Notes and layouts
Notes and folders
A note is a markdown file with frontmatter. The built-in layout has five folders, and the folder decides the kind of note and how much it weighs in search:
| Folder | Kind | Weight | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
Areas/ |
system | 3.0 | One living note per system. Current state only. The hubs of the graph. |
Resources/ |
reference | 2.0 | Traps, how-tos and decisions with their reasons. |
Projects/ |
task | 1.0 | Open work spanning sessions, and the backlog. Closed with close. |
Log/ |
log | 1.0 | One append-only log per repo, plus period pages. |
Archive/ |
archive | 0.3 | History. Searched only on request. |
Every note must satisfy the frontmatter contract: required fields, legal statuses and kinds, folders that must link an area, and an optional tag vocabulary. The schema file lists the contract and every setting.
Layouts
The folders above are the built-in layout, which init writes when it is given no preset. init --preset <name> starts a vault from another layout instead, each with its own folders, frontmatter contract, kinds, tags and Bases views:
| Preset | Folders |
|---|---|
para |
Projects, Areas, Resources (with Resources/Logs), Archive |
simple |
Most notes in the root, typed by a categories link to an overview note; Projects (open work and the backlog), References, Clippings, Daily, Templates, Attachments. No log, no archive |
journal |
Daily (one note per day, Daily/YYYY/YYYY-MM-DD.md), Notes, Projects, Logs, Templates, Archive |
custom |
An empty schema you fill in |
simple follows Steph Ango's vault: a category note such as Books.md, made from Templates/Category Template, embeds Templates/Bases/Category.base and lists every note whose categories links to it, and the daily note template embeds the notes written or linked that day. Open work is the one exception to notes in the root: it lives in Projects/, so the tools can file it, and Open work.base and Backlog.base show it.
In Obsidian, point the core Daily notes plugin at the Daily folder and Templates/Daily Note Template; for journal, set its date format to YYYY/YYYY-MM-DD.
Where each tool writes
Each tool finds its home by folder kind: open tasks and the backlog go to the folder of kind task, log_append writes to the folder of kind log, and close moves notes to the folder of kind archive. In a layout without one of these, the tool says which folder kind is missing.
Switching layouts
init --preset <name> --force switches an existing vault: the schema and the views are rewritten, the old schema is kept as .vault/schema.previous.yml, and no note is moved or deleted. Notes in folders the new layout does not name stay where they are and stay searchable; each is checked against the new rules the next time it is written, and lint lists the ones that do not fit.
The init tool sets up only a vault without a schema, so an MCP client cannot change the rules that check its own writes.
On a server, a vault picks PARA, Simple, Journal or Custom when it is made, and switches to another of them on its page later, without moving any note. A vault made without one, such as an account's first vault, asks on its page. A vault in the built-in layout keeps it; the page names it, and it is switched from the command line only.