Link

Link — Cross-Reference Vault Notes with Bidirectional Wikilinks

Search the Obsidian vault for notes related to the current session or a specific description, then create bidirectional wikilinks between them in their respective ## Related sections.

Tools needed: Bash, Grep, Read, Write, Edit

Procedure

Follow these steps exactly. Do not skip steps or reorder them.

Step 1 — Load config

Run:

cd "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null || pwd)"
python3 -c '
import sys, os
import glob; sys.path.insert(0, max(glob.glob(os.path.expanduser("~/.claude/plugins/cache/*/obsidian-brain/*/hooks")), default="hooks"))
from obsidian_utils import load_config
c = load_config()
if not c.get("vault_path"):
    print("ERROR: vault_path not configured", file=sys.stderr)
    sys.exit(1)
print("VAULT=" + c["vault_path"])
print("SESS=" + c.get("sessions_folder", "claude-sessions"))
print("INS=" + c.get("insights_folder", "claude-insights"))
'

Parse each output line as KEY=VALUE, splitting on the first =.

If the command exits non-zero or prints ERROR, tell the user:

Config not found. Run /obsidian-setup first to configure your Obsidian vault.

Stop here if config is missing.

Step 2 — Validate vault access

Run:

test -d "$VAULT_PATH/$SESSIONS_FOLDER" && test -d "$VAULT_PATH/$INSIGHTS_FOLDER" && echo "OK" || echo "FAIL"

If FAIL, tell the user:

The vault folders do not exist. Run /obsidian-setup to fix this.

Stop here if FAIL.

Step 3 — Determine mode

Check if the user provided an argument after /link.

• Without argument (bare /link): Go to Step 4A — auto-suggest connections for the current session.
• With argument (e.g. /link authentication flow notes): Go to Step 4B — explicit link by description.

Step 4A — Auto-suggest connections

4A.1 — Derive project name:

basename "$(pwd)"

Store as PROJECT. Normalize: lowercase, hyphens for spaces.

4A.2 — Find most recent session note for this project:

ls -t "$VAULT_PATH/$SESSIONS_FOLDER"/ | head -20

From that list, identify the most recent file whose name contains the project name (or whose frontmatter contains project: $PROJECT). If you cannot determine from the filename alone, use Grep:

pattern: "project: $PROJECT"
path: $VAULT_PATH/$SESSIONS_FOLDER/
output_mode: files_with_matches

Sort the matched files by modification time and pick the most recent one. This is the source note. Read its full content using the Read tool.

4A.3 — Extract keywords:

From the current conversation topics and the source note's content, identify 3-5 meaningful keywords or concepts. Prefer: technology names, method names, architectural terms, error types, product feature names. Avoid generic words like "session", "note", "file".

4A.4 — Search vault for related notes (parallel):

Run these searches in parallel using Grep, case-insensitive (-i: true):

For each keyword (run as parallel searches across both folders):

pattern: "<keyword>"
path: $VAULT_PATH/$SESSIONS_FOLDER/
output_mode: files_with_matches
-i: true

pattern: "<keyword>"
path: $VAULT_PATH/$INSIGHTS_FOLDER/
output_mode: files_with_matches
-i: true

Collect all matched files across all keywords. Exclude the source note itself.

4A.5 — Search by overlapping tags:

Read the source note's frontmatter and extract its tags: list. For each tag that starts with claude/topic/, run:

pattern: "<tag>"
path: $VAULT_PATH/$SESSIONS_FOLDER/
output_mode: files_with_matches

pattern: "<tag>"
path: $VAULT_PATH/$INSIGHTS_FOLDER/
output_mode: files_with_matches

Add any new matches to your candidate list, excluding the source note.

4A.6 — Rank candidates:

Score each candidate file:

• +1 for each keyword match
• +1 for each shared tag
• +2 bonus if the file is in the insights folder (insights/decisions are higher value than raw sessions)

Sort by score descending. Take the top 5.

