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:

Read the file first
Find the target section (## Tasks, ## Log, etc.)
Insert content after the section heading (or after existing items)
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.

obsidian-daily-driver