Obsidian Skills for Developer Documentation

A collection of reusable AI skills (instruction files + vault templates) that leverage the Obsidian-TS-MCP server to help developers document their work in Obsidian.

What are Skills?

Skills are structured instruction files (.instructions.md) that tell an LLM assistant when and how to use MCP tools to capture developer documentation in an Obsidian vault. Each skill is self-contained and can be used independently.

Available Skills

Skill	Description
Session Journal	Record coding sessions -- what you did, when, why
ADR	Architecture Decision Records with lifecycle management
Debug Log	Structured bug investigation capture
Code Review	Review findings, feedback, and follow-ups
TIL	Today-I-Learned entries for knowledge capture
Standup	Automated standup summaries from recent activity

Prerequisites

1. Obsidian 1.12+ with a Catalyst licence and the desktop app running.
2. Obsidian CLI enabled in Settings > General > Command line interface.
3. Obsidian-TS-MCP server installed and configured as an MCP server in VS Code.

Installation

1. Configure the MCP server

Add to your VS Code MCP settings (.vscode/mcp.json or user-level mcp.json):

{
  "servers": {
    "obsidian": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/obsidian-ts-mcp/dist/server.js"],
      "env": {
        "OBSIDIAN_VAULT": "Your Vault Name"
      }
    }
  }
}

2. Install skills

Copy the desired .instructions.md files into one of:

• Workspace prompts: .github/prompts/ in your project (applies to that project only).
• User prompts: VS Code's user prompts directory (applies globally).

Each skill file is self-contained -- install only the ones you need.

3. Set up the vault (optional)

Copy the contents of vault-template/ into your Obsidian vault to get the recommended folder structure, note templates, and base query views.

vault-template/
  Templates/
    Session Note.md      -- Session journal template
    ADR.md               -- Architecture Decision Record template
    Debug Log.md         -- Debug investigation template
    Code Review.md       -- Code review template
    TIL.md               -- Today-I-Learned template
    Standup.md           -- Standup summary template
  Bases/
    Sessions.base        -- Query view for session notes
    ADRs.base            -- Query view for all ADRs
    Debug Logs.base      -- Query view for debug logs
    Reviews.base         -- Query view for code reviews
    TILs.base            -- Query view for TIL notes
    Standups.base        -- Query view for standup summaries

How Skills Work

Each skill file follows a consistent pattern:

1. Trigger conditions -- When the skill should activate (e.g., "when the user begins debugging", "at session start").
2. Tool orchestration -- Which MCP tools to call and in what sequence.
3. Formatting rules -- Note structure, frontmatter schema, naming conventions.
4. Exclusions -- What should not be captured.

The LLM reads these instructions and autonomously calls the appropriate MCP tools to create, update, and query notes in your Obsidian vault.

MCP Tool Requirements

Skills reference the following MCP tools provided by the Obsidian-TS-MCP server (v0.2.0, 26 tools).

Core

Tool	Used by
create_note	All skills
read_note	All skills
append_to_note	Journal, Debug, Review
prepend_to_note	Standup
search_vault	All skills
daily_note	Journal, Standup
daily_append	Journal, TIL, Standup
daily_read	Journal, Standup
daily_prepend	Standup

Discovery

Tool	Used by
get_vault_info	--
list_files	ADR, TIL
get_tags	TIL, Debug
get_tag_info	Debug, TIL
get_backlinks	ADR
get_links	ADR, Debug, Review
get_outline	Review
list_templates	All skills
read_template	All skills

Properties

Tool	Used by
set_property	All skills
read_property	ADR, Review
list_properties	All skills
remove_property	ADR

Tasks

Tool	Used by
list_tasks	Debug, Review, Standup
toggle_task	Debug, Review

Files & Bases

Tool	Used by
move_file	ADR
query_base	ADR, Debug, Review, TIL

License

MIT