Agent skill

Daily Notes Workflow

by ballred in ballred/obsidian-claude-pkm

Creates today's daily note in an Obsidian vault and guides morning, midday and evening routines for planning, task review and reflection.

MITAuto-check passedKnowledge Management

Install Daily Notes Workflow

skills CLI
$ npx skills add ballred/obsidian-claude-pkm --skill daily -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install ballred/obsidian-claude-pkm daily --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/ballred/obsidian-claude-pkm.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/vault-template/.claude/skills/daily .claude/skills/daily && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
daily
GitHub stars
1.9k
Token cost
~2k tokens
SKILL.md length
658 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
13
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Creates today's daily note in an Obsidian vault and guides morning, midday and evening routines for planning, task review and reflection.

  • Works in 3 steps: Checks if today's note exists → Template Processing → Automatic Organization
  • Creating today's note in an Obsidian vault
  • SKILL.md covers Usage, Daily Note Creation, Morning Routine (5-10 minutes) and Midday Check-in (2-3 minutes), plus 5 more sections
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

The skill creates a daily note from a template, opening the existing note if one is already there. Template variables for the date, a formatted date, yesterday, tomorrow and the time are replaced, and the note is placed in a `Daily Notes/` folder and named by date. You start it with `/daily` or by asking for today's note or a routine.

The morning routine pulls incomplete tasks from yesterday and surfaces the week's one big thing, active project next-actions and the monthly priority from the vault's goal and project notes, then asks a few reflective prompts such as what your one thing is and what might get in the way. It also suggests linking new tasks to goals or projects. Midday check-ins and an evening shutdown are part of the same skill, which can read and edit files and manage tasks.

When your agent uses it

  • Creating today's note in an Obsidian vault
  • Running a morning planning routine that carries over unfinished tasks
  • Closing the day with an evening shutdown and reflection

Example prompts

  • “Run /daily and open today's note, creating it from the template if needed.”
  • “Start my morning routine and pull in yesterday's unfinished tasks.”
  • “Help me with my evening shutdown.”

Requirements

  • An Obsidian vault with a daily note template and a `Daily Notes/` folder
  • Pre-approved tools (allowed-tools): Read, Write, Edit, Glob, Grep, TaskCreate, TaskUpdate, TaskList, TaskGet

Workflow steps

3 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

  1. Checks if today's note exists
  2. Template Processing
  3. Automatic Organization

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit ef1e4da. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves these tools, so the agent can use them without asking each time:

    • Read
    • Write
    • Edit
    • Glob
    • Grep
    • TaskCreate
    • TaskUpdate
    • TaskList
    • TaskGet

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md (its code samples are markdown).

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Daily Notes Workflow loads about 2k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 54 tokens; SKILL.md has 658 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~54
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~2k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from ballred/obsidian-claude-pkm at commit ef1e4da, republished under its MIT licence (© ballred). 658 words, ~1,981 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/daily/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
daily
description
Create daily notes and manage morning, midday, and evening routines. Structure daily planning, task review, and end-of-day reflection. Use for daily productivity routines or when asked to create today's note.
allowed-tools
Read, Write, Edit, Glob, Grep, TaskCreate, TaskUpdate, TaskList, TaskGet
user-invocable
true

Daily Workflow Skill

Creates daily notes and provides structured workflows for morning planning, midday check-ins, and evening shutdowns.

Usage

Invoke with /daily or ask Claude to create today's note or help with daily routines.

Create Today's Note
/daily

Or simply ask:

  • "Create today's daily note"
  • "Start my morning routine"
  • "Help me with evening shutdown"

Daily Note Creation

What Happens
  1. Checks if today's note exists

    • If yes: Opens the existing note
    • If no: Creates new note from template
  2. Template Processing

    • Replaces {{date}} with today's date
    • Replaces {{date:format}} with formatted dates
    • Handles date arithmetic (e.g., {{date-1}} for yesterday)
  3. Automatic Organization

    • Places note in Daily Notes/ folder
    • Names file with today's date (YYYY-MM-DD.md)
    • Preserves template structure
Template Variables

Your daily template can use:

  • {{date}} - Today's date in default format
  • {{date:dddd}} - Day name (e.g., Monday)
  • {{date:MMMM DD, YYYY}} - Formatted date
  • {{date-1:YYYY-MM-DD}} - Yesterday's date
  • {{date+1:YYYY-MM-DD}} - Tomorrow's date
  • {{time}} - Current time

Morning Routine (5-10 minutes)

