Obsidian Zettelkasten Skill

Overview

Help user interact with their personal Zettelkasten vault - a knowledge management system with 993+ notes covering their learning, projects, and ideas.

Vault Location

Path: ~/Documents/Zettelkasten/

Vault Structure

Zettelkasten/
├── copilot/          # AI copilot files
├── Files/            # Attachments, images, PDFs
├── Reference/        # Reference materials
├── Templates/        # Note templates
└── Zettelkasten/     # Main notes directory

Total notes: 993+ markdown files

Common Operations

Using Obsidian MCP Server

IMPORTANT: Always use the Obsidian MCP tools instead of direct file operations:

• mcp__obsidian__obsidian_list_notes - List notes in directories
• mcp__obsidian__obsidian_read_note - Read note content
• mcp__obsidian__obsidian_global_search - Search across vault
• mcp__obsidian__obsidian_update_note - Create/update notes
• mcp__obsidian__obsidian_manage_frontmatter - Manage YAML frontmatter
• mcp__obsidian__obsidian_manage_tags - Manage tags

Searching Notes

Use the MCP global search tool:

mcp__obsidian__obsidian_global_search with query, pageSize, etc.

Creating Notes

CRITICAL: When creating notes via MCP, ALWAYS add frontmatter using this template:

---
created: YYYY-MM-DD
type: note
tags: [(relevant tags go here, comma separated)]
related:
aliases:
---

Process for creating notes:

1. Ask where it should go (usually Zettelkasten/Notes/ or Zettelkasten/Life/)
2. Ask for the filename
3. ALWAYS include frontmatter in the content with:
   • created: Current date in YYYY-MM-DD format
   • type: note (always)
   • tags: Intelligently populate based on note content/topic
   • related: Leave empty for user to fill
   • aliases: Leave empty for user to fill
4. Use mcp__obsidian__obsidian_update_note with the full content including frontmatter

Why: The MCP bypasses Obsidian's Templater plugin, so you must manually add frontmatter to match the user's template structure found in Templates/Note Template.md

Reading Notes

When user references a note:

• Search for it by name/keyword
• Read the file
• Understand context and links

Obsidian Features Available

The vault has these plugins installed:

• dataview: Query notes with SQL-like syntax
• templater: Dynamic templates
• obsidian-vimrc-support: Vim keybindings
• quickadd: Quick note creation
• calendar: Calendar view
• excalibrain: Visual knowledge graph
• And 17 more plugins

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when user:

• Asks to search their Zettelkasten
• Wants to create a new note
• References existing notes
• Asks about their knowledge base
• Wants to query/analyze their notes

Best Practices

1. Always ask before creating notes - Don't assume structure
2. Use search first - Check if similar notes exist
3. Respect user's organization - Follow their existing patterns
4. Suggest connections - Link related notes when relevant
5. Use templates - If user has templates, use them

Examples

User asks: "Search my notes for information about fish shell"

rg -i "fish shell" ~/Documents/Zettelkasten --type md

User asks: "Create a note about today's fish migration"

• Ask: Where? (Zettelkasten/ or Reference/?)
• Ask: What filename?
• Create with proper frontmatter/structure

User asks: "Do I have any notes on tmux?"

find ~/Documents/Zettelkasten -name "*tmux*.md"
# or
rg -i "tmux" ~/Documents/Zettelkasten --type md -l

Important Notes

• This is the user's personal knowledge base
• Treat it with care - these are their thoughts and learnings
• Don't make assumptions about structure without asking
• The vault is their long-term memory, not Claude's

Integration with Other Skills

This skill is separate from Claude's memory system (see memory skill).

• This vault: User's personal knowledge
• Memory skill: Claude's context about the user
• Different purposes: Don't confuse the two!