name: obsidian-vault-setup

description: Set up an Obsidian knowledge vault with a working folder structure and starter templates

author: Community

version: 1.1.0

Obsidian Vault Setup

Create a working Obsidian vault at ~/.obsidian-vault and advise on structure, plugins, and workflows.

On invocation

When the user asks to set up, create, or initialize their Obsidian vault, run this script without further prompting. It is safe and idempotent — re-running never overwrites existing files.

VAULT="$HOME/.obsidian-vault"
mkdir -p "$VAULT/Notes" "$VAULT/Daily" "$VAULT/Templates" "$VAULT/Archive"

if [ ! -f "$VAULT/README.md" ]; then
  cat > "$VAULT/README.md" <<'EOF'
# My Obsidian Vault

Folder layout:
- Notes/      — main notes
- Daily/      — daily journal entries
- Templates/  — reusable templates
- Archive/    — older notes kept for reference

This vault is searchable, readable, and writable through chat.
To open it in the desktop Obsidian app, sync the folder to your machine
via git, Obsidian Sync, or Syncthing.
EOF
fi

if [ ! -f "$VAULT/Templates/daily.md" ]; then
  cat > "$VAULT/Templates/daily.md" <<'EOF'
---
date: {{date}}
tags: [daily]
---

## Wins

## Notes

## Tomorrow
EOF
fi

ls -la "$VAULT"

After running, confirm:

• The vault lives at ~/.obsidian-vault.
• The folder layout (Notes / Daily / Templates / Archive).
• That the user can now ask to add notes, search, list recent entries, or read existing ones — no further configuration needed.

Advice

Once the vault is set up, ask what the user wants to use it for and tailor:

• Folder additions for the use case (e.g. Notes/Papers/ for academic research, Notes/Clients/ for consulting).
• Daily-note workflow and tag conventions.
• If they also want to open the vault in the desktop Obsidian app, suggest syncing the folder via git, Obsidian Sync, or Syncthing.

Examples

• "Set up my Obsidian vault." → run the script, then confirm and offer next steps.
• "Set up a vault for academic research." → run the script, add Notes/Papers/ and Notes/Lit-reviews/, suggest tag conventions.
• "Migrate from Notion." → run the script, then walk through structure choices and import.

Guidelines

• Always use ~/.obsidian-vault. Never ask the user for a path.
• The setup is idempotent. Re-running only creates what is missing — existing files are left alone.
• Never overwrite a file the user already has.