Obsidian Notetaker

Obsidian Notetaker

Environment

The Obsidian vault lives at /media/psf/Home/obsidian/ (a macOS Parallels shared folder). It is a git repository — commit and push changes when asked to save or sync.

VAULT=/media/psf/Home/obsidian

The ob CLI (~/.config/bin/ob) opens notes interactively in nvim. For non-interactive agent use, operate directly on vault files with standard shell tools.

Workflow Decision Tree

Finding a note? → Use find + grep/rg (see Finding Notes)
Creating a new note? → Write file with frontmatter + commit (see Creating Notes)
Editing an existing note? → Read → edit → commit (see Editing Notes)
Updating _todo.md? → Read file, apply checkbox changes, write back (see TODOs)
Syncing/committing? → See Committing & Syncing

Finding Notes

VAULT=/media/psf/Home/obsidian

# List all notes
find "$VAULT" -name "*.md" -not -path "*/.git/*" | sort

# Fuzzy search by filename
find "$VAULT" -name "*keyword*" -not -path "*/.git/*"

# Full-text search
rg -l "search term" "$VAULT" --glob "*.md" --ignore-file <(echo ".git")

# Show matching lines with context
rg -n "search term" "$VAULT" --glob "*.md" -g "!.git"

Creating Notes

New notes use YAML frontmatter. Match existing style:

---
id: Note Title
aliases:
  - Note Title
tags:
  - tag1
  - tag2
created: 2026-03-27T10:00
---

# Note Title

Content here.

Create the file, then commit:

VAULT=/media/psf/Home/obsidian

# Create parent dirs if needed
mkdir -p "$VAULT/Tech/AI"

# Write note (use write tool or heredoc)
# Then commit
git -C "$VAULT" add .
git -C "$VAULT" commit -m "docs: add note - Note Title"

Naming: Use descriptive kebab-case filenames or natural names matching the id field.
Location: Match the topic to existing vault folders (Tech/, Work/, notes/, ideas/, etc).

Editing Notes

1. Read the file with the read tool.
2. Make edits with the edit tool (preserve frontmatter exactly).
3. Update modified: timestamp in frontmatter if it exists.
4. Commit.

TODO Lists

The vault has two main TODO files:

• $VAULT/_todo.md — personal todos
• $VAULT/Work/_todo.md — work todos

Checking off a task

Find the line, change - [ ] to - [x]:

# Preview the task
grep -n "task description" /media/psf/Home/obsidian/_todo.md

Then use the edit tool to change - [ ] task description → - [x] task description.

Adding a task

Append to the active task list (before the - [x] completed section):

# Check current structure
grep -n "^\- \[" /media/psf/Home/obsidian/_todo.md | head -20

Use the edit tool to insert - [ ] new task at the right position.

Adding to Incoming.md

$VAULT/Incoming.md is the capture inbox for unprocessed resources and ideas. Append new items under the relevant ## section or at the top of ## 📚 Pending Resources.

Committing & Syncing

VAULT=/media/psf/Home/obsidian

# Check what's changed
git -C "$VAULT" status --short

# Stage and commit
git -C "$VAULT" add .
git -C "$VAULT" commit -m "docs: <description of changes>"

# Sync (pull then push)
git -C "$VAULT" pull --rebase && git -C "$VAULT" push

Commit message conventions:

• New notes: docs: add note - <title>
• Edits: docs: update <filename>
• TODOs: chore: update _todo.md
• Bulk captures: chore: capture inbox items
• Auto-style WIP: WIP: <description>

Vault Structure

obsidian/
├── _todo.md          Personal TODO list
├── Incoming.md       Capture inbox (unprocessed resources)
├── Agile/            Agile / lean engineering notes
├── Books/            Book notes
├── DevOps/           DevOps topics
├── ideas/            Speculative / brainstorming notes
├── notes/
│   ├── dailies/      Daily notes
│   ├── meetings/     Meeting notes
│   └── weeks/        Weekly reviews
├── Personal/         Personal notes
├── Projects/         Project notes
├── Scratch/          Scratch / drafts
├── Work/             Work notes
│   └── _todo.md      Work TODO list
└── Tech/             Technology notes
    └── AI/           AI-specific notes