Use Obsidian With The Vault

How to set up Obsidian on the vault

Note

Part of the Vault Storage & Presentation Design — the optional presentation layer over either transport. Goal: Set up a comfortable Obsidian configuration over the vault — the right plugins, settings, and templates — so notes read and link well. Prereqs: Obsidian installed; the vault already backed by a transport (vault-git or Back the vault with Google Drive).

The vault is a folder of markdown, so you can read and edit it with any text editor, the CLI, or a chat connector. Obsidian is an optional app on top of that folder: it adds a linked-notes view — graph, live backlinks, and Dataview dashboards — that makes a growing vault easier to navigate. The memory engine already writes the frontmatter and [[wikilinks]] Obsidian reads, so most of the value is there the moment you open the folder.

Obsidian sits on top of whichever transport you chose — git or Drive — and works the same either way: it reads the files, the transport moves them. It stays optional, so reach for it when the graph and dashboards help, and use a plain editor when that's enough (see Running without Obsidian). This page provides setup instructions for Obsidian with your vault.

Prerequisites

• Obsidian installed (desktop; mobile optional).
• The vault folder, already (optionally) backed by vault-git or Back the vault with Google Drive.

Steps

1. Open the vault in Obsidian. Launch Obsidian → Open folder as vault → select the vault folder. On mobile, use the same Open folder as vault and pick the synced folder.

2. Turn on community plugins. Settings → Community plugins → Turn on community plugins. Then Browse, and install:

   • Dataview — read-only dashboards (counts by status, recent notes, orphans).
   • Obsidian Git — install this one only if your transport is git (vault-git); it pulls and commits from inside Obsidian.

   Enable each plugin after it installs.

3. Configure Obsidian Git (git transport only). Settings → Obsidian Git:

   • Pull on startup → on.
   • Commit-and-sync interval → e.g. 10 minutes.
   • Pull updates on interval → match the commit interval.

   This keeps the local clone current while you work, so your other devices and the autosync hook stay in step.

4. Turn on the linking panes. Settings → Core plugins → enable Backlinks and Outgoing links, then open them from the right sidebar — the vault is meant to be read as a linked graph.

5. Install the templates pack (planned — the pack ships with this how-to once built). Copy the templates into a Templates/ folder at the vault root, then Settings → Core plugins → Templates → set Template folder location to Templates. The pack's entry and map-of-content (MOC) templates match the agent's writing conventions, so your hand-written notes sit alongside agent-written ones.

6. Check the vault's health (recommended). Catch broken wikilinks, missing frontmatter, and orphaned notes as the vault grows:

   /doctor          # in a host that ships the doctor skill

   Fix what it flags, or ask the agent to.

Running without Obsidian

Obsidian is optional — the vault is plain markdown, so every workflow stands on its own without it:

• A plain text editor — open and edit the .md files directly.
• The CLI or the agent — capture and recall run through agentm directly.
• A chat connector — read the vault from Claude.ai or Gemini over the GitHub connector (git transport).

Obsidian adds graph view, live backlinks, and dashboards on top; pick it up when those earn their place.

Troubleshooting

• Broken wikilinks or orphaned notes pile up: run /doctor to list them, then relink or remove.
• Dataview dashboards show nothing: the queried frontmatter fields are missing — recreate the note from a templates-pack template (step 5), which supplies them.
• Obsidian Git stalls on mobile: mobile is git's weak spot — use Working Copy + Obsidian on iOS instead (see vault-git).

Related

• Vault Storage & Presentation Design — where Obsidian fits as the optional presentation layer over either transport.
• vault-git · Back the vault with Google Drive — the transports Obsidian reads on top of.
• Memory↔Storage Seam — the storage backend Obsidian reads through.
• Vault lint checks — what /doctor inspects on the vault (broken wikilinks, frontmatter, orphans).