Obsidian Inbox

Obsidian Inbox Skill

Processes unsorted notes in /Users/ikatkov/Obsidian/Default/inbox/ into properly-formatted notes in the correct subfolder.

When to invoke

• User drops a raw .md file in /Users/ikatkov/Obsidian/Default/inbox/ (containing a URL, pasted text, optionally images) and asks to process it.
• User says any of: "sort my inbox", "file this", "clean up the new note", "process inbox".
• User explicitly invokes via /obsidian-inbox or Skill tool.

If multiple unsorted files exist, ask which one (or "all").

Workflow

1. Read the vault entry point

Read /Users/ikatkov/Obsidian/Default/inbox/CONVENTIONS.md first. It's the source of truth for the workflow, shared rules (image-filename uniqueness, frontmatter dates, language preservation), and the table of subfolders → convention docs. The skill instructions you're reading now are the trigger / driver; the vault file is the data.

2. Locate the unsorted note

ls /Users/ikatkov/Obsidian/Default/inbox/*.md — any .md files at the root of inbox/ (not inside a subfolder) are unsorted. Also list any loose images (.webp, .png, .jpg) at the root in case they belong to the note.

3. Read the raw note + classify

Read the raw note. Apply the classification heuristics from inbox/CONVENTIONS.md:

If none fit, ask the user whether to create a new subfolder; if yes, also generate a new conventions.md for it using the existing ones as a template.

4. Read the matching conventions

Read /Users/ikatkov/Obsidian/Default/inbox/<folder>/conventions.md. It contains the exact frontmatter shape, body sections, image widths, and tag rules you must follow — do not invent.

5. Gather any external info needed

• Movies: fetch IMDb (title, year, director, cinematographer, country, genre). If the raw note already has these, skip.
• Books: fetch Goodreads (rating, ratings_count, pages, blurb). Required.
• Poses / travel / ideas: if the source is an Instagram reel and the raw note doesn't already include stills, use yt-dlp (for reels) or instagram-gallery-download (for /p/ posts) skills to pull media. For poses, follow the frame-selection rule in poses/conventions.md (darker graded final-pose frames, not demo/motion frames with numbered badges).

6. Process images

For every image that will end up in the new note:

1. Convert to .webp if not already: magick input.jpg -quality 85 output.webp. Delete the original.
2. Choose a vault-globally-unique filename. Prefix with a category slug or note slug — never use generic cover.webp / poster.webp / screenshot.webp. The exact naming pattern is in the matching conventions.md (e.g. movies use <film-slug>.webp, travel uses <region-slug>-NN.webp).
3. Verify uniqueness: find /Users/ikatkov/Obsidian/Default -name "<new-filename>" should return zero matches.
4. Move into <folder>/attachments/<note-slug>/.

7. Generate the final note

Write the new .md file directly into <folder>/, following the matching conventions.md precisely:

• Frontmatter shape per the convention (date created/modified to current time in Month Dth YYYY, h:mm:ss am/pm format).
• Image embeds with the correct width (|200).
• Tag taxonomy from that folder's convention. Do not invent new top-level namespaces. No inbox/* tags, no year-as-tag.
• Body structure (sections, headings) exactly as the convention specifies.
• Language: keep source language for title:, summary:, and body.

8. Clean up

• Delete the original raw .md from inbox/ root only after confirming with the user that the new note looks right.
• Delete any temp / original-format images.
• If a new subfolder was created, ensure its conventions.md is in place and the row in inbox/CONVENTIONS.md is updated.

Failure modes to avoid

• Generic image filenames. This is the single biggest pitfall — Obsidian wikilinks collide across the whole vault by filename alone. Always prefix.
• Inventing new tags. Use the namespaces in the folder's conventions.md. If you genuinely need a new tag, surface it to the user before writing.
• Translating Russian titles / summaries. Russian source → Russian text. Don't be helpful by Englishifying.
• Skipping Goodreads enrichment for books. Required step, not optional.
• Deleting the raw inbox file before the user has eyeballed the result. Always confirm.

References

• Vault entry point: /Users/ikatkov/Obsidian/Default/inbox/CONVENTIONS.md
• Per-folder conventions:
  • inbox/movies/conventions.md
  • inbox/books/conventions.md
  • inbox/ideas/conventions.md
  • inbox/poses/conventions.md
  • inbox/travel/conventions.md