---
name: knowledge-vault
description: Manage the Obsidian Knowledge vault — create notes, organize content, search, and maintain the PARA + Zettelkasten system
---

# Knowledge Vault Management

## Vault Location

`/Users/yiukai/Documents/git/knowledge-base`

## Folder Structure

```
0 - Daily Notes/        # 每日笔记
1 - Inbox/              # 快速捕捉
2 - Projects/           # 有目标的项目
3 - Areas/              # 长期关注领域
4 - Resources/          # 主题参考资料
5 - Archive/            # 已完成/暂停
6 - Zettelkasten/       # 原子化永久笔记
System/
  Attachments/          # 附件
  Templates/            # 模板
```

## Creating Notes

### Inbox Note

Quick capture, no formatting pressure. Place in `1 - Inbox/`.

```markdown
---
created: "YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm"
type: inbox
---

# Title

Content here
```

### Daily Note

Place in `0 - Daily Notes/` with filename `YYYY-MM-DD.md`.

```markdown
---
created: "YYYY-MM-DD"
type: daily
---

# YYYY-MM-DD dddd

## 今日捕捉

-

## 待办

- [ ]

## 回顾

```

### Zettelkasten Note

Atomic permanent note. One idea per note. Place in `6 - Zettelkasten/`.
Filename format: `YYYYMMDDHHMMSS Title.md`

```markdown
---
created: "YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm"
type: zettel
tags: []
source: ""
---

# Title

Write the idea in your own words.

---

## Related

- [[link to related notes]]

## Source

- Source reference
```

### Project Note

Place in `2 - Projects/`.

```markdown
---
created: "YYYY-MM-DD"
type: project
status: active
deadline: ""
---

# Title

## Goal

## Tasks

- [ ]

## Notes

-

## Related

-
```

### Resource Note

Place in `4 - Resources/`.

```markdown
---
created: "YYYY-MM-DD"
type: resource
tags: []
source: ""
---

# Title

## Summary

## Key Points

-

## Related

-
```

### MOC (Map of Content)

Index note for a topic. Place in `3 - Areas/` or `4 - Resources/`.

```markdown
---
created: "YYYY-MM-DD"
type: moc
---

# Title

## Overview

-

## Key Notes

- [[links]]

## Related MOCs

-
```

## Operations

### Create a note

1. Determine note type based on content
2. Use the correct template from above
3. Fill `created` with current date/time
4. For Zettelkasten: generate timestamp filename `YYYYMMDDHHMMSS Title.md`
5. Add `[[links]]` to related existing notes when possible

### Organize Inbox

1. Read all files in `1 - Inbox/` (exclude README.md)
2. For each note, suggest destination:
   - Actionable task → `2 - Projects/`
   - Ongoing responsibility → `3 - Areas/`
   - Reference material → `4 - Resources/`
   - Original insight → rewrite as Zettel in `6 - Zettelkasten/`
   - Outdated → suggest deletion
3. Update frontmatter `type` field to match destination (e.g., `project`, `resource`, `zettel`)
4. Add `[[wikilinks]]` to related existing notes in the destination folder
5. Move files after user confirmation

### Search notes

Use Grep to search note content across the vault:
```
Grep pattern="search term" path="/Users/yiukai/Documents/git/knowledge-base" glob="*.md"
```

Exclude system files:
```
Grep pattern="search term" path="/Users/yiukai/Documents/git/knowledge-base" glob="[0-6]*/**/*.md"
```

Present search results as a list of `[[wikilinks]]` with brief Chinese summaries of each match.

### Find related notes

1. Extract key concepts/tags from the current note
2. Search for those terms across `6 - Zettelkasten/` and other folders
3. Present results as `[[wikilinks]]` with Chinese explanation of each note's relevance

### Review Zettelkasten health

1. Find orphan notes (no incoming or outgoing links)
2. Find notes missing tags or sources
3. Suggest connections between notes on related topics

## Git Sync

MANDATORY for every vault operation that modifies files:

### Before modifying files

```bash
cd /Users/yiukai/Documents/git/knowledge-base && git pull --rebase origin main
```

### After modifying files

```bash
cd /Users/yiukai/Documents/git/knowledge-base && git add -A && git commit -m "vault: <brief description of changes>" && git push origin main
```

Commit message examples:
- `vault: add daily note 2026-03-15`
- `vault: create zettel on distributed consensus`
- `vault: organize inbox notes to projects and resources`
- `vault: update MOC for claude code`

If pull has conflicts, stop and ask the user before proceeding.

## Dependencies

This skill defines **what** to create and **where** to put it. For **how** to write Obsidian content, delegate to `obsidian-skills` plugin:

- **Writing Markdown** → use `obsidian:obsidian-markdown` for wikilinks, embeds, callouts, properties syntax
- **Creating .canvas files** → use `obsidian:json-canvas`
- **Creating .base files** → use `obsidian:obsidian-bases`
- **Interacting with running Obsidian** → use `obsidian:obsidian-cli` (read/create/search via CLI)
- **Fetching web content into notes** → use `obsidian:defuddle` to extract clean markdown from URLs

## Rules

- ALWAYS use Obsidian `[[wikilink]]` syntax for internal links (see `obsidian:obsidian-markdown`)
- ALWAYS pull before and push after modifying vault files (see Git Sync above)
- NEVER modify notes without user confirmation (except when creating new ones)
- Zettelkasten notes must be atomic — one idea per note
- Use simplified Chinese for all note content
- Frontmatter `created` field uses ISO format: `YYYY-MM-DD` or `YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm`
- Tags in frontmatter use lowercase English: `[concept, insight, question]`