Purpose: the single-source-of-truth for how to work inside this Obsidian vault. Written 2026-09-16 by Jimmy. Study-first.
Owner: the crew / vault steward. Status: active.
This vault is the shared long-term memory for all agents (Hermes, Leonard, Charlie, Athena, Claude, local LLMs via LM Studio). Local-first plain Markdown + YAML frontmatter, Git-backed to Gitea on a 6h auto-sync. Think of it as a compounding agent memory system, not a notebook.
1. Structure (PARA + Agent OS hybrid)
Tier
Token
Folder
Purpose
Inbox
00_Raw/
Dump zone; Incoming/ is the external-agent handoff inbox
Projects
04_projects/
Time-bound initiatives; each has status.md + decisions.md
Areas
20_Areas/
Ongoing responsibilities: Work, Finance, Learning, Personal, Side Projects
Resources
30_Resources/
Evergreen knowledge; Review Later/ is the unprocessed capture queue
People
05_People/
Person notes
Meetings
06_Meetings/
Meeting notes (by year)
Workflows
08_workflows/
Process docs and validation records
Wiki
01_Wiki/
Reusable techniques, failure modes
Daily
04_Daily/
Mentor/coaching log (yours — keep it yours)
Archive
10_archive/
Hibernation — move, don't delete
Templates
09_templates/
Note templates
MOCs
MOC/
Maps of Content / indexes
System
Meta/
Vault system docs (this file, handoff protocol, taxonomy, log)
2. Two ingestion paths
A. External-agent handoffs (how I feed you)
Write a dated .md to 00_Raw/Incoming/ with YAML frontmatter:
source: (agent key, e.g. jimmy), intent: (an enum value), date: (YYYY-MM-DD).
You sweep the inbox with "process my handoffs":
each file is routed by intent, the source is moved (not copied) to its destination,
and a row is appended to Meta/agent-log.md.
Intent routing table (canonical copy in Meta/agent-handoff.md):
intent
Routed by →
Destination
idea
Scribe
polished Idea note
task
Scribe
Task note with action items
note
Scribe
Note in relevant area (08_workflows/, etc.)
reference
Sorter
30_Resources/ (→ Review Later/ for repos/links/articles)
meeting
Sorter
06_Meetings/<year>/
person
Sorter
05_People/
project
Sorter
04_projects/<name>/
(missing/unmatched)
—
held in 00_Raw pending triage
B. Agent direct writes (agents authoring inside the vault)
Use the obsidian skill house style:
YAML frontmatter on every new note (title, tags, type, status).
Connect notes with wikilinks [[Note Name]]; verify each resolves.
Tag against the official taxonomy in Meta/tag-taxonomy.md (type / area / status / domain).
When you create a file, log it: add a row to index.md (Projects/Knowledge tables) so nothing is orphaned.
3. The daily loop (keep it tight — RTX 3060 token discipline)
Organize — run the sweep; summarize yesterday; update status.mds; wikilink related notes.
Compress — don't dump raw chat history. Prompt: "Reconsider and compress the last 7 days into concise project updates in the vault."
Backup — Git auto-syncs to Gitea every 6h (publisher mirror is the canonical remote; Documents\Obsidian Vault has no origin now — don't hand-edit). Quarterly full backup.
4. How to connect your agents
Hermes / local agents: use the obsidian-second-brain skill, or read relevant .md files directly at session start.
Claude Desktop: open the vault folder as a project (file access).
LM Studio / local LLMs: system prompt includes "You have access to the Obsidian vault at [path]. Use the provided tools or read relevant .md files before answering."
Every session starts by reading relevant notes → agents wake up smarter → writes back results → tomorrow's agents benefit.
5. House style (for agent-authored notes)
# Title, then a > context blockquote with the date.
## sections; evidence-first bullets.
Close with an Owner / status or Open items section.
Anything with an owner (project/integration) → 04_projects/<name>/status.md.
6. Rules & don'ts
Do add rows to index.md for every new file.
Do run a secrets sweep before any bulk delete (vault is Git-published): scan sk-…, ghp_…, AIza…, password: … across .md/.txt/.json/.yaml.
Do not invent tags or folders outside Meta/tag-taxonomy.md.
Do not hand-edit Git config or Documents\Obsidian Vault remotes — leave committing to the cron job.
Do not use 04_Daily/ for agent session notes (it's the user's mentor log).
Do not bulk-delete "duplicates" without tracing references in index.md, HOME.md, STATUS.md (leads to dangling wikilinks).
When two folders overlap in purpose, keep content in the one the project's status.md / index.md already treats as canonical; move (don't copy), then rmdir the empty source.
Locked files (Windows): if Obsidian holds a file open, unlink raises WinError 145. Report and let the user close Obsidian; don't force-delete.
7. Quick cheat sheet
Ingest (external agent): 00_Raw/Incoming/YYYY-MM-DD-topic.md + frontmatter → you say "process my handoffs".
Capture queue: 30_Resources/Review Later/ (repos, links, articles to review later).
Daily compress: "Reconsider and compress the last 7 days into concise project updates."
Secrets rule: sweep before any move/delete; the auto-sync publishes every keystroke.
Never delete: move to 10_archive/ instead.
8. Related files
Meta/agent-handoff.md — the drop-zone contract (authoritative).
Meta/vault-structure.md — folder reference.
Meta/tag-taxonomy.md — official tag list (don't invent new ones).
Meta/naming-conventions.md — filename rules.
Meta/agent-log.md — append-only log of crew sweeps.
jimmy