Obsidian Bases Skill for Claude

Explain, draft, and validate Obsidian Bases .base files with filters, formulas, properties, summaries, and table, card, or list views. Use for Obsidian Bases, database-like vault views, dynamic tables, reading lists, task trackers, filters, formulas, summaries, and .base file edits.

1k tokens

context cost

the whole folder, loaded on every use

files

instructions only

copies elsewhere

how many repositories repackaged it

10331

stars on the repo

on the repository, not the skill itself

Install

one command, takes just this skill from the repository

npx skills add https://github.com/AgriciDaniel/claude-obsidian --skill obsidian-bases

The instruction itself

4 sections, as written by the author

Obsidian Bases

Use this as a compact workflow and fallback syntax reference. Prefer a

separately installed kepano/obsidian-skills obsidian-bases skill, then the

current official Bases syntax, for

detailed or version-sensitive fields and functions.

Answer design and syntax questions read-only. For a requested .base edit,

resolve the user vault and use one inspected transaction; never write the file

directly.

Resolve the installed product root from this skill's own location, not from the

vault or current working directory:

PRODUCT_ROOT=/absolute/path/to/installed/claude-obsidian
CORE="$PRODUCT_ROOT/scripts/claude-obsidian.py"
test -f "$CORE"

Workflow

Inspect representative note properties and any existing .base file.
Define the smallest filter that selects the intended notes.
Add formulas only for values that must be computed.
Choose views and display order. Do not assume a view type or option is

supported by the user's Obsidian version or installed plugins.

Validate YAML, expression quoting, property names, formula references, and

null handling.

Preview the complete file and expected result set before a mutation.
If an edit was requested, read

operation-transactions.md,

keep the .base file under wiki/, and build one

claude-obsidian.transaction.v1 bundle with operation_type: base. Inspect

it, then set APPROVAL_SHA256 to the returned approval_sha256 only after

review and apply once:

   python3 "$CORE" transaction inspect "$BUNDLE" --vault "$VAULT"
   python3 "$CORE" transaction apply "$BUNDLE" --vault "$VAULT" \
     --approved-plan-sha256 "$APPROVAL_SHA256"

Ask the user to render the Base in Obsidian when application-level behavior

cannot be verified locally.

Compact schema

.base files are YAML. Common top-level keys are filters, formulas,

properties, summaries, and views.

filters:
  and:
    - file.inFolder("wiki")
    - 'status != "archived"'

formulas:
  age_days: '((now() - file.ctime) / 86400000).round(0)'
  status_label: 'if(status == "mature", "Ready", "Review")'

properties:
  status:
    displayName: "Status"
  formula.age_days:
    displayName: "Age (days)"

views:
  - type: table
    name: "Wiki pages"
    order:
      - file.name
      - type
      - status
      - updated
      - formula.age_days

Global filters apply to every view. A view may also define its own filters.

Recursive filter objects use one of and, or, or not at each level.

filters:
  or:
    - file.hasTag("concept")
    - and:
        - file.hasTag("source")
        - 'status == "active"'

Use note properties by name, file metadata as file.name, file.path,

file.folder, file.ext, file.ctime, file.mtime, or file.tags, and

computed properties as formula.<name>.

Formula and YAML rules

Quote expressions that contain operators, colons, or nested string quotes.
Guard nullable properties with if().
Subtracting two dates returns a millisecond number. Divide by 86400000

before rounding when a whole-day count is intended.

Define every formula.<name> before referencing it in a view or property

display configuration.

Do not transplant Dataview-only keys such as from or where into a Base.
Do not invent properties absent from the selected notes without explaining

that the resulting column will be empty.

formulas:
  days_until: 'if(due_date, ((date(due_date) - today()) / 86400000).round(0), "")'

Table, cards, and list views are common:

views:
  - type: cards
    name: "Reading list"
    order:
      - file.name
      - author
      - status
  - type: list
    name: "Quick list"
    order:
      - file.name
      - status

Embed a Base or one named view in a Markdown note:

![[Dashboard.base]]
![[Dashboard.base#Wiki pages]]

After an applied edit, report the operation ID, exact changed path, validation

performed, and anything that still requires rendering in Obsidian. Do not

commit Git.

Other skills for the same job

different authors, same section of the catalogue

DOCX

by anthropics

vendor ×16

Comprehensive document creation, editing, and analysis with support for tracked changes, comments, formatting preservation, and text extraction. When Claude needs to work with professional documents (.docx files) for: (1) Creating new documents, (2) Modifying or editing content, (3) Working with tracked changes, (4) Adding comments, or any other document tasks

Comprehensive PDF manipulation toolkit for extracting text and tables, creating new PDFs, merging/splitting documents, and handling forms. When Claude needs to fill in a PDF form or programmatically process, generate, or analyze PDF documents at scale.

Presentation creation, editing, and analysis. When Claude needs to work with presentations (.pptx files) for: (1) Creating new presentations, (2) Modifying or editing content, (3) Working with layouts, (4) Adding comments or speaker notes, or any other presentation tasks

Create beautiful visual art in .png and .pdf documents using design philosophy. You should use this skill when the user asks to create a poster, piece of art, design, or other static piece. Create original visual designs, never copying existing artists' work to avoid copyright violations.

Use this skill whenever the user wants to do anything with PDF files. This includes reading or extracting text/tables from PDFs, combining or merging multiple PDFs into one, splitting PDFs apart, rotating pages, adding watermarks, creating new PDFs, filling PDF forms, encrypting/decrypting PDFs, extracting images, and OCR on scanned PDFs to make them searchable. If the user mentions a .pdf file or asks to produce one, use this skill.

Use this skill whenever the user wants to create, read, edit, or manipulate Word documents (.docx files). Triggers include: any mention of 'Word doc', 'word document', '.docx', or requests to produce professional documents with formatting like tables of contents, headings, page numbers, or letterheads. Also use when extracting or reorganizing content from .docx files, inserting or replacing images in documents, performing find-and-replace in Word files, working with tracked changes or comments, or converting content into a polished Word document. If the user asks for a 'report', 'memo', 'letter', 'template', or similar deliverable as a Word or .docx file, use this skill. Do NOT use for PDFs, spreadsheets, Google Docs, or general coding tasks unrelated to document generation.

Use this skill any time a .pptx file is involved in any way — as input, output, or both. This includes: creating slide decks, pitch decks, or presentations; reading, parsing, or extracting text from any .pptx file (even if the extracted content will be used elsewhere, like in an email or summary); editing, modifying, or updating existing presentations; combining or splitting slide files; working with templates, layouts, speaker notes, or comments. Trigger whenever the user mentions \"deck,\" \"slides,\" \"presentation,\" or references a .pptx filename, regardless of what they plan to do with the content afterward. If a .pptx file needs to be opened, created, or touched, use this skill.

Create and edit Obsidian Flavored Markdown with wikilinks, embeds, callouts, properties, and other Obsidian-specific syntax. Use when working with .md files in Obsidian, or when the user mentions wikilinks, callouts, frontmatter, tags, embeds, or Obsidian notes.

3k tokens

How to use it

Copy the folder

Take agricidaniel/obsidian-bases from the repository into ~/.claude/skills for personal use, or into .claude/skills inside a project.

Check the name does not clash

The agent identifies a skill by the name field in its header. Two skills with the same name cannot sit side by side — one of them will be ignored.