zettelclaw

What This Skill Does

Zettelclaw transforms your OpenClaw agent into an active collaborator within your Obsidian vault. It turns a static folder of Markdown files into a dynamic, agent-native long-term memory system. By strictly adhering to a structured vault schema—including dedicated zones for journals, inbox captures, and evergreen notes—Zettelclaw allows the agent to read, synthesize, and update your personal knowledge base. It leverages file-system operations for deep integration and semantic recall tools to ensure that context from weeks or months ago remains accessible during current sessions.

Installation

To integrate Zettelclaw into your agent workflow, execute the following command in your terminal: clawhub install openclaw/skills/skills/maxpetretta/zettelclaw Ensure your MEMORY.md or OpenClaw configuration file contains the correct vault path pointing to your Obsidian directory to enable the agent to bridge the gap between its workspace and your notes.

Use Cases

• Project Management: Track ongoing development by updating project notes with progress summaries derived from daily journals.
• Synthesis: Use the agent to perform nightly maintenance, distilling raw daily journal entries into structured research or project updates.
• Contextual Recall: Ask your agent about past research or technical decisions, allowing it to search across your entire vault using semantic recall or structured CLI queries.
• Idea Curation: Rapidly capture thoughts into the 00 Inbox/, allowing the agent to triage, organize, and format them into evergreen notes during its maintenance cycles.

Example Prompts

1. "Find the most recent research notes related to 'local-first sync' and summarize the open technical hurdles."
2. "Create a new project note for the 'OpenClaw Gateway' project in the 01 Notes folder with the standard frontmatter."
3. "Review my journals from the last three days and update the relevant project notes with any new technical progress made."

Tips & Limitations

• Strict Frontmatter: Always include type, created, and updated fields in your YAML frontmatter. The agent relies on this structure for automated maintenance.
• Follow the Three-Layer Rule: Keep journals raw, notes curated, and the inbox for unprocessed thoughts. This prevents the agent from creating a mess during its automated maintenance routines.
• Naming Conventions: Stick to Title Case for files and ensure tags are pluralized (e.g., projects) to keep your graph navigable.
• Agent Limitations: When the agent is alone, it is restricted to updating existing notes and creating new entries in the inbox. It cannot automatically re-architect your vault, so manual oversight is required for major structural changes.