Vault setup

vault-setup-skill

Interactive vault configurator — asks one free-text question, infers your role and folders, builds a personalized Obsidian vault with CLAUDE.md and companion skill links.

Directory Structure

vault-setup-skill/
├── SKILL.md                          # This file (routing + quick ref)
├── RoleTemplates.md                  # Keyword-to-folder mapping table
├── PluginRecommendations.md          # Obsidian plugins by role type
├── Workflows/
│   ├── Setup.md                      # Main 6-step setup flow
│   ├── ImportFiles.md                # File import guidance
│   └── Verify.md                     # Post-setup verification
├── Tools/
│   ├── VaultBuilder.py               # CLI: create, verify, inject-global
│   └── VaultBuilder.help.md          # Tool documentation
└── scripts/
    └── process_docs_to_obsidian.py   # Bulk file import to inbox/

Workflow Routing

Intent	Workflow	Tool
Set up a new vault	Workflows/Setup.md	Tools/VaultBuilder.py create
Import existing files	Workflows/ImportFiles.md	scripts/process_docs_to_obsidian.py
Verify vault setup	Workflows/Verify.md	Tools/VaultBuilder.py verify
Add vault to global context	Workflows/Setup.md Step 5	Tools/VaultBuilder.py inject-global
Choose Obsidian plugins	PluginRecommendations.md	—
Understand folder mapping	RoleTemplates.md	—

Examples

"Set up my Obsidian vault"              → Workflows/Setup.md
"I want to create a second brain"       → Workflows/Setup.md
"Import my documents into the vault"    → Workflows/ImportFiles.md
"Verify my vault is set up correctly"   → Workflows/Verify.md
"What plugins should I install?"        → PluginRecommendations.md
"Add this vault to my global config"    → Workflows/Setup.md Step 5

Quick Reference

Base folders (always created): inbox/, daily/, projects/, archive/

Additional folders detected from keywords — see RoleTemplates.md for full mapping.

Companion skills (linked, not created): daily-skill, tldr-skill, obsidian-master-skill

Troubleshooting

Problem	Cause	Fix
click not found when running VaultBuilder.py	Missing dependency	pip install click
Vault folders created but Obsidian doesn't see them	Obsidian not pointed at vault root	Open Obsidian → "Open folder as vault" → select the vault directory
inject-global says "Already configured" but Claude doesn't see context	Vault path in CLAUDE.md doesn't match exactly	Check ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md for the vault path — it must be the resolved absolute path
Symlink shows [BROKEN] in verify	Target skill directory was moved or deleted	Re-create the symlink: ln -sf /path/to/skill ~/.claude/skills/skill-name
process_docs_to_obsidian.py shows encoding warnings	Source files contain non-UTF-8 characters	Review warned files manually; convert source encoding with iconv if needed

Edge Cases

• Empty keywords: If --role-keywords is empty, only base folders are created (inbox, daily, projects, archive)
• Vault path doesn't exist: VaultBuilder creates it automatically via mkdir -p
• Running create twice: Safe — folders use exist_ok=True, CLAUDE.md is overwritten (back up first if customized)

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Gotchas

• inject-global mutates ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md with absolute path: If you later move the vault, the global config still points to the old path and Claude silently loads nothing. Re-run inject-global after any vault relocation.
• Re-running create overwrites a customized CLAUDE.md: Folder creation uses exist_ok=True (safe) but CLAUDE.md is unconditionally rewritten. Back up first if you've hand-edited vault-level instructions.
• process_docs_to_obsidian.py silently skips non-UTF-8 files: Latin-1 or Windows-1252 source files emit a warning and are not imported. The summary report doesn't flag them as failures — grep stderr for "encoding" before trusting the count.
• Symlinks to companion skills break on PAI directory restructure: Verify shows [BROKEN] only if the symlink target is missing entirely; a renamed-but-existing target appears valid yet routes to the wrong skill. Re-run verify after any PAI skill reorganization.
• Empty --role-keywords is not an error: The vault gets only base folders (inbox/daily/projects/archive) with no warning. If you expected role-specific folders, check the inferred keywords in the setup transcript.
• Obsidian doesn't see the vault until "Open folder as vault": Creating the directory tree is not enough — Obsidian must be pointed at the vault root explicitly. New users often think the script failed because Obsidian shows an empty workspace.