Obsidian Daily Driver

When To Activate

Do NOT trigger for:

• Vaults without daily notes
• When user explicitly doesn't want daily logging
• Trivial interactions (single questions, typo fixes)

Instructions

Step 1: Find Today's Daily Note

<find_daily> Daily notes follow a date-based naming convention:

TODAY=$(date +%Y-%m-%d)

# Check common locations
DAILY="$VAULT_PATH/Daily/$TODAY.md"
[ -f "$DAILY" ] || DAILY="$VAULT_PATH/Journal/$TODAY.md"
[ -f "$DAILY" ] || DAILY="$VAULT_PATH/daily/$TODAY.md"

# Or use CLI
obsidian daily:read 2>/dev/null
obsidian-cli daily 2>/dev/null

# Check CLAUDE.md for daily note path convention
grep -i "daily" "$VAULT_PATH/CLAUDE.md" 2>/dev/null

If today's note doesn't exist, create it from the daily template:

# Find the daily template
TEMPLATE=$(find "$VAULT_PATH/Templates" -iname "*daily*" | head -1)

Create with proper frontmatter:

---
type: daily
date: YYYY-MM-DD
tags:
  - daily
---

# YYYY-MM-DD

## Tasks

- [ ]

## Log


## Links

</find_daily>

Step 2: Read Existing Content

<read_daily> Before appending, read what's already there:

cat "$DAILY"

Understand the structure so you append to the RIGHT section:

• Tasks go under ## Tasks
• Logs go under ## Log
• Links go under ## Links

Don't duplicate entries that already exist. </read_daily>

Step 3: Append Content

Adding a task:

# Using CLI
obsidian daily:append content="- [ ] Task description"

# Direct file: find ## Tasks section and append after it

Append under ## Tasks:

- [ ] Task description

Logging work done:

Append under ## Log:

- Worked on [[project-name]]: brief description of what was done
- Fixed: [[bug-or-issue]] — what was wrong and how it was fixed
- Created: [[new-note]] — why it was created

Adding links to created artifacts:

Append under ## Links:

- [[note-created-today]] — context for why
- [[meeting-note]] — key takeaways

Session summary (end of session):

Append under ## Log:

### Claude Session — HH:MM

**Worked on:** brief description
**Created:**
- [[note-1]]
- [[note-2]]
**Decisions:**
- Decision made and why
**Next:**
- [ ] Follow-up task

Step 4: Handle CLI vs Direct Write

<write_method> Official CLI (preferred — respects plugins/templates):

obsidian daily:append content="- [ ] New task"
obsidian daily:append content="- Completed: task description"

Yakitrak CLI:

obsidian-cli create "$TODAY" --append --content "- [ ] New task"

Direct file append:

# Careful: append to the right SECTION, not just end of file
# Read the file, find the section, insert content, write back

When using direct file write, you MUST:

1. Read the file first
2. Find the target section (## Tasks, ## Log, etc.)
3. Insert content after the section heading (or after existing items)
4. Write the whole file back

Do NOT just append to the end of the file — it breaks the structure. </write_method>

Step 5: Cross-Link

• Link from daily to the related note: [[related-note]]
• Also add a backlink FROM the related note TO today's daily note (only if the related note doesn't already link back)

# In today's daily note:
- Continued work on [[project-x-api-design]]

# In project-x-api-design.md, add:
## Activity
- [[2026-02-12]] — added rate limiting approach

This creates bidirectional links that show up in Obsidian's backlinks panel and graph view.

Log Entry Formats

Task added:

- [ ] Brief task description

Task completed:

- [x] Completed task description

Work log:

- Worked on [[note]]: one sentence of what was done

Decision made:

- Decided: decision summary (see [[decision-note]] for detail)

Discovery:

- Found: discovery summary — [[related-note]]

Session summary:

### Claude Session — HH:MM
**Worked on:** [topic]
**Outcome:** [result]
**Next:** [what's left]

Output Format

When appending:

Added to daily note (YYYY-MM-DD):
- [what was added and to which section]

When creating daily note:

Created daily note: [[YYYY-MM-DD]]
Path: Daily/YYYY-MM-DD.md
Added: [initial content]

When reading:

Today's note (YYYY-MM-DD):
- Tasks: X open, Y completed
- Log: [summary of entries]

NEVER

• Overwrite the daily note (append only)
• Append to the end of the file without finding the right section
• Duplicate entries that already exist
• Create verbose log entries (keep them to one line)
• Skip reading the existing note before appending
• Log trivial interactions (single questions, typo fixes)

ALWAYS

• Read the daily note before appending to it
• Append to the correct section (Tasks/Log/Links)
• Use wikilinks when referencing other notes
• Create the daily note from template if it doesn't exist
• Include timestamps on session summaries
• Check for the daily note path in CLAUDE.md first

Example

End of session where user built a new API endpoint:

Session ending. Logging to today's daily note...

Reading Daily/2026-02-12.md...

Appended to ## Log:
- Worked on [[project-api]]: built rate limiting endpoint, added tests
- Created: [[api-rate-limiting]] — design doc for rate limit approach

Appended to ## Tasks:
- [ ] Deploy rate limiting to staging
- [x] Write rate limiting tests

Appended to ## Links:
- [[api-rate-limiting]]

Daily note updated.

User says "add a task to my daily":

Reading Daily/2026-02-12.md...

What task should I add?

[User: Review the PR from Sarah]

Appended to ## Tasks:
- [ ] Review the PR from Sarah

Daily note updated.