obsidian-inbox

Obsidian Inbox Skill

Processes unsorted notes in /Users/ikatkov/Obsidian/Default/inbox/ into properly-formatted notes in the correct subfolder.

When to invoke

User drops a raw .md file in /Users/ikatkov/Obsidian/Default/inbox/ (containing a URL, pasted text, optionally images) and asks to process it.
User says any of: "sort my inbox", "file this", "clean up the new note", "process inbox".
User explicitly invokes via /obsidian-inbox or Skill tool.

If multiple unsorted files exist, ask which one (or "all").

Workflow

1. Read the vault entry point

Read /Users/ikatkov/Obsidian/Default/inbox/CONVENTIONS.md first. It's the source of truth for the workflow, shared rules (image-filename uniqueness, frontmatter dates, language preservation), and the table of subfolders → convention docs. The skill instructions you're reading now are the trigger / driver; the vault file is the data.

2. Locate the unsorted note

ls /Users/ikatkov/Obsidian/Default/inbox/*.md — any .md files at the root of inbox/ (not inside a subfolder) are unsorted. Also list any loose images (.webp, .png, .jpg) at the root in case they belong to the note.

3. Read the raw note + classify

Read the raw note. Apply the classification heuristics from inbox/CONVENTIONS.md:

Signals	Folder
Title with year in parens, IMDb URL, director / cinematographer mentioned	`movies/`
Goodreads URL, author dominant, pages / publisher	`books/`
Instagram reel + "poses" / "позы" + numbered figure references	`poses/`
Instagram reel + place names / route / map / restaurants / "road trip"	`travel/`
Instagram reel / blog / GitHub URL describing a tool / technique / workflow	`ideas/`

If none fit, ask the user whether to create a new subfolder; if yes, also generate a new conventions.md for it using the existing ones as a template.

4. Read the matching conventions

Read /Users/ikatkov/Obsidian/Default/inbox/<folder>/conventions.md. It contains the exact frontmatter shape, body sections, image widths, and tag rules you must follow — do not invent.

5. Gather any external info needed

Movies: fetch IMDb (title, year, director, cinematographer, country, genre). If the raw note already has these, skip.
Books: fetch Goodreads (rating, ratings_count, pages, blurb). Required.
Poses / travel / ideas: if the source is an Instagram reel and the raw note doesn't already include stills, use yt-dlp (for reels) or instagram-gallery-download (for /p/ posts) skills to pull media. For poses, follow the frame-selection rule in poses/conventions.md (darker graded final-pose frames, not demo/motion frames with numbered badges).

6. Process images

For every image that will end up in the new note:

Convert to .webp if not already: magick input.jpg -quality 85 output.webp. Delete the original.
Choose a vault-globally-unique filename. Prefix with a category slug or note slug — never use generic cover.webp / poster.webp / screenshot.webp. The exact naming pattern is in the matching conventions.md (e.g. movies use <film-slug>.webp, travel uses <region-slug>-NN.webp).
Verify uniqueness: find /Users/ikatkov/Obsidian/Default -name "<new-filename>" should return zero matches.
Move into <folder>/attachments/<note-slug>/.

7. Generate the final note

Write the new .md file directly into <folder>/, following the matching conventions.md precisely:

Frontmatter shape per the convention (date created/modified to current time in Month Dth YYYY, h:mm:ss am/pm format).
Image embeds with the correct width (|200).
Tag taxonomy from that folder's convention. Do not invent new top-level namespaces. No inbox/* tags, no year-as-tag.
Body structure (sections, headings) exactly as the convention specifies.
Language: keep source language for title:, summary:, and body.

8. Clean up

Delete the original raw .md from inbox/ root only after confirming with the user that the new note looks right.
Delete any temp / original-format images.
If a new subfolder was created, ensure its conventions.md is in place and the row in inbox/CONVENTIONS.md is updated.

Failure modes to avoid

Generic image filenames. This is the single biggest pitfall — Obsidian wikilinks collide across the whole vault by filename alone. Always prefix.
Inventing new tags. Use the namespaces in the folder's conventions.md. If you genuinely need a new tag, surface it to the user before writing.
Translating Russian titles / summaries. Russian source → Russian text. Don't be helpful by Englishifying.
Skipping Goodreads enrichment for books. Required step, not optional.
Deleting the raw inbox file before the user has eyeballed the result. Always confirm.

References

Vault entry point: /Users/ikatkov/Obsidian/Default/inbox/CONVENTIONS.md
Per-folder conventions:
- inbox/movies/conventions.md
- inbox/books/conventions.md
- inbox/ideas/conventions.md
- inbox/poses/conventions.md
- inbox/travel/conventions.md