obsidian-markdown

Obsidian Flavored Markdown Skill

This skill enables skills-compatible agents to create and edit valid Obsidian Flavored Markdown, including all Obsidian-specific syntax extensions.

Default Output Location

When this skill creates new Obsidian Markdown files (i.e. the user has not given an explicit destination path), write them to:

/Users/dannychou/danObsidian/ai-draft/

Rules:

• Default path: /Users/dannychou/danObsidian/ai-draft/<filename>.md. This directory is the user's Obsidian "AI draft" inbox — putting new notes here lets the user review/triage them inside Obsidian before filing.
• User override wins: if the user specifies any output path (absolute path, relative path, "save it to X", "put it in my inbox folder", "in this repo", etc.), use that path instead and do not fall back to the default.
• Editing existing files: when the user asks to edit/update an existing .md file, edit it in place at its current location. Do not move or copy it into the default directory.
• Filename: derive a short, descriptive kebab-case or 空格分隔 filename from the note's topic (Obsidian handles spaces fine). Use .md extension. Avoid characters that break wikilinks: [ ] | # ^ \ /.
• Don't create the directory: it already exists. If a write fails because it's missing, surface the error to the user rather than silently creating directories elsewhere.

Overview

Obsidian uses a combination of Markdown flavors:

• CommonMark
• GitHub Flavored Markdown
• LaTeX for math
• Obsidian-specific extensions (wikilinks, callouts, embeds, etc.)

Basic Formatting

Paragraphs and Line Breaks

This is a paragraph.

This is another paragraph (blank line between creates separate paragraphs).

For a line break within a paragraph, add two spaces at the end  
or use Shift+Enter.

Headings

# Heading 1
## Heading 2
### Heading 3
#### Heading 4
##### Heading 5
###### Heading 6

Text Formatting

Style	Syntax	Example	Output
Bold	**text** or __text__	**Bold**	Bold
Italic	*text* or _text_	*Italic*	Italic
Bold + Italic	***text***	***Both***	Both
Strikethrough	~~text~~	~~Striked~~	Striked
Highlight	==text==	==Highlighted==	==Highlighted==
Inline code	`code`	`code`	code

Escaping Formatting

Use backslash to escape special characters:

\*This won't be italic\*
\#This won't be a heading
1\. This won't be a list item

Common characters to escape: \*, \_, \#, \`, \|, \~

Internal Links (Wikilinks)

Basic Links

[[Note Name]]
[[Note Name.md]]
[[Note Name|Display Text]]

Link to Headings

[[Note Name#Heading]]
[[Note Name#Heading|Custom Text]]
[[#Heading in same note]]
[[##Search all headings in vault]]

Link to Blocks

[[Note Name#^block-id]]
[[Note Name#^block-id|Custom Text]]

Define a block ID by adding ^block-id at the end of a paragraph:

This is a paragraph that can be linked to. ^my-block-id

For lists and quotes, add the block ID on a separate line:

> This is a quote
> With multiple lines

^quote-id

Search Links

[[##heading]]     Search for headings containing "heading"
[[^^block]]       Search for blocks containing "block"

Markdown-Style Links

[Display Text](Note%20Name.md)
[Display Text](Note%20Name.md#Heading)
[Display Text](https://example.com)
[Note](obsidian://open?vault=VaultName&file=Note.md)

Note: Spaces must be URL-encoded as %20 in Markdown links.

Embeds

Embed Notes

![[Note Name]]
![[Note Name#Heading]]
![[Note Name#^block-id]]

Embed Images

![[image.png]]
![[image.png|640x480]]    Width x Height
![[image.png|300]]        Width only (maintains aspect ratio)

External Images

![Alt text](https://example.com/image.png)
![Alt text|300](https://example.com/image.png)

Embed Audio

![[audio.mp3]]
![[audio.ogg]]

Embed PDF

![[document.pdf]]
![[document.pdf#page=3]]
![[document.pdf#height=400]]

Embed Lists

![[Note#^list-id]]

Where the list has been defined with a block ID:

- Item 1
- Item 2
- Item 3

^list-id

Embed Search Results

```query
tag:#project status:done
```

Callouts

Basic Callout

> [!note]
> This is a note callout.

> [!info] Custom Title
> This callout has a custom title.

> [!tip] Title Only

Foldable Callouts

> [!faq]- Collapsed by default
> This content is hidden until expanded.

> [!faq]+ Expanded by default
> This content is visible but can be collapsed.

Nested Callouts

> [!question] Outer callout
> > [!note] Inner callout
> > Nested content

Supported Callout Types

Type	Aliases	Description
note	-	Blue, pencil icon
abstract	summary, tldr	Teal, clipboard icon
info	-	Blue, info icon
todo	-	Blue, checkbox icon
tip	hint, important	Cyan, flame icon
success	check, done	Green, checkmark icon
question	help, faq	Yellow, question mark
warning	caution, attention	Orange, warning icon
failure	fail, missing	Red, X icon
danger	error	Red, zap icon
bug	-	Red, bug icon
example	-	Purple, list icon
quote	cite	Gray, quote icon

Custom Callouts (CSS)

.callout[data-callout="custom-type"] {
  --callout-color: 255, 0, 0;
  --callout-icon: lucide-alert-circle;
}

Lists

Unordered Lists

- Item 1
- Item 2
  - Nested item
  - Another nested
- Item 3

* Also works with asterisks
+ Or plus signs

Ordered Lists

1. First item
2. Second item
   1. Nested numbered
   2. Another nested
3. Third item

1) Alternative syntax
2) With parentheses

Task Lists

- [ ] Incomplete task
- [x] Completed task
- [ ] Task with sub-tasks
  - [ ] Subtask 1
  - [x] Subtask 2

Quotes

> This is a blockquote.
> It can span multiple lines.
>
> And include multiple paragraphs.
>
> > Nested quotes work too.

