cursor_obsidian_template

An Obsidian vault template wired up with Cursor Agent rules, for capturing AI chats (Cursor / Gemini / ChatGPT) as notes and growing them into a searchable knowledge base.

Cursor is the front end (conversation, editing, analysis). The Obsidian vault is the back end (storage, links, cross-note analysis).

This repo is meant to be used as a private repository. After cloning, copy profile/user.example.md to profile/user.md and fill in your own context.

Folder layout

cursor_obsidian_template/
├── .cursor/rules/          # Rules for Cursor Agent
├── .obsidian/              # Obsidian settings (workspace/plugins are git-ignored)
├── templates/              # Templater templates
├── profile/                # Your own context (tracked, private-repo assumption)
├── chats/
│   ├── temp/               # Scratch chats — disposable, deleted unless promoted
│   └── persistent/         # Kept long term, linked and analyzed
│       └── _archive/       # Archived persistent notes
├── analysis/               # Cross-note analysis of persistent notes
└── assets/                 # Attachments (images, etc.)

Quick start

1. Clone the repo
2. In Obsidian, "Open folder as vault" and select this folder
3. Copy profile/user.example.md to profile/user.md and fill it in
   • profile/user.md is not git-ignored, since this repo assumes private use
4. Install the Templater plugin (see Obsidian setup)
5. Open the same folder in Cursor — the Agent picks up .cursor/rules/ automatically

Setup checklist

• The folder opens as an Obsidian vault
• profile/user.md exists (copied from user.example.md) and is filled in
• Templater's "Template folder location" is set to templates
• Cursor is open on this folder and new chat notes land in chats/temp/

Speaker attribution in chat logs

Raw conversation is stored under a ## ログ (log) heading, and every utterance is labeled with its speaker, so you can still tell who said what months later.

## ログ

**user:**
Why split temp and persistent?

**assistant:**
Different deletion policies. temp is disposable;
persistent is kept, linked and analyzed.

Rules of the format:

• A turn starts with a line containing only **<speaker>:**, and runs until the next such line or the next ## heading
• The label is bold, at the start of the line, with a colon — so turns stay greppable
• Labels: user, assistant, system, note (something you added later, not said during the conversation) — and only those. Any other **bold:** is body text, so a **Note:** inside an answer is not mistaken for a speaker
• Fenced code blocks are opaque: a **user:** or a ## heading inside a fence is quoted material, not a delimiter. When the quoted content itself contains a fence, wrap it in four or more backticks
• New turns are appended to the end of ## ログ; earlier turns are never rewritten, reordered or merged, so a long back-and-forth stays parseable
• Multiple humans: user (name). Multiple AI tools in one note: assistant (gemini), assistant (chatgpt) — otherwise the source field already says which tool it was
• Optional timestamps: **user (18:20):**
• Text in ## ログ is never summarized, reworded or merged. Summaries live in ## 概要 / ## 要点 / ## メモ; fragments with no known speaker do not go in the log

Every note under chats/ also lists its speakers in frontmatter via participants (actual speakers only — system and note are annotations, not participants). The full spec lives in .cursor/rules/chat-log-format.mdc.

Working with Cursor Agent

New chat (temp)

The Agent creates a temp note automatically and silently when a chat starts — you do not have to ask for it.

• Location: always chats/temp/
• Filename: YYYY-MM-DD-HHmmss.md, renamed to YYYY-MM-DD-topic.md on promote
• Frontmatter is applied from the template automatically
• Conversation is appended to ## ログ with speaker labels

Temp notes are disposable: anything not promoted before the end of a session is deleted. Only promoted notes survive.

Promote temp → persistent

To keep a chat, say something like:

このノートを蓄積して / persistent に移して / 保存して

The Agent then:

1. Moves the file from chats/temp/ to chats/persistent/
2. Changes the temp tag to persistent
3. Sets status to active
4. Renames it to a topic-based filename
5. Tidies up ## 概要 / ## 要点 — the raw ## ログ is carried over untouched

Cross-note analysis

persistent の ○○ について分析して

The Agent searches chats/persistent/ and writes the result to analysis/.

