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name: obsidian description: "Obsidian knowledge management reference. Use when setting up Obsidian vaults, configuring plugins (Dataview, Templater, Web Clipper, Marp, Excalidraw), writing wikilinks and frontmatter, using Dataview queries, configuring graph view, adding CSS snippets/themes, or building obsidian:// deep links. Covers vault structure, daily notes, community plugins, CSS customization, and URI schemes. Useful as a standalone skill OR as a companion to the wiki skill family. Trigger on: Obsidian, vault, dataview, templater, wikilink, frontmatter, graph view, markdown vault, second brain, Zettelkasten tool." disambiguation: The Obsidian APPLICATION — vaults, plugins, themes, sync. Building and maintaining wiki CONTENT, in any editor, is wiki.

Obsidian — Vault, Plugins, and Knowledge Management

Parent skill for Obsidian: a local-first, markdown-based knowledge management tool. Standalone skill — useful beyond the wiki agent.

This is a slim parent — detail lives in reference files. Read this file for routing. Read the reference files for HOW.

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What Obsidian Is

Obsidian is a markdown editor with:

• Vaults: a directory of markdown files is a vault. No database, no lock-in.
• Wikilinks: [[page]] syntax for internal linking
• Frontmatter: YAML metadata at the top of files
• Plugins: community ecosystem for Dataview queries, templating, graph views, and more
• Graph view: visualize the link network
• obsidian:// URIs: deep links from anywhere into vault content

Obsidian is free for personal use. Obsidian Sync (paid) and Obsidian Publish (paid) are optional services.

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Routing Table

User Intent	Reference File
"Set up a new vault" / folder structure / daily notes	~/.claude/skills/obsidian/vault-setup.md
"Which plugins should I install?" / plugin config	~/.claude/skills/obsidian/plugins.md
"Write a Dataview query" / DQL / DataviewJS	~/.claude/skills/obsidian/dataview.md
"YAML properties" / metadata conventions	~/.claude/skills/obsidian/frontmatter.md
"How do wikilinks work?" / aliases / embeds / block refs	~/.claude/skills/obsidian/wikilinks.md
"Graph view looks messy" / graph config	~/.claude/skills/obsidian/graph-view.md
"Change theme" / CSS snippets / callouts	~/.claude/skills/obsidian/css-themes.md
"Deep link to a note" / obsidian:// URIs	~/.claude/skills/obsidian/uri-schemes.md

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When To Use Obsidian vs. The wiki Skill

Obsidian is the tool. The wiki skill is a structured knowledge workflow that happens to produce Obsidian-compatible vaults. They're complementary:

• Use wiki when you want structured ingestion, citations, lint, and agent-driven knowledge compilation
• Use obsidian alone when you want plain markdown notes with wikilinks and plugin power, no formal schema
• Use both together when a wiki created by the wiki agent is opened in Obsidian for browsing, graph view, and Dataview queries

Wikis produced by the wiki skill are Obsidian-compatible by design (wikilinks, YAML frontmatter, kebab-case slugs).

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Anti-Patterns

Anti-Pattern	Why It Fails	Correct Approach
Recommending Notion/Roam over Obsidian for local-first needs	Defeats the user's data-ownership goal	Obsidian for local markdown; recommend alternatives only when local-first is not a requirement
Mixing wikilink syntax ([[ ]]) with markdown link syntax ([text](url)) inconsistently	Breaks graph view and backlinks	Use [[ ]] for internal links, [text](url) for external URLs only
Writing content inline in this SKILL.md instead of routing	Breaks ≤80 line slim-parent convention	Route to reference files; keep this file as a map
Not linking to the wiki skill family	Users miss the structured workflow option	## When to use Obsidian vs. wiki section routes to both
Recommending plugins without noting compatibility or maintenance status	Users install abandoned plugins	Always check current maintenance status in plugins.md