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SF CTA Study Hub

Obsidian Setup Guide

Overview

The docs/ folder is already structured as a full Obsidian vault. Every file uses plain Markdown with YAML frontmatter, [[wikilinks]] for cross-references, and Mermaid fenced code blocks for diagrams. There is nothing to convert or import — opening docs/ as a vault gives you a rich local editing experience in Obsidian while files remain plain Markdown files in git. Obsidian reads and writes exactly the same files that the Starlight site builds from.

Step 1 — Open docs/ as a Vault

  1. Download Obsidian from obsidian.md if you don’t have it installed.
  2. Launch Obsidian.
  3. On the vault selection screen, click Manage Vaults.
  4. Click Open folder as vault.
  5. Navigate to /Users/vj/Office/sf-cta-study/docs and click Open.

Obsidian will create a .obsidian/ folder inside docs/ to store your local settings and plugin data. This folder is already in .gitignore — it will not be committed to the repository.

Expected result: All 7 domain folders (01-system-architecture/ through 07-communication/) and 15 Markdown files appear in the Obsidian file tree. Frontmatter fields (title, description, tags) will display in Reading View and in the properties panel.

Step 2 — Enable the Obsidian CLI (v1.12+)

The Obsidian CLI lets you control a running Obsidian instance from the terminal — useful for scripted note creation, search, and quick capture without switching windows.

  1. Open Obsidian Settings with Cmd+, (macOS) or via the gear icon.
  2. Go to the General tab.
  3. Scroll to the Command line interface section.
  4. Toggle Enable command line interface ON.
  5. Click Register CLI to add the obsidian binary to your PATH.
  6. Open a new terminal window and test:
Terminal window
obsidian --version

Note: The CLI requires Obsidian to be running. For headless access (when Obsidian is closed), use the MCPVault integration instead — see Step 5.

Key CLI commands for daily use:

Terminal window
obsidian read file="01-system-architecture/index"
obsidian create name="Title" content="text"
obsidian search:context query="term" limit=10
obsidian daily
obsidian vault="CTA Study" read file="Note"

Step 3 — Install Required Plugins

All four plugins below are installed the same way: Settings > Community Plugins > turn off Safe Mode if prompted > Browse > search by name > Install > Enable.

Obsidian Git (by Vinzent03)

Obsidian Git enables automatic commit-and-push so your edits are versioned without manual git commit commands. After installing and enabling, open the plugin’s settings and configure:

  • Vault backup interval (minutes): 5
  • Auto push after commit: ON
  • Pull updates on startup: ON
  • Commit message template: vault: auto-commit {{date}}

The Source Control view in the left sidebar shows uncommitted changes and lets you commit or push manually at any time.

Excalidraw (by Zsolt Viczian)

Excalidraw adds a full-featured whiteboard and diagramming environment inside Obsidian. Drawings are saved as .excalidraw files in your vault and stay local. After enabling, the New Note dropdown includes an Excalidraw drawing option. Use it to sketch architecture diagrams, study maps, or whiteboard concepts while staying in the vault.

ExcaliBrain (by Zsolt Viczian)

ExcaliBrain requires Excalidraw to be installed and enabled first. Once active, it renders a navigable, interactive brain map built from all [[wikilinks]] in the vault. To open it, click the ExcaliBrain ribbon icon in the left sidebar.

With 34 wikilinks already present across all domain files, the brain map populates immediately and shows the full cross-domain link structure. Recommended settings once open: go to Display and enable Show backlinks and Show forward links to see connections in both directions.

Dataview (by Michael Brenan)

Dataview enables SQL-like queries embedded directly in notes using ```dataview fenced code blocks. Useful for building dynamic tables that aggregate content across the vault — for example, listing all pages in a domain or tracking which topics have been reviewed.

Example query — embed this in any note to generate a table of all pages in the System Architecture domain:

TABLE tags FROM "01-system-architecture"
SORT file.name ASC

Step 4 — Verify Wikilinks Work

Open any domain index file — for example, 01-system-architecture/index.md. In Reading View, wikilinks like [[02-security|Security Architecture]] will appear as clickable links. Click one — Obsidian should navigate to the target file.

If links appear broken or unresolvable, go to Settings > Files and Links and set New link format to Relative path from current note. This aligns Obsidian’s link resolution with how paths are structured in the vault.

Step 5 — MCPVault for Claude Code

MCPVault is already configured in .claude.json at the project root. It gives Claude Code direct read, write, and search access to all files in docs/ without requiring Obsidian to be running. The configuration uses a filesystem-based MCP server that provides 14 tools including BM25-ranked full-text search and safe frontmatter operations.

After restarting Claude Code, vault tools become available automatically. You can then ask Claude to work with vault content directly:

  • “Search the vault for integration patterns”
  • “What pages reference security architecture?”
  • “List all pages tagged with salesforce”
  • “Add a new section to 05-integration/index.md”

This is the recommended way to interact with the vault programmatically when Obsidian is not open.

Vault Structure Reference

FolderCTA Domain
01-system-architecture/System Architecture
02-security/Security
03-data/Data Management
04-solution-architecture/Solution Architecture
05-integration/Integration
06-dev-lifecycle/Development Lifecycle
07-communication/Communication
exam-overview/Exam reference (overview, domains, scenario tips)
resources/Mind maps, decision guides, this setup guide