4A.7 — Present candidates:

Suggested connections for this session:

1. [[note-filename-without-extension]] — <reason: shares topics X and Y>
2. [[note-filename-without-extension]] —
3. [[note-filename-without-extension]] —

Which would you like to link? (e.g. 1,3 or all or none)

Wait for the user's response. If none, stop. For each selected candidate, go to Step 5 with the source note and that candidate as the target.

Step 4B — Explicit link request

4B.1 — Identify source note:

If the user's description contains "this session", "current session", or similar: derive the project name from basename "$(pwd)" and find the most recent session note for that project (same as Step 4A.2).

Otherwise, use the user's description to search for a source note:

pattern: "<keywords from description>"
path: $VAULT_PATH/$SESSIONS_FOLDER/
output_mode: files_with_matches
-i: true

pattern: "<keywords from description>"
path: $VAULT_PATH/$INSIGHTS_FOLDER/
output_mode: files_with_matches
-i: true

4B.2 — Identify target note:

Parse the user's description for target note clues. Search both folders:

pattern: "<target keywords>"
path: $VAULT_PATH/$SESSIONS_FOLDER/
output_mode: files_with_matches
-i: true

pattern: "<target keywords>"
path: $VAULT_PATH/$INSIGHTS_FOLDER/
output_mode: files_with_matches
-i: true

4B.3 — Resolve ambiguity:

If multiple matches were found for either source or target, present them and ask the user to pick:

Found multiple matches. Which note did you mean?

1. [[note-filename-1]]
2. [[note-filename-2]]

Wait for the user's selection. Once both source and target are unambiguously identified, go to Step 5.

Step 5 — Create bidirectional link

For each source-target pair:

5.1 — Read the source note using the Read tool.

5.2 — Check for duplicate link in source:

Search the source note's content for [[target-filename]] (filename without .md). If the link already exists in the source, skip writing to the source and note it:

[[source-note]] already links to [[target-note]] — skipping source.

5.3 — Add link to source note:

• If the source note has a ## Related section: use the Edit tool to append a new line to that section: - [[target-filename]] — <one-line reason for the connection>

• If no ## Related section exists: use the Edit tool to append the following to the end of the file:

  
  ## Related
  
  - [[target-filename]] — <one-line reason for the connection>
  

• Use the Write tool only if the note is very short or the Edit tool would be unreliable due to unclear anchor text.

After writing, set permissions:

chmod 644 "<source-note-path>"

5.4 — Read the target note using the Read tool.

5.5 — Check for duplicate link in target:

Search the target note's content for [[source-filename]]. If it already exists, skip writing to the target:

[[target-note]] already links back to [[source-note]] — skipping target.

5.6 — Add link to target note (mirror of 5.3, but reversed — source becomes the linked note):

• If the target note has a ## Related section: append: - [[source-filename]] — <one-line reason for the connection>

• If no ## Related section: append:

  
  ## Related
  
  - [[source-filename]] — <one-line reason for the connection>
  

After writing, set permissions:

chmod 644 "<target-note-path>"

Step 6 — Confirm

For each linked pair, print:

Linked: [[source-note]] ↔ [[target-note]] Reason: Links are bidirectional — both notes now reference each other in their Related section.

If multiple pairs were linked, print a summary after all pairs are done:

All done. N bidirectional link(s) created.

Edge Cases

• No session note found for current project: Tell the user no session note was found. Suggest they work in a session so one is auto-logged at session end, then run /link again.
• No candidates found in auto-suggest: Tell the user no related notes were found for the extracted keywords. Suggest running /link <specific description> to search manually.
• Already linked (both directions): Tell the user both notes already reference each other — no changes needed.
• Only one direction already linked: Add only the missing direction; do not duplicate the existing link.
• Wikilink format: Always use the filename without the .md extension: [[2026-04-04-obsidian-brain-297a]] not [[2026-04-04-obsidian-brain-297a.md]].
• Large vault (50+ files): Never glob or read the entire folder. Always use Grep to search — never ls the whole folder for matching.
• Config exists but vault path is invalid: Warn the user and suggest running /obsidian-setup again.