Obsidian Vault Integration
Integrates OpenClaw agents with an Obsidian vault for shared knowledge management. Supports structured reading of task lists, milestones, team info, and safe writes back to vault files.
Configuration
Set the vault path via environment variable OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH. If not set, uses the default path noted in AGENTS.md.
Environment variables used:
OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH— Path to the Obsidian vault directory (optional, defaults to agent's configured path)
Quick Start
Read tasks from vault
python scripts/vault-read.py <vault-path> --file open-questions.md --format json
Returns JSON array of tasks parsed from checkbox items, with priority (critical/important/nice), status (todo/done), owner, and title.
Add a task to the vault
python scripts/vault-write.py <vault-path> --file open-questions.md --action add-task --title "New task" --priority important --owner Dave
Mark a task done
python scripts/vault-write.py <vault-path> --file open-questions.md --action mark-done --task-id 3
File Discovery
Files are discovered by their frontmatter type: field as the primary method. If a file is moved to a subfolder, it's still found by metadata.
---
type: open-questions
status: active
---
Fallback chain:
- Frontmatter
type:field (most reliable — survives moves) - Filename pattern matching (e.g.,
*open-questions*) - Full-text search (slowest, last resort)
See references/file-formats.md for parsing rules per file type.
Error Handling
| Code | Meaning | Recovery |
|---|---|---|
| ERR_VAULT_NOT_FOUND | Vault path doesn't exist | Check OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH or AGENTS.md |
| ERR_FILE_NOT_FOUND | Requested file not found | Run discovery to find by metadata |
| ERR_PARSE_FAILED | Malformed markdown | Return partial data with warning |
| ERR_CONFLICT | File changed since last read | Re-read, resolve manually |
Safety
- All writes are logged to
<vault>/.vault-audit.log(timestamp, agent, file, action) - Timestamp check prevents overwrites when file has changed
- Solo mode (default): all agents can read/write everything
- Team mode (v2): per-agent folder permissions
Permissions
Solo mode (default): No config needed. All agents have full read/write access.
Team mode (v2, not yet implemented): Optional permissions block in SKILL.md for folder-level access control per agent.
Scripts
vault-read.py— Read and parse vault files into structured JSONvault-write.py— Write updates back to vault files with safety checks
References
references/file-formats.md— Parsing rules for each file type