archive

name

archive

description

Archive or un-archive a Goal, Project, or Habit in this Obsidian vault. **Archiving** flips `status: active` → `status: archived`, fills the type-specific completion-date field (Goal → `actual_completion_date`, Project → `completion_date`, Habit → `established_date`), optionally prepends a dated reason to the page's log section, and moves the file to `archives/<year>/<type>/`. **Un-archiving** is the inverse: flips status back, clears the date, moves the file back to its original `<type>/` folder, and cleans up empty archive subdirectories. Use this skill whenever the user says: "archive this", "archive <name>", "mark done", "this is finished", "complete this goal/project", "this habit is established", "we shipped X", "I finished X", "wrap this up", "abandon this goal" → archive direction; "unarchive this", "unarchive <name>", "reopen this project", "reactivate this goal", "this isn't done yet", "actually this is still active", "revive this", "bring this back" → un-archive direction. Validates type and current status, refuses politely for Areas (permanent) and Wiki/Daily (not archivable), and opens the file at its new location so the user can verify. All multi-step mutations happen atomically via bundled scripts with best-effort rollback — drift between status and folder location is prevented by design.

Archive / un-archive a page

The vault CLAUDE.md "Status semantics" is the authoritative source for how endings are represented. This skill executes either flip-to-archived- and-move or its inverse, depending on user intent.

The actual file mutations are bundled in two scripts:

• scripts/archive.py — active → archived
• scripts/unarchive.py — archived → active

Both handle status flip + date set/clear + (for archive) optional log insert + file move as an atomic sequence with best-effort rollback. Don't reimplement these operations in Claude — always call the script.

Workflow

1. Determine direction

Read the user's intent from their message:

• "archive", "mark done", "shipped", "finished", "abandon", "wrap up", "complete this" → archive (active → archived).
• "unarchive", "reopen", "reactivate", "revive", "bring back", "actually still active", "not done yet" → unarchive (archived → active).

If ambiguous, ask via AskUserQuestion before proceeding.

2. Identify the target file

Pick the file path based on what the user gave you:

• Explicit vault-relative path (projects/Project - X.md or archives/2026/projects/Project - X.md): use as-is.
• Filename or wikilink-style name (Project - X): resolve via obsidian properties file="<name>" to get the path. If the CLI returns nothing, stop and ask the user to disambiguate.
• No target given (the user said "archive this" / "I'm done" / "reopen this"): use the active file. obsidian properties active returns its metadata including the path.

3. Pre-flight check (friendly refusals for non-archivable types)

Read the type so you can give a type-aware refusal before invoking the script. The script also validates, but its error messages are terse.

obsidian property:read name=type path="<path>"

type	What to do
goal	Proceed
project	Proceed
habit	Proceed
area	Refuse: "Areas are permanent spheres of responsibility (per CLAUDE.md) — they don't get archived. If the area is no longer relevant, the underlying Goals/Projects/Habits get archived instead."
wiki	Refuse: "Wiki notes are reference material — they're durable. If the content is wrong, edit or delete it; archiving doesn't apply."
daily	Refuse: "Daily notes are temporal records — they don't have an active/archived state."
(missing)	Refuse: "This file has no type property — can't tell what it is. Either it's not a vault content page, or its frontmatter is malformed."

4. Archive-specific inputs (skip for un-archive)

Completion date — default today (ISO YYYY-MM-DD). Only ask for an alternate if the user mentioned one in their original message ("we shipped this last Friday" → resolve to that date). Don't reflexively prompt — most archives happen on the day of completion.

Reason (optional) — if the user supplied a reason in their original message ("we're killing this because the API was deprecated"), capture it as a single line. If they didn't, don't prompt — the reason is genuinely optional, and the date field records when regardless.

5. Call the appropriate script

Archive direction:

.claude/skills/archive/scripts/archive.py --path "<path>" --date <YYYY-MM-DD> [--reason "<reason>"]

The script will: re-validate type and active status → snapshot the file → set status: archived → set the type-specific date field as type=date → insert - [[YYYY-MM-DD]] <reason> after the section heading if reason supplied (## Reassessment Logs for Goal; ## Notes for Project/Habit) → move the file to archives/<year>/<type>/. On any failure, restore snapshot and move file back to original location.

Un-archive direction:

.claude/skills/archive/scripts/unarchive.py --path "<path>"

The script will: validate the file is under archives/, type is goal/project/habit, status is archived → snapshot → flip status to active → clear the type-specific date field (keeps the YAML key with an empty value, matching the template) → move file back to its original <type>/ folder → clean up empty archives/<year>/<type>/ and archives/<year>/ directories left behind. On failure, same rollback.

Note: un-archive does NOT remove the historical log entry from the archive event. That stays as a record of what happened. If the user explicitly wants it scrubbed, do it via Edit after the script returns.

On success either script prints the new vault-relative path. Capture that for step 6.

6. Open the file

obsidian open path="<new-path-from-script>"

Return one short sentence:

• Archive: "Archived <filename> → <new-path> as of <date>."
• Un-archive: "Un-archived <filename> → <new-path>."

Rules

• Three archivable types only. Goal, Project, Habit. Refuse for Area (permanent), Wiki (durable reference, not archivable), Daily (temporal, no status). Refusals should briefly explain why — the user may not know the semantics.
• Always call the script for mutations. Don't reach for individual property:set / move CLI calls from Claude. The scripts' value is atomicity: either all operations land together, or none do (modulo the small partial-state window during rollback). Bypassing them reintroduces drift between status and folder.
• Never bulk-archive or bulk-unarchive. One file per invocation. If the user asks "archive everything I finished this quarter" or "unarchive all my abandoned goals", that's an audit/reorg pass — decline and suggest doing it one at a time or invoking the audit skill (when it exists).
• Date field is the source of truth for when. The archive script uses type=date so Bases' formula.ended_on and the Properties UI treat it as a real Date. Don't write the date inside the body and skip the property.
• Un-archive preserves history. The log entry from the original archive event is intentionally left intact — it remains true that the page was archived on date X, even if it's now active again. If the user wants the log scrubbed, that's a separate manual edit.
• Obsidian CLI quirk worth remembering: obsidian move returns exit code 0 even when the rename fails with ENOENT (e.g., destination folder doesn't exist). The scripts work around this by pre-creating the destination and verifying the file actually moved post-call. Any other skill using move should do the same.