04 · Knowledge Management

The pattern (stratum 2)

A knowledge-work environment needs a knowledge system — a place where thinking accumulates, gets refined, and becomes accessible later. The pattern has specific requirements for AI agent integration:

1. Plain-text markdown files on the local filesystem (not a proprietary database)
2. Stable paths + human-readable names so agents can navigate via glob/grep/read
3. Optional graph overlay for human navigation; not required for agents
4. A CLI or programmatic interface so automation can add/query without a GUI

This combination rules out most “second brain” apps that lock content into closed formats (Roam, Notion-as-KB, Evernote). What’s left is mostly Obsidian, Logseq, and plain-text-with-a-tool-chain.

Sub-pages

• Remote plugin development via tailnet — iteration loop for Obsidian plugin testing against a NAS-hosted browser-streamed Obsidian, without granting deploy-host root access.

My current pick: Obsidian

Why Obsidian

• Files on your filesystem — .md in folders. No server, no account required, no lock-in.
• Stable feature set — the core is simple (folders + files + links + tags). Plugins add what’s needed.
• Strong community — deep plugin ecosystem, many well-maintained ones.
• Obsidian CLI — now available (v1.12.4+), making scripting straightforward.
• Works with this scaffold’s Obsidian-Flavored-Markdown — wikilinks, callouts, properties all render both in Obsidian and on the Starlight site.

My vault pattern

Vault lives outside this repo (knowledge work is separate from the tier-3 work content — see the three-tier structure). Typical layout mirrors the temperature gradient from principle 02:

~/Obsidian/main-vault/
├── 00-inbox/
├── 01-working/
├── 02-learnings/
├── 03-reference/
├── 04-archive/
├── System/               # templates, plugin data
├── .obsidian/            # vault config (portable if you keep it in git)
└── _attachments/         # images, PDFs

Obsidian CLI (newer)

As of v1.12.4 Obsidian ships with a CLI:

obsidian search "query"             # search the current vault from terminal
obsidian open "Note Name"           # open a note
obsidian get "Note Name"            # stream note content to stdout

Enable: Obsidian Settings → General → CLI → Register.

See ../../docs/knowledge-base-guide.md (temporary location, will migrate into this layer) for the full CLI walkthrough.

Plugins I use (and some I’ve authored)

Plugin	Purpose	Author
Dataview	Query notes like a database	community
Templater	Scripted templates	community
obsidian-daily-notes-ng	Next-gen daily notes with NLP dates	me
obsidian-folder-tag-sync	Bidirectional folder↔tag sync	me
obsidian-immich-picker	Insert images from Immich	me
crosswalker	GRC compliance crosswalking	me
obsidian-criticmarkup	Suggest edits / annotations	me
tasknotes	Task + time tracking	me

See my Obsidian-related repos on GitHub for the full list.

Obsidian-Flavored Markdown compatibility

This scaffold deliberately preserves Obsidian syntax so the same files work both in-vault (for direct editing) and on this site:

• [[wikilinks]] resolve via remark-wiki-link
• > [!note] callouts render via remark-obsidian-callout
• YAML frontmatter is native to both
• Images work via relative paths

The obsidian-markdown, obsidian-bases, and json-canvas skills in ../../skills/ keep AI agents fluent in the Obsidian dialects when authoring or editing vault content.

Alternatives considered

Alternative	Why not (for me)
Logseq	Outliner-first UX; I prefer document-first. Great for people with the opposite preference.
Notion	Not plain text. Locks content to their servers. Poor fit for agent integration.
Roam Research	Similar concerns to Notion + expensive.
TiddlyWiki	Single HTML file model; hard to integrate with file-tree tooling.
Zettlr / Joplin	Reasonable alternatives; smaller plugin ecosystems.
Plain markdown + VS Code	Works if you don’t need graph navigation. Drops when vault gets big.

What I’m watching

• Neo4j + Ollama + MegaMem — Obsidian-to-Neo4j bridge for semantic search. Pre-beta; watching.
• Openclast (my project) — browser-based Obsidian with CRDT sync. When this matures, it becomes an alternative for multi-device vault editing.

Install pointers

Tool	Where
Obsidian	obsidian.md/download
Obsidian CLI	Built-in since v1.12.4 (enable in Settings)
Plugins	Community Plugins browser inside Obsidian

Integration with the rest of the stack

Connects to	How
01 · AI Coding CLIs	Agents navigate the vault via filesystem + Obsidian CLI
05 · Home Lab	Vault sync via Syncthing or Obsidian Sync
This scaffold	Principles pages use Obsidian callouts + wikilinks; render identically on the site

Obsidian callouts (> [!note], > [!warning]) render natively in Obsidian but degrade to plain blockquotes in the Starlight site mirror. For docs that get site-mirrored (01-kernel/, 02-stack/, 03-work/), prefer Starlight syntax (:::note … :::). Obsidian syntax is appropriate for knowledge-base/ content (Obsidian-native demo) only.

Deep dives

• ../../01-kernel/principles/02-temperature-gradient.md — the thermal zones used in Obsidian vaults
• ../patterns/obsidian-workflow.md — stack-specific workflow patterns (coming)