Obsidian vault management

Obsidian Vault Management

Vault Structure (PARA-Based)

This vault uses a PARA-like organization:

Folder	Purpose
00 - Maps of Content	Index notes linking related topics
01 - Projects	Active project notes
02 - Areas	Ongoing responsibilities
03 - Resources	Reference materials
04 - Permanent	Evergreen/zettelkasten notes
05 - Fleeting	Quick capture notes
06 - Daily	Daily notes (YYYY/MM/YYYYMMDD.md)
07 - Archives	Completed/inactive content
08 - books	Book notes and clippings
99 - Meta	Templates, settings
Clippings	Web clips and imports

Quick Reference

Linking Syntax

[[Note Name]]                    # Basic wikilink
[[Note Name|Display Text]]       # Aliased link
[[Note Name#Heading]]            # Link to heading
[[Note Name#^block-id]]          # Link to block
![[Note Name]]                   # Embed note
![[image.png]]                   # Embed image
![[Note Name#Heading]]           # Embed section

Frontmatter Template

---
created: {{date:YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm}}
updated: {{date:YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm}}
title: "Note Title"
type: note
status: draft
tags:
  - tag1
  - tag2
aliases:
  - "Alternate Name"
cssclasses:
  - custom-class
---

Callouts

> [!note] Title
> Content

> [!warning] Important
> Warning content

> [!tip] Helpful tip
> Tip content

> [!info]+ Collapsible (open by default)
> Content

> [!danger]- Collapsed by default
> Content

Available callout types: note, abstract, info, todo, tip, success, question, warning, failure, danger, bug, example, quote

Creating Notes

Daily Note

Create in 06 - Daily/YYYY/MM/ with filename YYYYMMDD.md:

---
created: 2025-12-09T09:00
updated: 2025-12-09T09:00
title: "20251209"
type: daily-note
status: true
tags:
  - daily
  - journal
  - 2025
  - 2025-12
aliases:
  - "2025-12-09"
date_formatted: 2025-12-09
topics:
  - "[[daily]]"
  - "[[journal]]"
related:
  - "[[2025-12-08]]"
  - "[[2025-12-10]]"
cssclasses:
  - daily
---

# Daily Note - 2025-12-09

### Tasks
- [ ] Task 1

### Journal
...

### Navigation
<< [[2025-12-08]] | **Today** | [[2025-12-10]] >>

Zettelkasten Note

Create in 04 - Permanent/:

---
created: {{date}}
type: zettelkasten
tags:
  - permanent
  - topic
---

# Note Title

## Main Insight
**Key Idea**: [Main point]

## Connections
- [[Related Note 1]]
- [[Related Note 2]]

## References
- Source citation

Dataview Queries

For dataview query syntax, see references/dataview.md.

Quick examples:

LIST FROM "06 - Daily" WHERE file.cday = date(today) SORT file.ctime DESC

TABLE status, tags FROM "01 - Projects" WHERE status != "completed"

Templates

Templates location: 99 - Meta/00 - Templates/

For Templater syntax, see references/templater.md.

Common Templater variables:

<% tp.file.title %>              # Current file name
<% tp.date.now("YYYY-MM-DD") %>  # Current date
<% tp.file.cursor(1) %>          # Cursor position
<% tp.system.prompt("Question") %> # User input prompt

Installed Plugins

Plugin	Purpose
Dataview	Query and display data from notes
Templater	Advanced templates with scripting
Auto Note Mover	Auto-organize notes by tags
Periodic Notes	Daily/weekly/monthly notes
Kanban	Kanban boards in markdown
Tag Wrangler	Bulk tag management
Table Editor	Markdown table editing
Advanced URI	Deep links to notes
Local REST API	External API access

File Operations

Creating a Note

1. Determine appropriate folder based on note type
2. Add proper frontmatter
3. Use consistent naming conventions
4. Include relevant tags for auto-organization

Best Practices

• Use descriptive filenames (avoid special characters except hyphens)
• Always include created and updated timestamps
• Tag notes for discoverability
• Link to related notes bidirectionally
• Use callouts for important information
• Include navigation links in daily notes

Advanced Features

• Dataview queries: references/dataview.md
• Templater scripting: references/templater.md
• Canvas diagrams: references/canvas.md
• Plugin configurations: references/plugins.md

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Gotchas

• Bulk operations outside Obsidian don't trigger link-rebuilding — external scripts must signal a :Reindex or wait for the next vault open.
• Dataview cache is per-vault and per-session — CLI script-based DQL queries may see stale state if Obsidian was last open with different filters.
• Templater scripts via CLI run in a different context than the UI — many tp.system.* functions return nil (no UI to prompt against).
• PARA folder moves break tag-based queries — if your queries hardcode folder paths, refactor them to use tags or properties before reorganizing.
• Daily note rotation: changing the daily-note format mid-vault leaves old notes orphaned — they don't auto-migrate to the new format; a rename pass is needed.