continue? (yes/no)

If they say no, stop.

2. Ask for Vault Path

Ask:

What is the absolute path to your Obsidian vault? (e.g. /Users/yourname/Documents/Obsidian or ~/Documents/MyVault)

Validate:

• First, expand any leading ~ to the user's full home directory path (e.g. ~/Documents/Obsidian → /Users/yourname/Documents/Obsidian). Use the expanded path for all remaining steps.
• Check the directory exists using the Bash tool: test -d "/expanded/path" && echo exists || echo missing
• If it doesn't exist, tell the user and ask again

3. Ask for Domains

Ask:

What top-level domains (project areas) does your vault have? List them comma-separated — these become your routing targets.

Examples:

• Work, Personal, Learning
• Development, Research, Journal
• Client-A, Client-B, Internal

Note: avoid spaces in domain names (use hyphens instead, e.g. Client-Work not Client Work) — shell scripts generate folder paths from these names.

Parse the comma-separated list into a clean array (trim whitespace).

4. Ask for Keywords per Domain

For each domain, ask in a single message listing all domains at once:

For each domain below, provide comma-separated keywords that should route notes there.

Domain1: (keywords) Domain2: (keywords)

Example: Development → code, git, bug, deploy, api, claude, plugin

Collect the keyword list for each domain from the user's reply.

4b. Ask for Precedence (optional)

Ask:

If multiple domains' keywords could match the same note, which wins? Provide a precedence integer per domain (lower number wins). Skip with Enter to leave precedence blank — the plugin will prompt at save-time on multi-matches.

Domain1: (number, e.g. 10) Domain2: (number, e.g. 20)

Example: Development=10, Work=20, Personal=30 means a note matching both Development and Work routes to Development.

Collect optional precedence per domain. If the user skips all, omit the Precedence column from the generated taxonomy table.

5. Ask for Daily Notes Path

Ask:

Where are your daily notes? (relative to vault root) Default: Daily/ — press Enter to accept, or type a custom path.

Store this as DAILY_PATH (default Daily/).

6. Ask for Inbox Path

Ask:

Where should ambiguous notes go? (relative to vault root) Default: Inbox/ — press Enter to accept.

Store this as INBOX_PATH (default Inbox/).

7. Write obsidian.local.md

Build the config file by replacing each ALL_CAPS placeholder below with the user's actual values, then write it to the stable, version-independent location so plugin updates never strand it:

DEST="$(bash "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/lib/resolve-config.sh" --stable)"
mkdir -p "$(dirname "$DEST")"
# write the rendered config to "$DEST"

$DEST resolves to ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}/claude-obsidian/obsidian.local.md. Do not write into the plugin cache dir — that copy disappears on every update.

Replace:

• VAULT_ABSOLUTE_PATH → expanded absolute path from Step 2
• VAULT_FOLDER_NAME → last path component of the vault path (e.g. Obsidian)
• DOMAIN_LIST → one - DomainName line per domain
• TAXONOMY_HEADER → | Domain | Vault path | Precedence | Notes | if any precedence values were provided in Step 4b; otherwise | Domain | Vault path | Notes |.
• TAXONOMY_SEPARATOR → matching separator row: |--------|-----------|------------|-------| (4-col) or |--------|-----------|-------| (3-col).
• TAXONOMY_ROWS → one row per domain in the same shape as the header. Substitute the actual domain name in both columns. With precedence: | <DomainName> | Projects/<DomainName>/ | <prec-or-blank> | |. Without: | <DomainName> | Projects/<DomainName>/ | |. Replace each <DomainName> with the user's domain (e.g. Development, producing | Development | Projects/Development/ | 10 | |). Pick one shape for the whole table — do not mix.
• DAILY_AND_INBOX_ROWS → emit | Daily | DAILY_PATH | 50 | | and | Inbox | INBOX_PATH | 99 | Fallback for ambiguous notes | if precedence column is included; otherwise | Daily | DAILY_PATH | | and | Inbox | INBOX_PATH | Fallback for ambiguous notes |. Substitute DAILY_PATH and INBOX_PATH with the values collected in Steps 5 and 6.
• ROUTING_RULE_LINES → one routing line per domain: - Keywords "kw1, kw2" → Projects/DomainName/
• DAILY_PATH → value from Step 5
• INBOX_PATH → value from Step 6

---
vault_path: VAULT_ABSOLUTE_PATH
vault_name: VAULT_FOLDER_NAME
daily_path: DAILY_PATH
auto_save: true
auto_open: false
time_gap_minutes: 30
smart_detect: true
strict_domains: true
dedup_jaccard_threshold: 0.4
moc_promotion: true
moc_promotion_threshold: 3
intent_high_score: 0.70
intent_margin: 0.15
capture_high_score: 0.70
domains:
DOMAIN_LIST
---

# Obsidian Plugin Config

Vault is at `VAULT_ABSOLUTE_PATH`.

## Project Taxonomy

TAXONOMY_HEADER
TAXONOMY_SEPARATOR
TAXONOMY_ROWS
DAILY_AND_INBOX_ROWS

The `Vault path` column above is the canonical allow-list of top-level folders. Skills refuse to write outside this list while `strict_domains: true`.

If a `Precedence` column is present, lower number wins when keywords from multiple domains match the same note. If it is absent, the skill prompts the user to pick on multi-match.

## Session Intent Inference

Session capture infers `session_intent` (`execution`, `research`, `planning`, `reflection`, `operations`, `scratch`) separately from `capture_action` (`none`, `daily_only`, `project_note`, `substrate_update`, `decision_record`). The confidence thresholds in frontmatter control when the inference is treated as high confidence.

It also records `research_state_change` (`none`, `supports_claim`, `weakens_claim`, `new_claim`, `new_experiment`, `new_evidence`) and `substrate_object`. For research-adjacent sessions, agents should ask whether the session created, weakened, supported, or tested a research claim. When it did, create or update one small object under `Projects/Physics-AI-ML/Research-Substrate/` and link it from the session note.

## Routing Rules

ROUTING_RULE_LINES
- Keywords "daily, journal, today" → DAILY_PATH
- Ambiguous → INBOX_PATH (with #needs-filing tag)

8. Confirm

Tell the user:

Config written to obsidian.local.md.

Vault: VAULT_ABSOLUTE_PATH Domains: Domain1 → Projects/Domain1/, Domain2 → Projects/Domain2/, ... Daily notes: DAILY_PATH Fallback (ambiguous): INBOX_PATH

GUI open (auto_open) works on macOS and Windows. On Windows/WSL, Obsidian must be running.

To change any of this, edit obsidian.local.md directly or re-run /obsidian:setup.

Notes

• Vault path must be written as an absolute path — shell scripts do not expand ~
• The vault_path and daily_path fields are read by shell scripts; get them right
• vault_name is read by open-in-obsidian.sh to construct the Obsidian URI — it must match the vault name shown in the Obsidian app's vault switcher
• Routing Rules section is read verbatim by session-summarize.sh and passed to Claude — plain English descriptions work best
• The domains YAML list is metadata only; routing is driven by the ## Routing Rules section
• strict_domains: true (default) makes ## Project Taxonomy's Vault path column the canonical allow-list. Skills refuse to write to top-level folders that are not on the list, preventing silent alias folders. To add a new top-level folder, add a Project Taxonomy row (or rerun /obsidian:setup) — never let routine saves create new folders.
• intent_high_score: 0.70, intent_margin: 0.15, and capture_high_score: 0.70 tune session-intent and capture-action confidence scoring.