Getting Started with the Obsidian Vault

By Amr

Open the Zer0-Mistakes repo as an Obsidian vault, install recommended plugins, and learn the frontmatter conventions.

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

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Table of Contents

Getting Started with the Obsidian Vault

1. Open the repository as a vault

1. Install Obsidian.
2. Launch Obsidian → Open folder as vault.
3. Pick the root of your zer0-mistakes clone.
4. Trust the author when prompted (the vault ships with shared settings under .obsidian/; nothing executes automatically).

The repo’s .gitignore excludes Obsidian’s per-user state (workspace*, cache, plugins/*/data.json) so multiple contributors can share the same vault without merge conflicts.

[!tip] Prefer a smaller surface? If _layouts/, _includes/, etc. clutter the file explorer, the shared .obsidian/app.json already lists them under userIgnoreFilters. Adjust to taste — your local override stays out of git.

2. Recommended plugins

The repo ships an enabled core-plugin list in .obsidian/core-plugins.json (file explorer, search, backlinks, outgoing links, tag pane, graph, outline, page preview, templates, daily notes, properties).

Recommended community plugins (install manually, none are bundled):

Plugin	Why
Dataview	Query frontmatter to build dynamic indexes inside Obsidian.
Templater	Power up pages/_notes/_templates/note-template.md.
Obsidian Git	Stage/commit/push without leaving Obsidian.
Excalidraw	Sketch diagrams that survive on the rendered site as images.
Admonition	Optional richer callouts beyond Obsidian’s built-in > [!type].

3. Frontmatter conventions

Every note should carry the canonical Jekyll frontmatter so it picks up the correct layout and permalink. The shared template at pages/_notes/_templates/note-template.md already matches:

---
title: "Your note title"
description: "Used for SEO and social previews (≤160 chars)."
layout: note
date: 2026-04-19T10:00:00.000Z
lastmod: 2026-04-19T10:00:00.000Z
categories: [Notes]
tags: [tag1, tag2]
permalink: /notes/your-slug/
aliases: ["Old Title"]   # → jekyll-redirect-from
backlinks: true
---

Obsidian shows these fields in its Properties sidebar; the values map 1:1 to the Jekyll defaults declared in _config.yml. The aliases: array is honored by jekyll-redirect-from so renames don’t break inbound links.

4. Where things live

Path	Purpose
pages/_notes/	Personal notes (renders with layout: note, backlinks on).
pages/_docs/	Long-form documentation pages.
pages/_posts/	Blog posts (renders with layout: journals).
assets/images/notes/	Default attachment folder for ![[image]] embeds.
pages/_notes/_templates/	Obsidian Templates plugin source.

5. Next steps

• Skim the syntax reference to see exactly which Obsidian features render on the site.
• Learn the authoring workflow for the round-trip from Obsidian to published page.
• If something looks off, jump to troubleshooting.

See also

• [[Obsidian Vault Integration]]
• [[Obsidian Syntax Reference]]
• [[Obsidian Authoring Workflow]]
• [[Obsidian Integration Troubleshooting]]
• [[Obsidian Graph View]]
• [[front-matter]]
• [[Installation]]

Linked mentions 5

• Obsidian Authoring Workflow docs
  From an empty Obsidian note to a published page on GitHub Pages — the daily loop.
• Obsidian Graph View docs
  Interactive force-directed map of every wiki-link in the site, mirroring Obsidian's local graph.
• Obsidian Vault Integration docs
  Edit Zer0-Mistakes content as an Obsidian vault and have it render identically on GitHub Pages.
• Obsidian Syntax Reference docs
  Every Obsidian-flavoured Markdown feature supported by the Zer0-Mistakes theme and how it renders on GitHub Pages.
• Obsidian Integration Troubleshooting docs
  Common issues with the Obsidian + Jekyll integration and how to fix them.