Skills, rules & workflows

Obsilo's behavior is fully customizable. You can give it permanent instructions, teach it new abilities, and create reusable multi-step sequences, all without writing code.

The four building blocks

Type	What it does	Triggered by	Location
Rules	Static instructions always injected into the system prompt	Always active (toggle on/off)	.obsidian-agent/rules/*.md
Skills	Instruction sets injected when relevant keywords are detected	Automatic keyword matching	.obsidian-agent/skills/{name}/SKILL.md
Workflows	Multi-step sequences triggered by slash commands	/workflow-name in chat	.obsidian-agent/workflows/*.md
Custom Prompts	Reusable templates with variables	/ picker in chat	Settings > Custom Prompts

Rules

Rules are the simplest customization. A rule is a Markdown file that gets injected into every conversation.

To create one:

1. Navigate to .obsidian-agent/rules/ in your vault
2. Create a new .md file (e.g., tone.md)
3. Write your instruction in plain text

Always respond in a friendly, concise tone.
Never use bullet points -- use numbered lists instead.
When summarizing notes, always include the creation date.

Toggle rules on and off in Settings > Obsilo Agent > Rules. Disabled rules stay in the folder but are not injected.

When to use rules

Rules work best for global constraints that should always apply: tone of voice, formatting preferences, language requirements, domain-specific terminology.

Skills

Skills are more powerful than rules. They are only injected when the agent detects that a conversation is relevant to the skill's domain, keeping the system prompt lean.

To create one:

1. Create a folder under .obsidian-agent/skills/ (e.g., meeting-notes/)
2. Add a SKILL.md file with frontmatter:

---
name: Meeting Notes
description: Formats meeting notes with attendees, decisions, and action items
---

When the user asks you to create or format meeting notes:
1. Ask for the meeting title, date, and attendees if not provided
2. Structure the note with these sections: Attendees, Agenda, Discussion, Decisions, Action Items
3. Tag action items with the responsible person
4. Add frontmatter with type: meeting, date, and participants

The agent automatically matches this skill when the user mentions meetings, agendas, or action items.

Per-mode filtering

Skills can be restricted to specific modes. A skill meant for Agent mode (writing) won't activate in Ask mode (read-only). This prevents the agent from suggesting write actions when it cannot execute them.

Plugin integration

Obsilo automatically discovers your installed Obsidian plugins and can use them. This happens through three mechanisms:

Plugin skills (automatic). On startup, Obsilo scans all installed plugins and generates skill files that describe their capabilities. If you have Dataview installed, the agent knows it can run Dataview queries. If you have Templater, it knows about your templates. You can see these in Settings > Skills > Plugin Skills and toggle them on or off per plugin.

Plugin commands. The agent can run any Obsidian command through the execute_command tool. This includes commands from your plugins, like "Dataview: Refresh all views" or "Templater: Insert template". Commands require approval by default (configurable under Settings > Auto-Approve > Plugin Skills).

Plugin API. For deeper integration, the agent can read data from plugin APIs using call_plugin_api. It can query Dataview results or read Omnisearch indexes. Write access to plugin APIs is off by default and requires explicit opt-in under Settings > Auto-Approve > Plugin API Writes.

Rescan after installing plugins

If you install a new plugin while Obsidian is running, go to Settings > Skills and click "Rescan vault" to pick up the new plugin. Otherwise it gets discovered on next restart.

You can also create your own skills that build on plugin capabilities. A "Project Dashboard" skill could use Dataview queries to generate a summary canvas, for example.

Workflows

Workflows are saved procedures. They define a sequence of steps the agent follows when triggered.

To create one:

1. Create a file in .obsidian-agent/workflows/ (e.g., weekly-review.md)
2. Define the steps:

# Weekly Review

1. Search for all notes created or modified in the last 7 days
2. Group them by folder and summarize each group
3. List any open action items (unchecked checkboxes)
4. Create a new note called "Weekly Review - [date]" with the summary
5. Move the note to the Reviews/ folder

Trigger it by typing /weekly-review in the chat input. The agent follows the steps in order.

Custom prompts

Custom prompts are reusable message templates with variable placeholders.

Variable	Replaced with
	Whatever the user types after selecting the prompt
	The content of the currently open note

Example: a prompt called "Explain Like I'm 5" with the template Explain the following in simple terms a beginner would understand: .

Create and manage custom prompts in Settings > Obsilo Agent > Custom Prompts, or type / in the chat to browse and trigger them.

Choosing the right tool

You want to...	Use
Set a permanent formatting or tone rule	Rule
Teach the agent a domain-specific process	Skill
Create a repeatable multi-step procedure	Workflow
Save a frequently used prompt	Custom Prompt

Keep rules focused

Too many rules bloat the system prompt and can confuse the model. Prefer skills for specialized knowledge since they only activate when needed.

Next steps

• Office Documents: Create presentations, documents, and spreadsheets
• Connectors: Connect external tools and expose your vault
• Multi-Agent & Tasks: Delegate work to sub-agents