Obsidian MCP Note System for knowledge management, planning, and decision tracking.
This project defines a local-first, agent-accessible Obsidian vault designed for everyday personal knowledge management, planning, and decision tracking.
The core goal is to make the vault structurally explicit and machine-operable, so that AI agents (via MCP) can reliably create, update, and reason over notes without ambiguity.
The vault is optimized for:
- Human clarity and long-term maintainability
- Deterministic agent behavior (no guesswork)
- Low-friction capture and review
- Clear lifecycle boundaries between ideas, plans, projects, and decisions
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Explicit Structure Over Emergent Structure
Every note belongs to a well-defined category with a clear semantic role. -
Agent-Readable Semantics
Folder structure, filenames, and templates encode intent so agents can act deterministically. -
Local-First, Tool-Driven
All operations happen on local markdown files via MCP tools (filesystem, templates, indexing). -
Separation of Thinking Phases
- Capture (Inbox, Daily)
- Reflection (Journal)
- Reasoning (Scratchpad, Notes)
- Commitment (Plans, Decisions)
- Execution (Projects, TODOs)
- Review (Reviews)
- Outcomes (Goals)
_Templates/
00-Inbox/
01-Daily/yyyy-mm/yyyy-mm-dd.md
02-TODOs/
├─ pending/
└─ done/yyyy-mm/
03-Journal/yyyy-mm/yyyy-mm-dd.md
04-Plans/<plan>/<plan>.md
05-Projects/<project>/<project>.md
06-Decisions/<decision>/<decision>.md
07-Learning/<topic>/<topic>.md
08-Resources/<resource>/<resource>.md
09-Tools/<tool>/<tool>.md
10-Ideas/<idea>/<idea>.md
11-Notes/<note>/<note>.md
12-Scratchpad/
13-Goals/yyyy/<goal>.md
13-Goals/done/yyyy/<goal>.md
14-Reviews/
├─ weekly/yyyy-mm-dd.md
├─ monthly/yyyy-mm.md
└─ quarterly/yyyy-Qn.md
15-Archive/
├─ goals/
├─ projects/
├─ plans/
├─ notes/
This structure is stable and contract-like. Agents must not invent new top-level folders.
Agents interact with the vault exclusively through MCP-exposed tools.
They are not free-form writers; they are constrained operators following explicit rules.
Agents may be instructed to:
- Create a new Plan, Project, Decision, Idea, or Note
- Append or update sections within an existing note
- Link related artifacts (e.g., Project → Plan → Goal)
- Read context from related notes before writing
- Enforce templates and frontmatter
Agents must never:
- Write directly into arbitrary locations
- Modify historical Decisions
- Leave content in Inbox indefinitely
Purpose: Frictionless capture
Agent Behavior:
- May create Inbox entries when classification is unclear
- Must promote Inbox items during processing tasks
Purpose: Temporal log and short-term thinking
Agent Behavior:
- Append summaries, tasks, or observations
- Extract TODOs or Ideas into proper folders when instructed
Purpose: Human-only reflection and narrative continuity
Agent Behavior:
- Read-only by default
- May create a new Journal entry only when explicitly instructed
- May append verbatim user dictation when explicitly requested
- Must not extract, refactor, summarize, or analyze Journal content unless explicitly asked
- Must not promote Journal content into Plans, Projects, Decisions, TODOs, or Ideas automatically
Purpose: Raw but intentional concepts
Agent Behavior:
- Create one idea per note
- Avoid premature structuring
- Link to related Notes or Learning when available
Purpose: Strategy to reach a goal
Agent Behavior:
- Require a stated objective
- Reference one or more Goals
- Enumerate candidate Projects
Purpose: Execution unit
Agent Behavior:
- May reference one or more Plans or Goals
- Track status and concrete deliverables
- Surface TODOs and Decisions
Purpose: Record irreversible choices
Agent Behavior:
- Use a strict template (Context, Options, Decision, Consequences)
- Treat decisions as immutable once written
- Link to affected Projects or Plans
Purpose: Periodic synthesis, reflection, and course correction
Agent Behavior:
- May prepare draft summaries and deltas from existing notes
- Must not set priorities or make decisions autonomously
- Must preserve human-authored conclusions
Purpose: Explicit retirement of inactive or completed artifacts
Agent Behavior:
- May move notes to Archive only when explicitly instructed
- Must preserve original content and metadata
- Must not modify archived notes
All agent-written notes must originate from _Templates/.
Templates define:
- Required sections
- Frontmatter schema
- Allowed outbound links
Agents should fail fast if a required field is missing.
This system assumes periodic human review:
- Daily: Inbox, Daily notes
- Weekly: TODOs, active Projects
- Monthly: Plans, Learning, Ideas
- Quarterly: Goals, Decisions
Agents may assist with reviews but never replace human judgment.
This project intentionally avoids:
- Full-text semantic auto-organization
- Auto-refactoring the vault structure
- Cloud dependency or SaaS coupling
The vault is a tooling substrate, not a second brain that thinks for you.
A deterministic, agent-operable Obsidian vault where:
- Humans think clearly
- Agents act precisely
- Structure enforces correctness
- Knowledge compounds over years, not weeks