Overview
This Skill defines the Obsidian knowledge base folder organization standard operating procedure, with the goal of streamlining a messy directory structure into 7-10 top-level categories.
Core Principles
- 7±2 Principle - Keep top-level folders to 5-9 (optimal cognitive load)
- MECE Principle - Categories are mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive, avoiding overlap
- Progressive - Preserve traces of the original structure for easy backtracking
- Safety First - Confirm before merging, back up before deleting
Standard Classification System (Recommended)
| Category | Naming | Included Content |
|---|---|---|
| Inbox | _Inbox |
Uncategorized notes, temporary files, content to be processed |
| Attachments | _attachments |
Media files such as images, PDFs, audio |
| Journal | Journal |
Diary, weekly journal, monthly review, annual summary |
| Reading | Reading |
Book notes, article excerpts, podcast records |
| Work | Work |
Work projects, meeting minutes, team sharing |
| Technology | Tech |
Technical notes, code snippets, tool configurations |
| People | People |
Person profiles, social relationships, contact information |
| Projects | Projects |
Personal projects, side businesses, startup ideas |
| Growth | Growth |
Cognitive improvement, learning plans, skill development |
Note:
_The prefix places system folders at the very front
Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)
Phase 1: Analyze the Current State
- Locate the Obsidian Vault path (usually in
~/Documents/Obsidian Vault/） - Count the number and names of existing top-level folders
- Count the number of files in each folder
- Identify duplicate/similar/mergeable categories
# 查看目录结构
ls -la "/path/to/Obsidian Vault/"
# 统计各文件夹文件数
for dir in "/path/to/Obsidian Vault/"*/; do
echo "$(basename "$dir"): $(find "$dir" -type f | wc -l) files"
done
Phase 2: Develop an Organization Plan
Based on the existing folders, develop a merge mapping table:
| 原文件夹 | 目标分类 | 操作 |
|---------|---------|------|
| 日记/ | Journal | 合并 |
| 当日日记/ | Journal | 合并 |
| books/ | Reading | 合并 |
| 读书/ | Reading | 合并 |
| QAL分享/ | Work | 合并 |
| 临时文件/ | _Inbox | 合并 |
Phase 3: Execute the Merge
Merge Operation Template(using cp + rm is safer):
# 1. 创建目标目录（如不存在）
mkdir -p "/path/to/Obsidian Vault/TargetFolder"
# 2. 复制源文件夹内容到目标
cp -r "/path/to/Obsidian Vault/SourceFolder/"* "/path/to/Obsidian Vault/TargetFolder/"
# 3. 确认复制成功后删除源文件夹
rm -rf "/path/to/Obsidian Vault/SourceFolder"
Batch Merge Example：
VAULT="/Users/xxx/Documents/Obsidian Vault"
# 合并日记类
mkdir -p "$VAULT/Journal"
cp -r "$VAULT/日记/"* "$VAULT/Journal/" 2>/dev/null
cp -r "$VAULT/当日日记/"* "$VAULT/Journal/" 2>/dev/null
rm -rf "$VAULT/日记" "$VAULT/当日日记"
# 合并阅读类
mkdir -p "$VAULT/Reading"
cp -r "$VAULT/books/"* "$VAULT/Reading/" 2>/dev/null
cp -r "$VAULT/读书/"* "$VAULT/Reading/" 2>/dev/null
rm -rf "$VAULT/books" "$VAULT/读书"
Phase 4: Verify the Results
- Check whether the number of top-level folders is ≤ 10
- Confirm that no empty folders remain
- Spot-check whether files are complete after merging
- Update the Obsidian index (restart Obsidian or refresh)
# 统计最终结构
ls -d "$VAULT"/*/ | wc -l
# 查找空目录
find "$VAULT" -type d -empty
Handling Common Issues
Path contains spaces
# 错误
cd /path/Obsidian Vault # 会失败
# 正确
cd "/path/Obsidian Vault"
Folder names contain special characters
# 文件夹名以空格开头（如 " books"）
rm -rf "/path/ books" # 包含空格
rmdir fails (directory not empty)
# 使用 rm -rf 替代 rmdir
rm -rf "/path/to/folder"
File conflicts during merging
# 使用 -n 避免覆盖
cp -rn source/* dest/
# 或使用 rsync 更精细控制
rsync -av --ignore-existing source/ dest/
Before and After Organization Example
Before Organization (20+ folders)：
APP.ai/
Memory Engineering/
QAL分享/
books/
secondme/
信息熵/
当日日记/
日记/
读书/
鲲鹏会/
...（共 20+ 个）
After Organization (10 folders)：
_Inbox/ # 临时文件
_attachments/ # 附件
AI-Engineering/ # AI 技术
Cognitive-Growth/# 认知成长
Journal/ # 日记
People/ # 人物
Reading/ # 阅读
Tech-Foundation/ # 技术基础
Travel-Product/ # 旅行产品
Work-Sharing/ # 工作分享
Usage Examples
Example 1: Quick Organization
用户: 我的 Obsidian 太乱了，帮我整理一下
Claude:
1. [定位 Vault 路径]
2. [统计现有文件夹]
3. [制定合并计划]
4. [用户确认后执行]
5. [验证结果]
Example 2: Specify Target Count
用户: 把我的 Obsidian 整理到 7 个分类以内
Claude:
1. [分析现有结构]
2. [设计 7 分类方案]
3. [展示合并映射表]
4. [执行并验证]
Precautions
- Backup First - Before large-scale organization, it is recommended to back up the entire Vault
- Execute Progressively - Merge one category at a time, and continue only after confirming there are no issues
- Keep indexes - Do not delete
.obsidian/configuration directories - Update links - After merging, check whether bidirectional links need to be updated (Obsidian usually handles this automatically)
Related Resources
- Obsidian official documentation:https://help.obsidian.md/
- PARA methodology: Projects, Areas, Resources, Archives
- Johnny Decimal system: a digital classification method