Code

Inline Code

Use `backticks` for inline code.
Use double backticks for ``code with a ` backtick inside``.

Code Blocks

```
Plain code block
```

```javascript
// Syntax highlighted code block
function hello() {
  console.log("Hello, world!");
}
```

```python
# Python example
def greet(name):
    print(f"Hello, {name}!")
```

Nesting Code Blocks

Use more backticks or tildes for the outer block:

````markdown
Here's how to create a code block:
```js
console.log("Hello")
```
````

Tables

| Header 1 | Header 2 | Header 3 |
|----------|----------|----------|
| Cell 1   | Cell 2   | Cell 3   |
| Cell 4   | Cell 5   | Cell 6   |

Alignment

| Left     | Center   | Right    |
|:---------|:--------:|---------:|
| Left     | Center   | Right    |

Using Pipes in Tables

Escape pipes with backslash:

| Column 1 | Column 2 |
|----------|----------|
| [[Link\|Display]] | ![[Image\|100]] |

Math (LaTeX)

Inline Math

This is inline math: $e^{i\pi} + 1 = 0$

Block Math

$$
\begin{vmatrix}
a & b \\
c & d
\end{vmatrix} = ad - bc
$$

Common Math Syntax

$x^2$              Superscript
$x_i$              Subscript
$\frac{a}{b}$      Fraction
$\sqrt{x}$         Square root
$\sum_{i=1}^{n}$   Summation
$\int_a^b$         Integral
$\alpha, \beta$    Greek letters

Diagrams (Mermaid)

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

Sequence Diagrams

```mermaid
sequenceDiagram
    Alice->>Bob: Hello Bob
    Bob-->>Alice: Hi Alice
```

Linking in Diagrams

```mermaid
graph TD
    A[Biology]
    B[Chemistry]
    A --> B
    class A,B internal-link;
```

Footnotes

This sentence has a footnote[^1].

[^1]: This is the footnote content.

You can also use named footnotes[^note].

[^note]: Named footnotes still appear as numbers.

Inline footnotes are also supported.^[This is an inline footnote.]

Comments

This is visible %%but this is hidden%% text.

%%
This entire block is hidden.
It won't appear in reading view.
%%

Horizontal Rules

---
***
___
- - -
* * *

Properties (Frontmatter)

Properties use YAML frontmatter at the start of a note:

---
title: My Note Title
date: 2024-01-15
tags:
  - project
  - important
aliases:
  - My Note
  - Alternative Name
cssclasses:
  - custom-class
status: in-progress
rating: 4.5
completed: false
due: 2024-02-01T14:30:00
---

Property Types

Type	Example
Text	title: My Title
Number	rating: 4.5
Checkbox	completed: true
Date	date: 2024-01-15
Date & Time	due: 2024-01-15T14:30:00
List	tags: [one, two] or YAML list
Links	related: "[[Other Note]]"

Default Properties

• tags - Note tags
• aliases - Alternative names for the note
• cssclasses - CSS classes applied to the note

Tags

#tag
#nested/tag
#tag-with-dashes
#tag_with_underscores

In frontmatter:
---
tags:
  - tag1
  - nested/tag2
---

Tags can contain:

• Letters (any language)
• Numbers (not as first character)
• Underscores _
• Hyphens -
• Forward slashes / (for nesting)

HTML Content

Obsidian supports HTML within Markdown:

<div class="custom-container">
  <span style="color: red;">Colored text</span>
</div>

<details>
  <summary>Click to expand</summary>
  Hidden content here.
</details>

<kbd>Ctrl</kbd> + <kbd>C</kbd>

Complete Example

---
title: Project Alpha
date: 2024-01-15
tags:
  - project
  - active
status: in-progress
priority: high
---

# Project Alpha

## Overview

This project aims to [[improve workflow]] using modern techniques.

> [!important] Key Deadline
> The first milestone is due on ==January 30th==.

## Tasks

- [x] Initial planning
- [x] Resource allocation
- [ ] Development phase
  - [ ] Backend implementation
  - [ ] Frontend design
- [ ] Testing
- [ ] Deployment

## Technical Notes

The main algorithm uses the formula $O(n \log n)$ for sorting.

```python
def process_data(items):
    return sorted(items, key=lambda x: x.priority)
```

## Architecture

```mermaid
graph LR
    A[Input] --> B[Process]
    B --> C[Output]
    B --> D[Cache]
```

## Related Documents

- ![[Meeting Notes 2024-01-10#Decisions]]
- [[Budget Allocation|Budget]]
- [[Team Members]]

## References

For more details, see the official documentation[^1].

[^1]: https://example.com/docs

%%
Internal notes:
- Review with team on Friday
- Consider alternative approaches
%%

References

• Basic formatting syntax
• Advanced formatting syntax
• Obsidian Flavored Markdown
• Internal links
• Embed files
• Callouts
• Properties