# Vault Import > Backfills the Obsidian vault with historical Claude Code sessions using conversation search and parallel sub-agents. Use when: (1) /vault-import command to import recent sessions, (2) /vault-import 30d to import last 30 days, (3) /vault-import project:api-service 30d to filter by project, (4) user wants to populate vault with past session history. - Skill: `abhattacherjee/vault-import` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add abhattacherjee/vault-import` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/abhattacherjee/vault-import/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Integrations & APIs - Author: abhattacherjee (https://skillmd.com/u/abhattacherjee) - Updated: 2026-09-10 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/abhattacherjee/vault-import --- # Vault Import — Backfill Historical Sessions Discover historical Claude Code sessions, summarize them via parallel sub-agents, and write structured session notes to the Obsidian vault. Skips sessions already present in the vault. **Tools needed:** Bash, Write, Read, Skill (for /context-shield sub-agents) **Prerequisites:** - `/conversation-search` skill must be installed - `/context-shield` skill must be installed - Obsidian Brain must be configured (run `/obsidian-setup` if not) ## Procedure Follow these steps exactly. Do not skip steps or reorder them. ### Step 1 — Read config Run: ```bash cd "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null || pwd)" python3 -c ' import sys, os import glob; sys.path.insert(0, max(glob.glob(os.path.expanduser("~/.claude/plugins/cache/*/obsidian-brain/*/hooks")), default="hooks")) from obsidian_utils import load_config c = load_config() if not c.get("vault_path"): print("ERROR: vault_path not configured", file=sys.stderr) sys.exit(1) print("VAULT=" + c["vault_path"]) print("SESS=" + c.get("sessions_folder", "claude-sessions")) print("INS=" + c.get("insights_folder", "claude-insights")) ' ``` Parse each output line as KEY=VALUE, splitting on the first `=`. If the command exits non-zero or prints ERROR, tell the user: > Config not found. Please run `/obsidian-setup` first to configure your Obsidian vault. Stop here if config is missing. Store the extracted values as `VAULT_PATH` and `SESSIONS_FOLDER` (default `claude-sessions`). ### Step 2 — Validate vault access Run: ```bash test -d "$VAULT_PATH/$SESSIONS_FOLDER" && test -w "$VAULT_PATH/$SESSIONS_FOLDER" && echo "OK" || echo "FAIL" ``` If FAIL, tell the user: > The sessions folder `$VAULT_PATH/$SESSIONS_FOLDER` does not exist or is not writable. Run `/obsidian-setup` to fix this. Stop here if FAIL. ### Step 3 — Parse arguments Parse the user's invocation to extract: - **Time range:** A duration like `7d`, `14d`, `30d`. Default is `7d` if not specified. - **Project filter:** An optional `project:` argument (e.g. `project:api-service`). Examples: - `/vault-import` — last 7 days, all projects - `/vault-import 30d` — last 30 days, all projects - `/vault-import project:api-service 14d` — last 14 days, only api-service - `/vault-import project:api-service` — last 7 days, only api-service Store as `TIME_RANGE` and `PROJECT_FILTER` (empty string if no filter). ### Step 4 — Discover sessions Use the `/conversation-search` skill's underlying search script to find sessions matching the time range and project filter. Run: ```bash bash ~/.claude/skills/conversation-search/scripts/search-conversations.sh --days --format jsonl ``` If a project filter is specified, add `--project ` to the command. If the script is not found, fall back to manually scanning `~/.claude/projects/` for session JSONL files modified within the time range: ```bash find ~/.claude/projects/ -name "*.jsonl" -mtime - -type f 2>/dev/null ``` Parse the output to build a list of sessions. Each session needs: - `session_id` — extracted from the filename or JSONL content - `session_path` — absolute path to the JSONL file - `project` — extracted from the