Automated Steps
  1. Create today's daily note (if not exists)
  2. Pull incomplete tasks from yesterday
  3. Read this week's ONE Big Thing from Goals/3. Weekly Review.md
  4. Surface active project next-actions from Projects/*/CLAUDE.md
  5. Review weekly goals for today's priority
Cascade Context Surfacing

Before interactive prompts, automatically surface:

  • ONE Big Thing from most recent weekly review
  • Active project next-actions from Projects/*/CLAUDE.md (read "Next Actions" section)
  • Monthly priority from Goals/2. Monthly Goals.md

Display as a brief context block at the top of the morning routine:

markdown
### Today's Context
- **Week's ONE Big Thing:** [from weekly review]
- **Active Projects:** [project names with first next-action each]
- **Monthly Focus:** [from monthly goals]
Interactive Prompts
  • "What's your ONE thing for today?"
  • "What might get in the way?"
  • "How do you want to feel at end of day?"
Task Creation Guidance

When adding tasks to the daily note, recommend linking to goals/projects:

markdown
- [ ] Draft API spec — Supports: [[Projects/MyApp]]
- [ ] Review chapter 3 — Supports: [[1. Yearly Goals#Read 12 books]]
Morning Checklist
  • Daily note created
  • Cascade context reviewed (ONE Big Thing, projects, monthly focus)
  • Yesterday's incomplete tasks reviewed
  • ONE priority identified
  • Time blocks set
  • Potential obstacles identified

Midday Check-in (2-3 minutes)

Quick Review
  1. Check morning task completion
  2. Compare actual vs planned time use
  3. Assess energy level
  4. Identify afternoon priorities
Adjustments
  • Reschedule incomplete morning tasks
  • Add urgent items that emerged
  • Reorder by current energy level
  • Note any blockers
Midday Questions
  • "How's your energy right now?"
  • "What's the most important thing for this afternoon?"
  • "What can you let go of today?"

Evening Shutdown (5 minutes)

Capture
  1. Mark completed tasks with [x]
  2. Add notes and learnings
  3. Log energy levels (1-10)
  4. Record gratitude items
Show full SKILL.md (266 more words)Show less
Goal & Project Attention Summary

Automatically generate an end-of-day summary showing which goals and projects received attention:

markdown
### Today's Cascade Impact
- **Goals touched:** [[Goal 1]] (2 tasks), [[Goal 3]] (1 task)
- **Projects advanced:** [[ProjectA]] (3 tasks), [[ProjectB]] (1 task)
- **Unlinked tasks:** 2 (consider linking to a goal or project)
Reflect
  • What went well today?
  • What could be better?
  • What did I learn?
  • What am I grateful for?
Prepare
  1. Identify tomorrow's priority (preview)
  2. Move incomplete tasks to tomorrow or delete
  3. Commit changes to git (/push)
Shutdown Checklist
  • All tasks updated (done/moved/deleted)
  • Reflection completed
  • Tomorrow's priority identified
  • Changes committed

Daily Note Structure

Standard daily note template:

markdown
# {{date}}

## Focus
> What's the ONE thing that would make today successful?

## Time Blocks
- Morning (9-12):
- Afternoon (12-5):
- Evening (5+):

## Tasks
### Must Do Today
- [ ]

### Work
- [ ]

### Personal
- [ ]

## Notes
[Capture thoughts, meeting notes, ideas]

## Reflection
- **Wins:**
- **Challenges:**
- **Learned:**
- **Grateful for:**
- **Energy:** /10
- **Tomorrow's priority:**

Time Block Strategies

Energy-Based
  • High energy tasks in morning
  • Administrative work after lunch
  • Creative work when naturally alert
Context-Based
  • Batch similar tasks together
  • Minimize context switching
  • Protect deep work blocks

Configuration

Customize paths to match your vault:

  • Daily notes folder: Daily Notes/
  • Template location: Templates/Daily Template.md
  • Date format: YYYY-MM-DD
Different Date Formats
  • YYYY-MM-DD - Standard ISO format (recommended)
  • MM-DD-YYYY - US format
  • DD-MM-YYYY - European format
  • YYYY-MM-DD-ddd - Include day abbreviation
Folder Organization by Month

Organize daily notes by month/year:

Daily Notes/2024/01/2024-01-15.md

Task-Based Progress Tracking

The daily skill uses session tasks to show progress during multi-step routines.

Morning Routine Tasks

Create tasks at skill start:

TaskCreate:
  subject: "Create daily note"
  description: "Create or open today's daily note from template"
  activeForm: "Creating daily note..."

