wiki-setup

Original：🇺🇸 English

Translated

Initialize a new Obsidian wiki vault with the correct structure, special files, and configuration. Use this skill when the user wants to set up a new wiki from scratch, initialize the vault structure, create the .env file, or says things like "set up my wiki", "initialize obsidian", "create a new vault", "get started with the wiki". Also use when the user needs to reconfigure their existing vault or fix a broken setup.

8installs

Sourcear9av/obsidian-wiki

Added on2026-04-13

NPX Install

npx skill4agent add ar9av/obsidian-wiki wiki-setup

SKILL.md Content

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Obsidian Setup — Vault Initialization

You are setting up a new Obsidian wiki vault (or repairing an existing one).

Step 1: Create .env

If

.env

doesn't exist, create it from

.env.example

. Ask the user for:

Where should the vault live? →
```
OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH
```
- Default:
```
~/Documents/obsidian-wiki-vault
```
- Must be an absolute path (after expansion)
Where are your source documents? →
```
OBSIDIAN_SOURCES_DIR
```
- Can be multiple paths, comma-separated
- Default:
```
~/Documents
```
Want to import Claude history? →
```
CLAUDE_HISTORY_PATH
```
- Default: auto-discovers from
```
~/.claude
```
- Set explicitly if Claude data is elsewhere
Have QMD installed? →
```
QMD_WIKI_COLLECTION
```
/
```
QMD_PAPERS_COLLECTION
```
- Optional. Enables semantic search in
```
wiki-query
```
  and source discovery in
```
wiki-ingest
```
  .
- If unsure, skip for now — both skills fall back to
```
Grep
```
  automatically.
- Install instructions: see
```
.env.example
```
  (QMD section).

Step 2: Create Vault Directory Structure

bash

mkdir -p "$OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH"/{concepts,entities,skills,references,synthesis,journal,projects,_archives,_raw,.obsidian}

```
.obsidian/
```
— Obsidian's own config. Creates vault recognition.
```
projects/
```
— Per-project knowledge (populated during ingest).
```
_archives/
```
— Stores wiki snapshots for rebuild/restore operations.
```
_raw/
```
— Staging area for unprocessed drafts. Drop rough notes here;
```
wiki-ingest
```
will promote them to proper wiki pages and delete the originals.

Step 3: Create Special Files

index.md

markdown

---
title: Wiki Index
---

# Wiki Index

*This index is automatically maintained. Last updated: TIMESTAMP*

## Concepts

*No pages yet. Use `wiki-ingest` to add your first source.*

## Entities

## Skills

## References

## Synthesis

## Journal

log.md

markdown

---
title: Wiki Log
---

# Wiki Log

- [TIMESTAMP] INIT vault_path="OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH" categories=concepts,entities,skills,references,synthesis,journal

Step 4: Create .obsidian Configuration

Create minimal Obsidian config for a good out-of-box experience:

.obsidian/app.json

json

{
  "strictLineBreaks": false,
  "showFrontmatter": false,
  "defaultViewMode": "preview",
  "livePreview": true
}

.obsidian/appearance.json

json

{
  "baseFontSize": 16
}

Step 5: Recommend Obsidian Plugins

Tell the user about these recommended community plugins (they install manually):

Dataview — Query page metadata, create dynamic tables. Essential for a wiki.
Graph Analysis — Enhanced graph view for exploring connections.
Templater — If they want to create pages manually using templates.
Obsidian Git — Auto-backup the vault to a git repo.

Step 6: Verify Setup

Run a quick sanity check:

Vault directory exists with:

concepts/

,

entities/

,

skills/

,

references/

,

synthesis/

,

journal/

,

projects/

,

_archives/

,

_raw/

```
index.md
```
exists at vault root
```
log.md
```
exists at vault root
```
.env
```
has
```
OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH
```
set
```
.obsidian/
```
directory exists
Source directories (if configured) exist and are readable

Report the results and tell the user they can now:

Open the vault in Obsidian (File → Open Vault → select the directory)
Run
```
wiki-status
```
to see what's available to ingest
Run
```
wiki-ingest
```
to add their first sources
Run
```
claude-history-ingest
```
to mine their Claude conversations
Run
```
codex-history-ingest
```
to mine their Codex sessions (if they use Codex)
Run
```
wiki-status
```
again anytime to check the delta