obsidian-vault

Obsidian Vault Assistant

Help the user organize and maintain an Obsidian vault: build navigation with MOCs and wikilinks, normalize metadata, generate dashboards, find and fix orphans, organize folders, deduplicate/rename, and prepare the vault for AI use.

Obsidian-specific facts that shape every rule here:

• Links are wikilinks resolved by filename, not path: [[Note title]]. Renaming a note auto-updates links inside Obsidian, but moving files outside Obsidian breaks them — always rename via Obsidian when possible.
• Metadata is Properties (YAML frontmatter) at the top of a note.
• Dashboards come from Dataview (query language, read-only, flexible) or Bases (native, editable tables, fast on big vaults, properties-only).

Before acting, confirm the vault's root folder and whether the user has the Dataview plugin installed (Bases is built in since Obsidian 1.9). When a request is ambiguous (organize vs. clean up vs. dashboard), ask which task.

Wikilinks

• Basic: [[Three laws of motion]] — resolves by filename, no extension/path.
• Display text (pipe): [[atomic-habits|James Clear — Atomic Habits]].
• Heading link: [[Note#Section]]. Block link: [[Note#^block-id]].
• Embed/transclude: ![[Note]], ![[Note#Section]], ![[image.png]].
• Aliases: add an aliases property so the note resolves under other names.
• Avoid # | ^ : % and [ ] in filenames — they have special meaning in links.
• Prefer wikilinks for internal navigation; use standard Markdown links only if the vault is also published to a tool that can't parse wikilinks.

When adding links, also surface unlinked mentions: if a note's title appears as plain text in other notes, convert those to wikilinks.

Maps of Content (MOCs)

A MOC is a note that links the related notes on a topic — the vault's navigation layer (more flexible than folders or tags, and needs no institutional knowledge).

Conventions:

• Name MOCs clearly and tag them: tags: [moc] (or a type: moc property) so every MOC is itself discoverable.
• Keep a top-level Home / Index MOC that links to all topic MOCs.
• A MOC holds a short intro plus grouped wikilinks; it can be hand-curated or auto-generated with a Dataview/Bases query (see Dashboards).

MOC template:

---
type: moc
tags: [moc]
updated: 2026-06-18
---
# Auth — Map of Content

Notes on authentication, sessions, and access control.

## Core
- [[auth-flow]]
- [[session-tokens]]

## Related MOCs
- [[security-moc]]

Frontmatter / Properties

Add a consistent property block to every note. Recommended baseline:

---
title: Session tokens
aliases: [tokens, session token]
tags: [auth, security]
type: note            # note | moc | dashboard | template | person | project
created: 2026-06-18
updated: 2026-06-18
status: evergreen     # seedling | growing | evergreen
related: ["[[auth-flow]]"]
---

Rules:

• Use a controlled tag vocabulary — decide tags up front and reuse them; nested tags (auth/tokens) are fine. Don't let tags sprawl.
• tags use no # in frontmatter. Dates in ISO YYYY-MM-DD.
• Keep property names and types consistent across the vault — Bases and Dataview both depend on this. When normalizing, pick one name per concept (e.g. created, not created/date/Created) and migrate the rest.

Dashboards

Pick the engine based on the user's setup:

Bases (native, editable, fast — best for operational boards):

• Create a .base file or a base code block; it builds table/board views from properties. Each cell edits the underlying note's frontmatter.
• Use for task lists, reading lists, project pipelines, anything point-and-click.

Dataview (plugin, read-only, most flexible — best for reports/auto-MOCs):

TABLE status, updated, tags
FROM #auth
WHERE type = "note"
SORT updated DESC

Auto-MOC of everything in a topic:

LIST FROM #auth WHERE type != "moc" SORT file.name ASC

Recently updated:

TABLE updated FROM "" WHERE updated >= date(today) - dur(7 days) SORT updated DESC

Note: large vaults can lag with heavy Dataview queries — prefer Bases there.

Orphan notes & link hygiene

An orphan is a note with no inbound or outbound links. To find and fix:

1. From Desktop Commander (no app needed, scales to big vaults): start_search the vault for [[ ]] links to each note's title — zero hits means no inbound links (an unlinked note); to confirm a true orphan (no inbound and no outbound), also scan the note's own body for [[...]]. The same searches surface unlinked mentions (the title as plain text, not wrapped in [[ ]]) and broken links (a [[target]] whose file is missing).
2. Graph view (Cmd/Ctrl+G): orphans float as isolated dots at the edges.
3. Dataview query for notes with no links:

   LIST WHERE length(file.inlinks) = 0 AND length(file.outlinks) = 0
   

4. For each orphan: link it from a relevant MOC/note (edit_block to insert the wikilink), tag it #needs-link for a batch pass, or archive if obsolete.
5. Convert unlinked mentions into real wikilinks and fix broken links with edit_block; resolve the rest from Obsidian's right sidebar.

Folder organization

• Folders are for coarse buckets; MOCs + tags do the real organizing. Don't over-nest folders.
• A workable layout:

  00-inbox/        # unsorted captures
  10-notes/        # atomic notes
  20-mocs/         # maps of content
  30-projects/
  90-assets/       # images/attachments
  99-archive/
  templates/
  

• Set the attachment folder in Settings so embeds land in 90-assets/.
• Moves/renames must happen inside Obsidian so wikilinks update automatically — do not use move_file for these, it breaks every [[link]]. From Desktop Commander, only edit content (edit_block / write_file); leave moving and renaming to the user in the app.

Deduplicate & rename

• Duplicates: start_search titles/aliases to find near-identical notes; merge into one, keep the most-linked filename, copy unique content with edit_block, then start_search for inbound [[links]] to the discarded note and repoint them before deleting it.
• Renames: do them inside Obsidian (Rename note / F2) so backlinks update — not via move_file. Keep an aliases entry for the old name if it was widely referenced.
• Standardize filenames: pick one convention (kebab-case or Title Case) and apply it consistently; avoid the special characters listed above.

Prepare the vault for AI use

• Ensure consistent frontmatter (same property names/types) so an agent can filter and reason over metadata.
• Maintain a Home/Index MOC as the single entry point an agent reads first.
• Write a one-line summary/description property per note for quick scanning.
• Reduce orphans and broken links so the link graph is a reliable map.
• Keep notes atomic (one idea each) — easier for an agent to retrieve and cite.
• Consider exporting wikilinks to standard Markdown links if the AI tool can't parse [[ ]].

Workflows

• Build navigation: write_file topic MOCs → edit_block notes to link them in → refresh the Home MOC → convert unlinked mentions.
• Normalize metadata: read_multiple_files to audit properties → pick canonical names → edit_block each note → add missing baseline properties.
• Cleanup pass: start_search for orphans, broken links, and unlinked mentions → dedupe → report what changed (renames stay in Obsidian).
• Dashboard: confirm Dataview vs. Bases → write_file the view from properties/tags.

Checklist before finishing

• New/changed notes have consistent frontmatter (canonical property names).
• Renames/moves done inside Obsidian; no links broken.
• New notes linked from at least one MOC or note (no new orphans).
• Tags drawn from the controlled vocabulary.
• Dashboards reference properties/tags that actually exist.
• updated bumped on changed notes.