Obsidian Markdown

obsidian-markdown: Obsidian Flavored Markdown

Reference this skill when writing any wiki page. Obsidian extends standard Markdown with wikilinks, embeds, callouts, and properties. Getting syntax wrong causes broken links, invisible callouts, or malformed frontmatter.

Substrate preference (v1.7+): This skill is a self-contained fallback. Prefer kepano/obsidian-skills (by Steph Ango, Obsidian CEO) as the authoritative substrate — its obsidian-markdown skill is the canonical Obsidian syntax reference for any Agent Skills runtime. If that separate skill is available, use it. The reference below keeps Maz Works Knowledge Vault functional when kepano's marketplace is not installed. Install: claude plugin marketplace add kepano/obsidian-skills. Repo: github.com/kepano/obsidian-skills.

Wikilinks

Internal links use double brackets. The filename without extension.

Rules:

• Case-sensitive on some systems. Match the exact filename.
• No path needed: Obsidian resolves by filename uniqueness.
• If two files have the same name, use [[Folder/Note Name]] to disambiguate.

Embeds

Embeds use ! before the wikilink. They display the content inline.

Callouts

Callouts are blockquotes with a type keyword. They render as styled alert boxes.

> [!note]
> Default informational callout.

> [!note] Custom Title
> Callout with a custom title.

> [!note]- Collapsible (closed by default)
> Click to expand.

> [!note]+ Collapsible (open by default)
> Click to collapse.

All callout types

Properties (Frontmatter)

Obsidian renders YAML frontmatter as a Properties panel. Rules:

---
type: concept                    # plain string
title: "Note Title"              # quoted if it contains special chars
created: 2026-04-08              # date as YYYY-MM-DD (not ISO datetime)
updated: 2026-04-08
tags:
  - tag-one                      # list items use - format
  - tag-two
status: developing
related:
  - "[[Other Note]]"             # wikilinks must be quoted in YAML
sources:
  - "[[source-page]]"
---

Rules:

• Flat YAML only. Never nest objects.
• Dates as YYYY-MM-DD, not 2026-04-08T00:00:00.
• Lists as - item, not inline [a, b, c].
• Wikilinks in YAML must be quoted: "[[Page]]".
• tags field: Obsidian reads this as the tag list, searchable in vault.

Tags

Two valid forms:

#tag-name             : inline tag anywhere in the body
#parent/child-tag     : nested tag (shows hierarchy in tag pane)

In frontmatter:

tags:
  - research
  - ai/obsidian

Do not use # inside frontmatter tag lists. Just the tag name.

Text Formatting

Standard Markdown plus Obsidian extensions:

Math

Obsidian uses MathJax/KaTeX:

Inline math:

$E = mc^2$

Block math:

$$
\int_0^\infty e^{-x} dx = 1
$$

Code Blocks

Standard fenced code blocks. Obsidian highlights all common languages:

```python
def hello():
    return "world"
```

Tables

Standard Markdown tables:

| Column A | Column B | Column C |
|----------|----------|----------|
| Value    | Value    | Value    |
| Value    | Value    | Value    |

Obsidian renders tables natively. No plugin needed.

Mermaid Diagrams

Obsidian renders Mermaid natively:

```mermaid
graph TD
    A[Start] --> B{Decision}
    B -->|Yes| C[End]
    B -->|No| D[Loop]
    D --> A
```

Supported: graph, sequenceDiagram, gantt, classDiagram, pie, flowchart.

Footnotes

This sentence has a footnote.[^1]

[^1]: The footnote text goes here.

What NOT to Do

• Do not use [link text](path/to/note.md) for internal links: use [[Note Name]] instead.
• Do not use HTML inside callouts: stick to Markdown.
• Do not use ## inside a callout body: headings don't render inside callouts.
• Do not write tags: [a, b, c] inline in frontmatter: Obsidian prefers the list format.
• Do not write ISO datetimes in frontmatter (2026-04-08T00:00:00Z): use 2026-04-08.

How to think (10-principle mapping)

When working on this skill, apply the 10-principle loop. See skills/think/SKILL.md for the canonical framework.