
Wiki Setup
Bootstrap or repair an Obsidian wiki vault with paths, special files, and optional QMD semantic search wiring for solo knowledge bases.
Overview
wiki-setup is an agent skill for the Build phase that initializes or repairs an Obsidian wiki vault with .env paths, structure, and optional QMD search configuration.
Install
npx skills add https://github.com/ar9av/obsidian-wiki --skill wiki-setupWhat is this skill?
- Scaffold a new vault or repair a broken setup from .env.example
- Configure OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH, OBSIDIAN_SOURCES_DIR, and optional CLAUDE_HISTORY_PATH
- Optional QMD collections with MCP vs CLI transport and quality search mode
- Guided prompts for absolute paths and comma-separated source directories
- Pairs with wiki-ingest and wiki-query in the obsidian-wiki skill family
- 4 guided .env variables including optional triple QMD collection settings
Adoption & trust: 2.2k installs on skills.sh; 1.8k GitHub stars; 3/3 security scanners passed (skills.sh audits).
What problem does it solve?
You want an Obsidian wiki for agent context but lack the vault layout, environment variables, and optional semantic-search hooks to start ingesting sources.
Who is it for?
Solo builders adopting the obsidian-wiki stack who need a clean vault bootstrap before bulk import or semantic search.
Skip if: Teams that already have a working vault and .env with no structural changes, or builders who only need slide decks or code plans without a wiki.
When should I use this skill?
User wants to set up a new wiki, initialize Obsidian, create a new vault, get started with the wiki, or reconfigure or fix a broken vault setup.
What do I get? / Deliverables
You get a configured vault path, sources, optional Claude history import settings, and QMD options so follow-on ingest and query skills can run safely.
- Populated .env with vault, sources, and optional QMD and Claude history paths
- Initialized vault structure and special files per obsidian-wiki conventions
Recommended Skills
Journey fit
Vault initialization is the canonical first docs milestone when you commit to an Obsidian-backed wiki as your product or personal knowledge system. It creates folder structure, .env, and ingest hooks—the infrastructure layer docs agents and builders query later.
How it compares
Use for Obsidian vault scaffolding—not for phased implementation planning like make-plan or HTML slide theming like slide-creator.
Common Questions / FAQ
Who is wiki-setup for?
Solo and indie builders using Claude Code or similar agents who want a documented Obsidian wiki tied to local sources and optional Claude conversation history.
When should I use wiki-setup?
At the start of a new wiki project in Build (docs), when reconfiguring paths after a machine move, or when ingest/query skills fail because vault or QMD env vars are missing.
Is wiki-setup safe to install?
It guides filesystem and .env configuration on your machine; review the Security Audits panel on this page and inspect any paths or secrets before committing .env to version control.
SKILL.md
READMESKILL.md - Wiki Setup
# 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: 1. **Where should the vault live?** → `OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH` - Default: `~/Documents/obsidian-wiki-vault` - Must be an absolute path (after expansion) 2. **Where are your source documents?** → `OBSIDIAN_SOURCES_DIR` - Can be multiple paths, comma-separated - Default: `~/Documents` 3. **Want to import Claude history?** → `CLAUDE_HISTORY_PATH` - Default: auto-discovers from `~/.claude` - Set explicitly if Claude data is elsewhere 4. **Have QMD installed?** → `QMD_WIKI_COLLECTION` / `QMD_PAPERS_COLLECTION` / `QMD_TRANSPORT` - Optional. Enables semantic search in `wiki-query` and source discovery in `wiki-ingest`. - Default to `QMD_TRANSPORT=mcp` unless the user wants the agent to call the local `qmd` CLI directly. - If using CLI mode, set `QMD_CLI_SEARCH_MODE=quality` by default; suggest `balanced` if reranking is too slow. - If unsure, skip for now — both skills fall back to `Grep` automatically. - Install instructions: see `.env.example` (QMD section). 5. **Token budget warning threshold?** → `WIKI_TOKEN_WARN_THRESHOLD` - Default: `100000` (warn when full-wiki read would cost > 100K tokens) - Set to `0` to disable the warning entirely - `wiki-status` shows a token footprint table and emits this warning automatically 6. **Enable staged writes?** → `WIKI_STAGED_WRITES` - Default: unset / `false` (pages written directly to their final location) - Set to `true` for team wikis, high-stakes domains, or any vault where the human wants final say on every LLM-written page - When enabled: all new/updated pages land in `_staging/` first; run `/wiki-stage-commit` to review and promote them - `wiki-status` shows a "Staged writes pending" count when files are waiting ## Step 2: Create Vault Directory Structure ```bash mkdir -p "$OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH"/{concepts,entities,skills,references,synthesis,journal,projects,_archives,_raw,_staging,.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. - `_staging/` — Review queue for LLM-written pages when `WIKI_STAGED_WRITES=true`. Pages here are not visible in Obsidian's graph until promoted via `/wiki-stage-commit`. ## 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 ``` ### hot.md ```markdown --- title: Hot Cache updated: TIMESTAMP --- # Hot Cache *A ~500-word semantic snapshot of recent activity. Updated after every major write operation.* ## Recent Activity - [TIMESTAMP] INIT — vault created at OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH ## Active Threads *None yet — start ingesting sources to populate.* ## Key Takeaways *None yet.* ##