Vault Capture

Vault Capture

Save a URL as a formatted Obsidian note in the vault. Extracts content via defuddle, generates structure and wikilinks, files into a new project folder.

Workflow

1. Extract content from the URL:

   defuddle parse <url> --md
   defuddle parse <url> -p title
   defuddle parse <url> -p description
   defuddle parse <url> -p domain
   

   If defuddle is not installed: npm install -g defuddle

2. Determine a folder name following vault conventions:

   • Format: snake_case with source/author suffix when known
   • Examples: agent_routing_patterns_anthropic, obsidian_cli_guide_kepano, mcp_servers_overview_ai_labs
   • Check the URL domain + page title to construct a descriptive slug
   • Ask the user if unclear

3. Search for related vault projects:

   obsidian search query="<2-3 key topics from the content>" limit=10
   

   Run 1-2 searches. Collect matching folder names for wikilinks.

4. Compose the note. For content longer than ~2,000 chars, use the Write tool directly rather than the CLI create command:

   ---
   description: <extracted or synthesized one-liner>
   title: <page title>
   date: YYYY-MM-DD
   source: <url>
   ---
   
   # <Title>
   
   > <extracted description or brief summary>
   
   ## Key Takeaways
   - <Claude-generated bullet summary, 3-7 points>
   
   ## Content
   
   <cleaned extracted markdown content>
   
   ## Related
   - [[related_folder/README]]
   - [[another_folder/gemini3_summary]]
   

5. Write the file:

   • For short content: obsidian create path="<folder_name>/README.md" content="..." silent
   • For long content: Use Write tool to write to <vault-root>/<folder_name>/README.md

6. Log to daily note (optional, do by default unless user says not to):

   obsidian daily:append content="### HH:MM — Captured: <title>\nSaved [[<folder_name>/README]] from <domain>.\n**Source:** <url>\n"
   

7. Report the folder created, the file path, and any related links found.

Tips

• Always include the source frontmatter property with the original URL
• If the content is very long (>5,000 words), summarize rather than include in full — put the summary in ## Content and note that the full content is at the source URL
• Prefer ## Key Takeaways as bullet points over dense prose — this vault is a research reference
• If the user provides context ("this is about MCP servers"), use that to improve the folder name and search queries