Obsidian Tasks

Manages tasks and PRDs in any Obsidian vault using direct file writes. Obsidian's filesystem watcher picks up changes instantly — no plugin or CLI needed.

Setup

Establish vault context at the start of each session:

• Vault path: absolute path to the vault root — default ~/Documents/Obsidian/<vault-name>
• Tasks folder: default Tasks/
• PRD folder: default PRD/
• Kanban board: default Kanban board.md

If not provided, ask the user before proceeding.

Workflows

Create a task

1. Determine title, type, priority, git repository and optional jira-ticket/prd from context
2. Generate created timestamp: YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm (current date/time)
3. Write <vault>/Tasks/<Title>.md with frontmatter:

---
title: <title>
type: feature | bug | chore | spike
priority: high | medium | low
blocked-by: []
jira-ticket:
prd:
created: <YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm>
repo:
---

4. Add body sections: ## Context, ## Task, ## Acceptance Criteria, ## Notes
5. Add the task to the Kanban board: read <vault>/Kanban board.md and append - [ ] [[<Title>]] as a new item in the ## TODO lane
6. Confirm file path to the user

Create a PRD

Write <vault>/PRD/<Title>.md with:

---
title: <title>
created: <YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm>
status: draft | review | approved
---

Body sections: ## Problem, ## Goals, ## Non-goals, ## Solution, ## Open Questions

Link a task to a PRD

Set prd: "[[PRD Title]]" in the task's frontmatter. Use the exact PRD filename (without .md) as the link target.

Set blocked-by

Set blocked-by as a YAML list in the task's frontmatter:

blocked-by:
  - "[[Blocking Task Title]]"
  - "[[Another Task]]"

The Kanban plugin renders these as clickable links on cards.

Key rules

• Never use Templater syntax (<% ... %>) — write final values directly
• Filenames = identifiers — wiki-links resolve by filename, so keep titles stable
• Direct writes only — no Obsidian CLI or API required; the vault filesystem is the interface
• Kanban board: always add new tasks to the ## TODO lane in Kanban board.md — do not move or reorder existing cards