Cleanup and archiving

Goal	Example instruction
Tidy up temp	「temp の古いノートを整理して」
Archive a note	「この persistent をアーカイブして」

Archiving sets status: archived and moves the file to chats/persistent/_archive/. Notes are never deleted from persistent — they are kept as history.

Sample notes

chats/persistent/ and analysis/ ship with worked examples. Delete them after cloning if you would rather start from an empty vault.

File	Shows
chats/persistent/2026-07-01-vault-design.md	A persistent note with a labeled ## ログ
chats/persistent/2026-07-01-vault-setup-test.md	The same, as it looks right after a promote
analysis/2026-07-01-analysis-vault-setup.md	A cross-note analysis with sources_updated

Obsidian setup

1. "Open folder as vault" and select this cursor_obsidian_template folder
2. Settings → Community plugins → install and enable Templater
   • .obsidian/plugins/ is git-ignored, so this is done once per machine
3. In Templater settings, set "Template folder location" to templates
4. New notes default to chats/temp/ (already set in .obsidian/app.json)

Templates

Template	Used for
templates/chat-temp.md	Scratch chat
templates/chat-persistent.md	Persistent note
templates/analysis.md	Analysis note

Insert them with Ctrl/Cmd + P → Templater.

Frontmatter schema

---
created: YYYY-MM-DD
updated: YYYY-MM-DD
tags:
  - chat
  - temp          # or persistent / analysis
source: cursor    # cursor | gemini | chatgpt | manual
status: draft     # draft | active | archived
aliases: []
related: []
participants:     # chats/ only — speaker labels used in the note
  - user
  - assistant
sources_updated: YYYY-MM-DD  # analysis only — when sources were last checked
---

Naming

• General: YYYY-MM-DD-short-topic.md
• Analysis: YYYY-MM-DD-analysis-topic.md
• Topics: English kebab-case preferred (e.g. vault-design); Japanese is allowed, but avoid mixing both within one vault
• Assets: YYYY-MM-DD-description.ext, or prefixed with the source note's name

Cursor rules

.cursor/rules/ contains seven rules:

Rule	Applies to
vault-core.mdc	Always (overall vault policy)
chat-log-format.mdc	chats/**/*.md (speaker labels, raw log handling)
chat-temp.mdc	chats/temp/**/*.md
chat-persistent.mdc	chats/persistent/**/*.md
analysis-workflow.mdc	analysis/**/*.md
obsidian-frontmatter.mdc	All **/*.md
git-workflow.mdc	Git config files, README, rule changes

Git workflow (private-repo assumption)

Change	How
Adding notes, promoting, adding analysis	Commit straight to main
Changing .cursor/rules/	Branch + PR recommended
Restructuring folders	Branch + PR required
Changing the privacy setup (incl. .gitignore)	Branch + PR recommended

• .gitignore excludes Obsidian workspace/graph state, .obsidian/plugins/, .trash/, and OS/editor junk files
• .gitattributes normalizes line endings to LF (Windows-friendly)
• profile/user.md is tracked. Under private use, committing it is fine. If you ever make the repo public, add it back to .gitignore first
• Before committing, check that no secrets (passwords, API keys) and no .obsidian/workspace*.json slipped in

Trigger phrases

Goal	Example instruction
Save to temp	「この会話を temp に保存して」
Promote	「蓄積して」「persistent に移して」
Analyze	「persistent の API 設計について分析して」
Tidy up	「temp の古いノートを整理して」
Archive	「このノートをアーカイブして」

The Agent replies in Japanese by default (set in vault-core.mdc).

License

CC0 1.0 Universal — see LICENSE. Copy, modify and redistribute freely.