| name | vault-health |
| description | Audit the vault for structural issues: unresolved wikilinks, orphan notes, dead-end notes, and Obsidian sync conflicts. Optional --fix flags create stubs or surface fixable issues. |
| license | MIT |
Vault Health
Usage
/vault-health — Run all checks, present a triage report./vault-health unresolved — Only show unresolved [[wikilinks]]./vault-health orphans — Only show notes with no incoming links./vault-health deadends — Only show notes with no outgoing links./vault-health sync — Only check Obsidian sync conflicts./vault-health --fix-people — For unresolved [[@*]] links, prompt to create Teams/People/@Name.md stubs in batch (delegates to /people-stubs).
Why this skill exists
The vault grows over time and accumulates structural debt:
- Dead
[[@Jane Doe]] links because the person file was never created.
- Notes orphaned in subfolders, never linked from any project/team page.
- Sync conflicts when two devices edit the same file simultaneously.
This skill surfaces all of that in one pass.
Workflow
Step 1: Run all checks (or the subset requested)
| Check | Command | What it returns |
|---|
| Unresolved links | obsidian unresolved format=json | All [[link]] pointers with no target file. |
| Orphans | obsidian orphans format=json | Files no other file links to. |
| Deadends | obsidian deadends format=json | Files with no outgoing links. |
| Sync conflicts | obsidian sync:status format=json | Files with unresolved sync versions. |
Run only the requested subset; full sweep when no argument is given.
Step 2: Categorize and present
Group findings by type and severity:
## Unresolved wikilinks (12)
People-flavored ([[@*]]) — likely missing People files:
| # | Link | Referenced in (count) |
|---|------|----------------------|
| 1 | [[@Jane Doe]] | 6 meetings |
| 2 | [[@John Smith]] | 3 meetings |
Other unresolved:
| # | Link | Referenced in |
|---|------|---------------|
| 3 | [[+SomeNewTeam]] | 1 meeting |
## Orphan notes (4)
| # | Path | Created | Reason it might matter |
|---|------|---------|------------------------|
| 1 | Meetings/Engineering/Old Notes.md | 2026-01-12 | Probably needs to link to a project page |
## Deadend notes (8)
...
## Sync conflicts (0)
✓ All synced.
For people-flavored unresolved links, sort by count descending — most-referenced unresolved person is most worth creating a file for.
Step 3: Offer fixes
- For
--fix-people (or after presenting): prompt the user to create People stubs in batch. Delegate to /people-stubs which handles the actual creation.
- For orphans/deadends: don't auto-fix. They might be intentional. Just surface.
- For sync conflicts: don't auto-fix. Sync conflicts need human judgment. Surface and tell the user to resolve via Obsidian's UI or
obsidian sync:history.
Step 4: Commit
See /commit. The skill itself doesn't write files (except via /people-stubs if invoked). If anything changed, commit message: chore(vault-health): create N people stubs from unresolved links (or similar).
Sync conflict resolution
When obsidian sync:status reports conflicts:
- List them with
obsidian sync:status format=json (path + version count per file).
- For each conflicted file, surface in the report with these next-action hints:
- View versions:
obsidian sync:history file="<path>" — see what each side wrote.
- Read a specific version:
obsidian sync:read file="<path>" version=<N> — preview without writing.
- Restore:
obsidian sync:restore file="<path>" version=<N> — pick one side.
- Manual merge (preferred when both sides have meaningful changes): open the file in Obsidian, use the Sync history pane to pick chunks.
- Never auto-restore — sync conflicts mean both sides have edits the user might want. Surface and let them choose.
Display sync conflicts at the top of the report (not last) — they're time-sensitive (the longer they sit, the more divergent the versions get).
Important Notes
- The skill is read-only by default — only
--fix-people triggers writes (and even then, via /people-stubs with confirmation).
- Some orphans are intentional (e.g.
USER.md, README.md). Consider an exclusion list in a future iteration.
- Sync conflict detection assumes Obsidian Sync is configured. If not, this check is a no-op (prints "✓ Sync not configured — skipped").
- Obsidian CLI requires the desktop app to be running. If it's not, the skill should print a helpful error.