directory path or JSONL content - `date` — file modification date If no sessions are found, tell the user: > No sessions found in the last `` matching your filters. Stop here if no sessions found. ### Step 5 — Filter already-imported sessions Check the vault for existing session notes that match discovered session IDs. Run: ```bash grep -rl "session_id:" "$VAULT_PATH/$SESSIONS_FOLDER/" 2>/dev/null | xargs grep -l "" 2>/dev/null ``` More efficiently, build a single grep command: ```bash for f in "$VAULT_PATH/$SESSIONS_FOLDER/"*.md; do head -20 "$f" 2>/dev/null done | grep "session_id:" | awk '{print $2}' ``` Collect all session IDs already in the vault into a set called `EXISTING_IDS`. Remove any session from the discovered list whose `session_id` is in `EXISTING_IDS`. Store the remaining sessions as `PENDING_SESSIONS` and the count of skipped sessions as `SKIPPED_COUNT`. If no pending sessions remain, tell the user: > All `` sessions from the last `` are already in the vault. Nothing to import. Stop here if nothing to import. Otherwise, report: > Found `` sessions, `` already imported, `` to import. ### Step 6 — Summarize sessions with parallel sub-agents **This is the performance-critical step. Use parallel sub-agents to maximize throughput.** For each session in `PENDING_SESSIONS`, delegate to a `/context-shield` sub-agent with this prompt: > Read the Claude Code session transcript at ``. Extract and return a structured summary with these exact sections: > > - **Summary:** 2-3 sentence overview of what was accomplished > - **Key Decisions:** Bulleted list of architectural or design choices made > - **Changes Made:** Bulleted list of files created, modified, or deleted > - **Errors Encountered:** Bulleted list of errors hit and how they were resolved (or "None") > - **Next Steps:** Bulleted list of follow-up tasks mentioned (or "None") > - **Git Info:** Branch name, commit hashes if any (or "None") > > Keep the total output under 300 tokens. Return only the structured summary, no preamble. **Parallelism rules:** - Launch up to 5 sub-agents in parallel (sessions are independent — no shared state) - Wait for the batch to complete before launching the next batch - If a sub-agent fails or times out, log the error and skip that session — do not block the entire import Collect the distilled summaries. Store each as `SUMMARY` keyed by `session_id`. ### Step 7 — Construct and write session notes For each successfully summarized session, construct a vault note with this format: ```markdown --- type: claude-session date: session_id: project: git_branch: duration_minutes: imported: true imported_date: tags: - claude/session - claude/project/ - claude/imported --- # ## Key Decisions ## Changes Made ## Errors Encountered ## Next Steps ## Git Info ``` Generate the filename using the same convention as other session notes: 1. **Date:** `YYYY-MM-DD` (session date) 2. **Slug:** Title lowercased, spaces to hyphens, non-alphanumeric (except hyphens) removed, truncated to 50 chars 3. **Hash:** 4-character hex hash from the session_id: `echo -n "" | md5 | cut -c1-4` (macOS) or `echo -n "" | md5sum | cut -c1-4` (Linux). Do NOT use `tail -c 4` — it counts the trailing newline as a byte and returns only 3 visible characters. Final filename: `YYYY-MM-DD--.md` Write each note: ```bash mkdir -p "$VAULT_PATH/$SESSIONS_FOLDER" ``` Use the **Write** tool to write the file, then: ```bash chmod 644 "$VAULT_PATH/$SESSIONS_FOLDER/" ``` ### Step 8 — Report results Print a summary report: > **Vault import complete!** > > - **Imported:** `` sessions > - **Skipped (already in vault):** `` sessions > - **Failed:** `` sessions (if any) > - **Time range:** last `` > - **Project filter:** `` (or "all projects") > > New notes written to: `$VAULT_PATH/$SESSIONS_FOLDER/` If any sessions failed, list them: > **Failed sessions:** > - ``: `` Offer follow-up: > Run `/vault-import ` to go further back, or open Obsidian to browse the imported sessions.