Comprehensive Obsidian Module

A comprehensive skill for building Obsidian knowledge management workflows — covering vault organization, plugin configuration, template design, dataview queries, daily notes systems, and graph-based knowledge navigation.

When to Use This Skill

Choose Comprehensive Obsidian Module when you need to:

• Design an Obsidian vault structure for personal knowledge management
• Configure essential plugins for productivity workflows
• Create templates for recurring note types
• Build Dataview queries for dynamic note aggregation
• Set up a daily/weekly notes system with automatic linking

Consider alternatives when:

• You need Notion workspace setup (use a Notion skill)
• You need documentation for a codebase (use a docs skill)
• You need collaborative editing (Obsidian is primarily single-user)

Quick Start

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# Set up a new Obsidian vault structure
claude "Design an Obsidian vault structure for a software engineer who wants to track: learning notes, project documentation, meeting notes, and a personal knowledge base."

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# Obsidian Vault Structure

## Directory Layout
vault/
├── 00-Inbox/           # Capture everything here first
├── 10-Daily/           # Daily notes
├── 20-Projects/        # Active project documentation
│   ├── project-auth-redesign/
│   └── project-api-migration/
├── 30-Areas/           # Ongoing responsibilities
│   ├── engineering/
│   ├── career/
│   └── health/
├── 40-Resources/       # Reference material
│   ├── programming/
│   ├── architecture/
│   └── tools/
├── 50-Archive/         # Completed/inactive items
├── 60-Templates/       # Note templates
└── 70-Meetings/        # Meeting notes

## Core Templates
- Daily Note: tasks, log, links
- Meeting Note: attendees, decisions, actions
- Project Note: goals, status, links
- Learning Note: topic, source, key takeaways
- Person Note: role, context, conversation history

Core Concepts

PARA Method in Obsidian

Category	Purpose	Example Folders
Projects	Active, deadline-driven work	Auth redesign, API migration
Areas	Ongoing responsibilities	Engineering, career, health
Resources	Topics of interest	Programming, architecture
Archive	Completed/inactive items	Old projects, past notes

Dataview Queries

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## Common Dataview Queries

### Open Tasks Across All Notes
```dataview
TASK
WHERE !completed
SORT file.mtime DESC
LIMIT 20

Recent Meeting Notes

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TABLE attendees, decisions
FROM "70-Meetings"
SORT file.ctime DESC
LIMIT 10

Project Status Dashboard

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TABLE status, due-date, priority
FROM "20-Projects"
WHERE status != "completed"
SORT priority ASC

Notes Modified Today

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LIST
WHERE file.mday = date(today)
SORT file.mtime DESC

### Daily Notes Template

```markdown
## Daily Note Template
---
date: {{date}}
tags: daily
---

# {{date:dddd, MMMM D, YYYY}}

## Focus
- [ ] Top priority for today

## Tasks
- [ ] Task 1
- [ ] Task 2

## Log
- 09:00 —
- 10:00 —

## Notes
[Capture thoughts, links, and ideas throughout the day]

## Review
- What went well?
- What could improve?
- Tomorrow's priority:

Configuration

Parameter	Description	Example
vault_path	Obsidian vault directory	"~/Documents/vault"
structure	Organization method	"para" / "zettelkasten"
daily_notes	Enable daily notes	true
plugins	Essential plugins to configure	["dataview", "templater"]
template_dir	Templates directory	"60-Templates"

Best Practices

1. Process the Inbox daily — Notes captured in the Inbox should be filed into Projects, Areas, or Resources within 24 hours. An Inbox with 200 unfiled notes becomes its own source of anxiety. Keep it at zero or near-zero.

2. Link liberally, organize minimally — Obsidian's power is in its graph, not its folders. Create links between related notes ([[note-name]]) aggressively. The graph view reveals connections that folder hierarchies hide.

3. Use tags for status and type, folders for context — Tags like #in-progress, #reviewed, #question work across folders. Don't duplicate folder hierarchy with tags (no need for #project tag inside a Projects folder).

4. Keep templates minimal — A template with 20 sections discourages usage. Start with 3-5 sections per template. Add sections only when you find yourself consistently adding them manually.

5. Review and prune weekly — Every Sunday, process inbox items, update project statuses, archive completed work, and review the week's daily notes for any ideas worth promoting to permanent notes.

Common Issues

Vault becomes a collection of orphan notes — Notes without links are invisible to the graph and essentially lost. After creating any note, add at least one link to an existing note. Use Obsidian's "Unlinked mentions" feature to find connection opportunities.

Plugin overload slows Obsidian startup — Installing 30+ plugins makes Obsidian sluggish. Start with 5 essential plugins (Dataview, Templater, Calendar, Periodic Notes, Kanban) and add others only when a specific need arises.

Daily notes become a burden instead of a tool — If your daily note template has 15 sections, you'll stop filling them out. Keep daily notes to 3 sections: what you'll do, what you did, and what you're thinking about. Elaborate notes belong in project or area pages, not dailies.