This skill opens the day with full context so you can hit the ground running. It bridges yesterday's loose ends with today's priorities, keeping nothing lost between sessions.
Step 1: Find Yesterday's Context
Look in daily/ for the most recent daily note before today. Read it and extract:
- Any unchecked tasks (
- [ ]) or items under End of Day that signal unfinished work - Any Blockers that were listed
These become the Carry Forward section in today's note.
If no previous daily note exists, skip this step — it's a fresh start.
Step 2: Read or Create Today's Daily Note
Check for daily/YYYY-MM-DD.md using today's actual date.
If it exists: Read it and use it as the basis for the briefing. Don't overwrite the user's content.
If it doesn't exist: Create it using the template from references/templates.md:
- Use the Standard Weekday template as the base
- On Mondays, add the Week Focus section
- On Fridays, add the Week Retro section
- Populate Carry Forward with items extracted in Step 1
- Replace
{{DATE}}with today's date inYYYY-MM-DDformat
Step 3: Scan Active Work
Scan projects/ for any files. For each project file found, check if it mentions a status — surface anything that isn't explicitly marked as completed or archived. Rank by file modification time (most recent first).
Also check inbox/ — list any unprocessed files. If the inbox philosophy from CLAUDE.md applies ("inbox should stay empty"), mention how many items are waiting.
Step 4: Briefing
Present a concise morning briefing:
Good morning.
**Carried forward:**
- [items from yesterday, or "Clean slate — nothing carried forward"]
**Active projects:**
- [project name] — [status/next action from file]
**Inbox:** [N items waiting | Empty]
What are we working on today?
Keep it tight — this is a launchpad, not a report. If there are blockers from yesterday, call them out prominently.
Troubleshooting
| Problem | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| No previous daily note found | First time using the skill, or daily/ folder is empty |
Skip carry-forward — start with a clean slate |
| Template not found | references/templates.md missing (located relative to this skill's root directory) |
Create the daily note with a minimal template: heading + sections for capture, tasks, log |
projects/ folder missing |
Vault doesn't use this folder name | Check CLAUDE.md for the vault's actual project folder name and scan that instead |
| Briefing shows stale data | Daily note was created by another tool with different structure | Read whatever exists — adapt to the note's actual sections rather than forcing the template |
Edge Cases
- Weekend/holiday gap: If the last daily note is several days old, still carry forward its open items
- Multiple daily notes for same date: Use the one matching
YYYY-MM-DD.mdexactly; ignore timestamped variants - Empty inbox: Report "Inbox: Empty" — this is a positive signal, not an error
Platform Notes
This skill works on macOS, Linux, and Windows. File paths use forward slashes in vault context regardless of platform — Obsidian normalizes paths internally.
Gotchas
- Stale carry-forward across weekend/holiday gaps: "Most recent daily note before today" can be 3-5 days old. Items there may already be done — present them as "carried from {date}" so you can scan and prune, not auto-trust.
YYYY-MM-DD.mdcollision with timestamped variants: Tools like Obsidian's Periodic Notes plugin may produce2026-05-12-1430.md. The skill matches exactYYYY-MM-DD.mdonly — variants are silently ignored, including ones that hold the day's actual work.- Project status detection is text-search, not structured: A project file containing "completed previous milestone" surfaces as completed even when active. Look for explicit
status:frontmatter or top-line markers, not loose keyword matches. - Timezone drift creates wrong-day notes after midnight: If the system clock is UTC but you live in a
-3timezone,date +%Freturns tomorrow's date after 21:00 local. Anchor to a tz-aware date source if creating notes late in the day. inbox/count includes hidden files and.DS_Store: macOS adds metadata files silently — "3 items waiting" might be 1 real item plus noise. Filter to*.mdor visible files before counting.- Briefing overwrites existing carry-forward on re-run: Calling the skill twice in one morning regenerates the note. If you've already manually edited carry-forward, a second invocation can blow away your additions — always read existing content first.