Raibid Labs Documentation

Using Obsidian with This Vault

5 min read

Using Obsidian with This Vault

This documentation hub is designed to work seamlessly with Obsidian, allowing you to edit and navigate documentation locally using all of Obsidian’s powerful features.

🎯 Why Use Obsidian?

  • Graph View: Visualize connections between documents
  • Backlinks: See all pages that reference the current page
  • Quick Switcher: Jump to any file instantly
  • Live Preview: See rendered markdown as you type
  • Plugins: Extend functionality with community plugins
  • Tags: Organize and discover content
  • Daily Notes: Track changes and ideas

📥 Setup

1. Install Obsidian

Download from obsidian.md and install for your platform.

2. Open This Vault

# Clone the repository if you haven't already
git clone https://github.com/raibid-labs/docs.git
cd docs

In Obsidian:

  1. Click “Open folder as vault”
  2. Navigate to the cloned docs/ directory
  3. Click “Open”

Settings → Files & Links:

  • New link format: Shortest path
  • Use Wikilinks: Enabled
  • Automatically update internal links: Enabled

Settings → Editor:

  • Default view for new tabs: Editing view
  • Show line numbers: Enabled
  • Strict line breaks: Disabled

Settings → Appearance:

  • Theme: Choose your preference
  • Base color scheme: Light or Dark

🔧 Recommended Plugins

Core Plugins (Built-in)

Enable these in Settings → Core plugins:

  • Graph view: Visualize connections
  • Backlinks: Show incoming links
  • Tag pane: Browse by tags
  • Page preview: Hover to preview links
  • Outline: Document structure
  • Search: Full-text search
  • Quick switcher: Fast navigation

Community Plugins

Install these from Settings → Community plugins:

Essential

  • Dataview: Query and display data from notes
  • Templater: Advanced templates
  • Calendar: Daily notes calendar
  • Obsidian Git: Auto-commit changes

Nice to Have

  • Advanced Tables: Better table editing
  • Kanban: Project management boards
  • Excalidraw: Embedded drawings
  • Mind Map: Visual brainstorming

📂 Vault Structure

docs/
├── index.md                    # Homepage
├── content/
│   ├── projects/              # Project docs (submodules)
│   │   ├── project-1/
│   │   │   ├── index.md
│   │   │   └── ...
│   │   └── project-2/
│   │       ├── index.md
│   │       └── ...
│   └── guides/                # Local guides
│       ├── index.md
│       ├── getting-started.md
│       └── ...
├── .obsidian/                 # Obsidian settings (gitignored)
└── templates/                 # Note templates (optional)

✍️ Editing Guidelines

Front Matter

All documentation pages should include front matter:

---
title: Page Title
description: Brief description for search and previews
tags: [tag1, tag2, tag3]
---

Use wikilinks for internal references:

- Link to page: [[page-name]]
- Link with custom text: [[page-name|Custom Text]]
- Link to heading: [[page-name#heading|heading]]
- Link to block: [[page-name#^block-id|^block-id]]

Tags

Add tags for organization:

#tag #nested/tag #multi-word-tag

Or in front matter:

tags: [guide, obsidian, documentation]

Callouts

Use Obsidian callouts for special content:

> [!note]
> 
> This is a note callout
 
> [!warning]
> 
> Important warning message
 
> [!tip]
> 
> Helpful tip
 
> [!example]
> 
> Example code or explanation

🔍 Navigation Tips

Quick Switcher

  • Cmd/Ctrl + O: Open any file by name
  • Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + O: Quick switcher for commands
  • Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + F: Search in all files
  • Use search operators:
    • path:projects/ - Search in specific folder
    • tag:#guide - Search by tag
    • line:(text) - Search in same line

Graph View

  • Cmd/Ctrl + G: Open graph view
  • Filters:
    • By tags
    • By folders
    • By links
  • Use to discover connections between topics

🔄 Git Integration

Obsidian Git Plugin

Install and configure the Obsidian Git plugin for automatic commits:

Settings → Obsidian Git:

  • Vault backup interval: 10 minutes (or your preference)
  • Commit message: vault backup: {{date}}
  • Auto pull on startup: Enabled
  • Auto push: Enabled

Manual Git Operations

Or manage Git manually:

# Pull latest changes
git pull --recurse-submodules
 
# Update submodules
git submodule update --remote --merge
 
# Commit changes
git add .
git commit -m "docs: update documentation"
git push

📝 Templates

Create reusable templates in templates/:

Guide Template

---
title: {{title}}
description:
tags: [guide]
created: {{date}}
---
 
# {{title}}
 
## Overview
 
Brief introduction.
 
## Prerequisites
 
- Prerequisite 1
- Prerequisite 2
 
## Steps
 
### Step 1
 
Details...
 
### Step 2
 
Details...
 
## Conclusion
 
Summary and next steps.
 
---
 
[[guides/index|← Back to Guides]]

Project Index Template

---
title: {{title}}
description: Documentation for {{title}}
tags: [project, {{title}}]
---
 
# {{title}}
 
## Overview
 
Project description.
 
## Documentation
 
- [[page1|Page Title 1]]
- [[page2|Page Title 2]]
 
## Resources
 
- Repository: URL
- Issues: URL
- Discussions: URL

🎨 Customization

CSS Snippets

Create custom styles in .obsidian/snippets/:

/* custom.css */
.markdown-preview-view {
  font-family: 'Your Preferred Font';
}
 
/* Custom callout colors */
.callout[data-callout="custom"] {
  --callout-color: 100, 100, 255;
}

Enable in Settings → Appearance → CSS snippets

Hotkeys

Customize keyboard shortcuts in Settings → Hotkeys:

  • Frequently used commands
  • Plugin commands
  • Custom shortcuts

🔗 Integration with Quartz

Obsidian features that work with Quartz:

✅ Supported:

  • Wikilinks
  • Backlinks
  • Front matter
  • Tags
  • Headings
  • Lists
  • Code blocks
  • Tables
  • Callouts (as blockquotes)

⚠️ Partial Support:

  • Embedded notes (converted to links)
  • DataView queries (rendered statically)

❌ Not Supported:

  • Canvas files
  • Obsidian-specific plugins
  • Dynamic queries

🐛 Troubleshooting

Submodule Content Not Showing

# Ensure submodules are initialized
git submodule update --init --recursive
  • Check link format (use shortest path)
  • Ensure wikilinks are enabled
  • Verify file exists in vault

Graph View Performance

  • Exclude folders: Settings → Graph view → Filters
  • Reduce node count with filters
  • Close graph when not needed

📚 Resources

🎯 Next Steps

← Back to Guides

Graph View

Backlinks