Obsidian Vault

Use this skill for filesystem-first Obsidian vault work: reading notes, listing notes, searching note files, creating notes, appending content, and adding wikilinks.

Vault path

Use a known or resolved vault path before calling file tools.

The documented vault-path convention is the OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH environment variable, for example from ${HERMES_HOME:-~/.hermes}/.env. If it is unset, use ~/Documents/Obsidian Vault.

File tools do not expand shell variables. Do not pass paths containing $OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH to read_file, write_file, patch, or search_files; resolve the vault path first and pass a concrete absolute path. Vault paths may contain spaces, which is another reason to prefer file tools over shell commands.

If the vault path is unknown, terminal is acceptable for resolving OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH or checking whether the fallback path exists. Once the path is known, switch back to file tools.

Read a note

Use read_file with the resolved absolute path to the note. Prefer this over cat because it provides line numbers and pagination.

List notes

Use search_files with target: "files" and the resolved vault path. Prefer this over find or ls.

• To list all markdown notes, use pattern: "*.md" under the vault path.
• To list a subfolder, search under that subfolder's absolute path.

Search

Use search_files for both filename and content searches. Prefer this over grep, find, or ls.

• For filenames, use search_files with target: "files" and a filename pattern.
• For note contents, use search_files with target: "content", the content regex as pattern, and file_glob: "*.md" when you want to restrict matches to markdown notes.

Create a note

Use write_file with the resolved absolute path and the full markdown content. Prefer this over shell heredocs or echo because it avoids shell quoting issues and returns structured results.

Append to a note

Prefer a native file-tool workflow when it is not awkward:

• Read the target note with read_file.
• Use patch for an anchored append when there is stable context, such as adding a section after an existing heading or appending before a known trailing block.
• Use write_file when rewriting the whole note is clearer than constructing a fragile patch.

For an anchored append with patch, replace the anchor with the anchor plus the new content.

For a simple append with no stable context, terminal is acceptable if it is the clearest safe option.

Targeted edits

Use patch for focused note changes when the current content gives you stable context. Prefer this over shell text rewriting.

Scheduled vault review / lint workflow

When asked to run a periodic vault review, do more than browse recent files:

1. Read log.md and the vault schema (CLAUDE.md and/or AGENTS.md) first to recover current cleanup debt and indexing conventions.
2. Build a lightweight link graph across *.md files: collect Obsidian wikilinks, resolve by basename, count inbound links, and list unresolved targets. It is acceptable to use a short local Python script via terminal when file-tool-only scanning would be awkward.
3. Identify recent notes (mtime window from the request) and compare them against hub/index pages. New research, marketing briefs, reports, or archive entries commonly need a one-line link in the relevant index.md.
4. Patch missing index links when the target hub is obvious; do not only report the orphan. Re-run the scanner after edits and report the before/after orphan count.
5. Review Agents/*/{Memory.md,personal-memory.md,User-Preferences.md}. Update only durable agent context (last review state, persistent blockers/preferences), not every transient file seen.
6. If significant changes were made, prepend a concise log.md entry with the file count, links added, memory files touched, and remaining cleanup debt.
7. In the final report, keep it brief: changes made, remaining health issues, new content worth attention, and suggested next actions.

Wikilinks

Obsidian links notes with [[Note Name]] syntax. When creating notes, use these to link related content.

For vault-health scans, normalize links to Obsidian basename form where practical. Path-style links that include folder names or .md extensions (for example [[daily-tech-reports/report-2026-05-16.md]]) can create false unresolved/orphan findings in simple scanners and are harder to maintain across note moves. Prefer [[report-2026-05-16]] when the basename is unique, or [[Note Name|display text]] for readability.