Initialisation Obsidian

description: Scan your vault and generate a _CLAUDE.md operating manual, index.md catalog, and log.md pointer

category: meta

triggers_en: ["init vault", "bootstrap vault", "setup vault", "scan vault"]

Use the obsidian-second-brain skill. Execute /obsidian-init:

1. Call list_files_in_vault() to map the full vault structure
2. Spawn parallel subagents to discover vault context simultaneously:

• Dashboard agent: read Home.md or equivalent dashboard
• Templates agent: read all files in Templates/
• Boards agent: read all files in Boards/
• Samples agent: read one existing note per major folder to capture naming conventions and frontmatter patterns

1. Merge all agent results into a complete picture of the vault
2. Generate a complete _CLAUDE.md using the template in ~/.claude/skills/obsidian-second-brain/references/claude-md-template.md, filled with real values from the vault
3. Generate index.md at the vault root - a catalog of all pages organized by category:

• List every note in the vault grouped by folder (Projects, People, Ideas, etc.)
• Include a one-line description for each note (from frontmatter or first paragraph)
• Claude reads this file FIRST when navigating the vault - cheaper and faster than searching
• Format: - [[Note Name]] — brief description

1. Initialize the vault operations log:

• Create Logs/ directory at the vault root
• Write log.md at the vault root as a thin pointer file: explains the per-day structure, points at Logs/, and ships the entry template (do NOT put log entries in log.md itself)
• Write today's Logs/YYYY-MM-DD.md with the init entry: **HH:MM** - init | Vault initialized with _CLAUDE.md, index.md, Logs/
• Per-day file format: frontmatter (type: log, date, ai-first: true) + **HH:MM** - action | description entries, append-only

1. Create Bases/ at the vault root if it does not exist. Stamp the four premade base files from ~/.claude/skills/obsidian-second-brain/references/bases/:

Detect vault style from the folder structure discovered in step 1: if wiki/ exists at the root, use wiki-style folder names; otherwise use obsidian-style. For each template, replace the {{FOLDER}} placeholder with the correct folder name, then write to Bases/.

Skip any base file that already exists in Bases/ - never overwrite.

1. Write _CLAUDE.md, index.md, root log.md (pointer), Logs/YYYY-MM-DD.md (today's entries), and any new Bases/*.base files
2. Confirm what was written and tell the user to restart their Claude session so the new files take effect

If _CLAUDE.md already exists: show a diff of what would change and ask before overwriting.

If index.md already exists: regenerate it (it's always a fresh catalog of current vault state).

If a monolithic log.md already exists with ## YYYY-MM-DD sections: run python ~/.claude/skills/obsidian-second-brain/scripts/migrate_log.py --vault <vault-path> to split it into Logs/YYYY-MM-DD.md files. Do not overwrite manually.

AI-first rule: Every note created or updated by this command MUST follow references/ai-first-rules.md - ## For future Claude preamble, rich frontmatter (type, date, tags, ai-first: true, plus type-specific fields), recency markers per external claim, mandatory [[wikilinks]] for every person/project/concept referenced, sources preserved verbatim with URLs inline, and confidence levels where applicable. The vault is for future-Claude retrieval - not human reading.

Anti-fabrication: Search exhaustively before claiming any note, person, or file is absent - false absence is the most common failure mode - and never invent facts, entities, or dates (mark unknowns as TBD). See the anti-fabrication and search-completeness hard rules in references/ai-first-rules.md.