The structure
Rooms, knowledge, calendar, system – and the five rules that keep your vault clear.
When you create your vault you choose: start with the WhyVault template or with an empty vault. The template gives you the structure described here. It comes from a real working vault and is freely available as an Obsidian template.
The one sentence
The vault answers why. Your task tool answers what comes next.
The vault holds no tasks, no deadlines, no progress bars. The test for anything you want to keep:
- Does it have an owner and a due date? → Task tool
- Does someone still need to understand it in six months? → Vault
The folders
0_Inbox/ everything unsorted, emptied weekly
1_Knowledge/ timeless, flat, shared
People/ Organisations/ Software/ Notes/ Sources/ Maps/ Principles/
2_Calendar/ dated, thin
Days/ Reviews/
3_Rooms/ everything with clear boundaries – the only level with context
<context>/ e.g. Work, Ventures, Private – each with _Closed/
8_Attachments/ files without context
9_System/ identity, templates, working rules for agents
MANUAL.md how the vault worksThe five rules
The vault answers why, the task tool answers what comes next. Otherwise you have two truths and maintain the worse one.
Room or collection? Does the thing have a history – are decisions made, is there a timeline? Then it is a room. Is it material you maintain? Then it is a collection in 1_Knowledge with a map as its entry point.
The boundary rule. Link freely inside a room. Outside it, link only to 1_Knowledge, never from room to room. That way you can hand over a room as a folder.
Don't build the scaffolding in advance. A new room has exactly one file, the overview. 01 Decisions/, 02 Meetings/ and the rest appear when you need them.
Knowledge belongs to no room. A person shows up at work and in private life and still exists only once.
A room
A room starts with one file:
3_Rooms/Ventures/WhyVault/
└── 00 Overview – WhyVault.md purpose, boundaries, people involved, who decides what,
timeline, open questionsWhen needed, more is added – always with these names:
| Folder/file | Created with |
|---|---|
01 Decisions/ | the first decision that carries weight |
02 Meetings/ | the first conversation someone must understand later |
03 Knowledge/ | the first room-specific document |
08 Attachments/ | the first file |
99 Handover – <Room>.md | when there is really something to hand over |
The only status is the location: a room sits in <context>/ or in <context>/_Closed/.
The system area
9_System/Identity/ holds four files that every connected agent reads first:
| File | Answers |
|---|---|
USER.md | Who you are and how you work |
SOUL.md | How it should sound when something is written for you |
IDENTITY.md | Who the assistant should be for you: mission, boundaries, default behavior |
CONTEXTS.md | Which worlds you move in – these are the folders under 3_Rooms |
You don't write them by hand: an interview prompt in 9_System/Setup/ has your agent ask you questions and creates the drafts.