Obsidian Conversation Backup

Automatically backs up Clawdbot conversations to Obsidian with beautiful chat-style formatting. Prevents data loss from /new resets with hourly incremental snapshots.

Features

• Incremental backups: Hourly snapshots of new messages only (no duplication)
• Chat formatting: Obsidian callouts with emojis, timestamps, proper multi-paragraph support
• Hourly breakdowns: Organize conversations by clock hour for easy reference
• Zero token cost: Pure shell scripting, no LLM calls
• Smart filtering: Skips empty messages and system notifications

Quick Setup

Installation

# Extract the skill (if downloaded as .skill file)
unzip obsidian-conversation-backup.skill
cd obsidian-conversation-backup

# Run installer (interactive)
chmod +x install.sh
./install.sh

The installer will ask for:

• Obsidian vault path
• Session directory location
• Tracking files location

Or manual setup:

1. Copy config.example to config
2. Edit config with your paths
3. Make scripts executable: chmod +x scripts/*.sh

Enable Automatic Backups

Add to crontab for hourly backups:

crontab -e

# Add this line (runs every hour at :00)
0 * * * * /path/to/obsidian-conversation-backup/scripts/monitor_and_save.sh

Customize Chat Appearance (Optional)

Edit scripts/format_message_v2.jq to change:

• User emoji (default: 🐉)
• Assistant emoji (default: 🦞)
• Callout types (default: [!quote] for user, [!check] for assistant)

Usage

Automatic Incremental Backups

Once configured in cron, the system runs automatically:

Every hour:

• Checks for new messages (≥10 lines)
• Creates incremental snapshot if found
• Saves to: YYYY-MM-DD-HHmm-incremental.md
• Skips if no new conversation

Example output:

2026-01-20-1500-incremental.md (messages from last save to now)
2026-01-20-1600-incremental.md (new messages since 15:00)
2026-01-20-1700-incremental.md (new messages since 16:00)

Protection: Max conversation loss = 1 hour

On-Demand Full Snapshot

Save complete conversation anytime:

scripts/save_full_snapshot.sh [topic-name]

Examples:

scripts/save_full_snapshot.sh important-decisions
scripts/save_full_snapshot.sh bug-fix-discussion
scripts/save_full_snapshot.sh  # uses "full-conversation" as default

Hourly Breakdown (Organization)

Create organized breakdown by clock hour:

scripts/create_hourly_snapshots.sh YYYY-MM-DD

Example:

scripts/create_hourly_snapshots.sh 2026-01-20

Output:

2026-01-20-1500-hourly.md (15:00-15:59 messages)
2026-01-20-1600-hourly.md (16:00-16:59 messages)
2026-01-20-1700-hourly.md (17:00-17:59 messages)

Use case: End-of-day organization for easy reference

Chat Format

Messages appear as colored Obsidian callouts:

User messages (blue [!quote] callout):

> [!quote] 🐉 User · 15:30
> This is my message