obsidian

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/.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.

Wikilinks

Obsidian links notes with

[[Note Name]]

syntax. When creating notes, use these to link related content.