TaskCreate:
  subject: "Pull incomplete tasks"
  description: "Carry forward uncompleted tasks from yesterday"
  activeForm: "Pulling incomplete tasks from yesterday..."

TaskCreate:
  subject: "Surface relevant goals"
  description: "Review weekly/monthly goals for today's priority"
  activeForm: "Surfacing relevant goals..."

TaskCreate:
  subject: "Set time blocks"
  description: "Establish time blocks based on energy and priorities"
  activeForm: "Setting time blocks..."
Dependencies

Morning routine tasks run sequentially:

TaskUpdate: "Pull incomplete tasks", addBlockedBy: [create-daily-note-id]
TaskUpdate: "Surface relevant goals", addBlockedBy: [pull-incomplete-tasks-id]
TaskUpdate: "Set time blocks", addBlockedBy: [surface-relevant-goals-id]
Evening Shutdown Tasks
TaskCreate:
  subject: "Update task statuses"
  description: "Mark completed tasks, note blockers"
  activeForm: "Updating task statuses..."

TaskCreate:
  subject: "Generate reflection prompts"
  description: "Prompt for wins, challenges, learnings, gratitude"
  activeForm: "Generating reflection prompts..."

TaskCreate:
  subject: "Prepare tomorrow's preview"
  description: "Identify tomorrow's priority and move incomplete tasks"
  activeForm: "Preparing tomorrow's preview..."

Mark each task in_progress when starting, completed when done using TaskUpdate.

Task tools provide visibility into what's happening during longer operations. Tasks are session-scoped and don't persist between Claude sessions—your actual work items remain in your daily note markdown checkboxes.

Integration

Works with:

  • /push - Commit end-of-day changes
  • /weekly - Weekly planning uses daily notes
  • /monthly - Monthly goals inform daily focus
  • /project - Surface project next-actions in morning
  • /onboard - Load context before planning
  • Goal tracking skill - Align daily tasks to goals
  • Productivity Coach - Accountability for daily routines

© ballred, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in vault-template/.claude/skills/daily of ballred/obsidian-claude-pkm.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit ef1e4da

Compare with similar skills

Daily Notes Workflow next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Daily Notes Workflow compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Daily Notes Workflow this skillballred/obsidian-claude-pkm1.9k—~2kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
LLM Wikilewislulu/llm-wiki-skill655—~3.7kAutomated safety check: PassNone
Solomdzhitongblog/solomd1.2k—~2kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Journalthoreinstein/gemini-obsidian102—~283Automated safety check: PassISC
Obsidian CLIpablo-mano/Obsidian-CLI-skill451—~3.2kAutomated safety check: PassNone
Xiaohongshu Post Extractorchenxiachan/xhs-claude-skills421—~1.5kAutomated safety check: WarnMIT

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Works with

Questions about Daily Notes Workflow

What does Daily Notes Workflow do?

Creates today's daily note in an Obsidian vault and guides morning, midday and evening routines for planning, task review and reflection. The skill creates a daily note from a template, opening the existing note if one is already there. Template variables for the date, a formatted date, yesterday, tomorrow and the time are replaced, and the note is placed in a `Daily Notes/` folder and named by date.

When should I use Daily Notes Workflow?

Daily Notes Workflow fits situations like: creating today's note in an Obsidian vault; running a morning planning routine that carries over unfinished tasks; closing the day with an evening shutdown and reflection.

How do I install Daily Notes Workflow in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add ballred/obsidian-claude-pkm --skill daily -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (vault-template/.claude/skills/daily in ballred/obsidian-claude-pkm) into .claude/skills/daily in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Daily Notes Workflow in Codex?

Run `npx skills add ballred/obsidian-claude-pkm --skill daily -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (vault-template/.claude/skills/daily in ballred/obsidian-claude-pkm) into .agents/skills/daily in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Daily Notes Workflow in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add ballred/obsidian-claude-pkm --skill daily -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/daily, .gemini/skills/daily, .github/skills/daily and .opencode/skills/daily in your project.

What does Daily Notes Workflow need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Daily Notes Workflow is instructions for the agent only. Our summary lists: An Obsidian vault with a daily note template and a `Daily Notes/` folder. Its frontmatter pre-approves these tools: Read, Write, Edit, Glob, Grep, TaskCreate, TaskUpdate, TaskList, TaskGet.

Does Daily Notes Workflow access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Daily Notes Workflow safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Daily Notes Workflow use?

Daily Notes Workflow is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Daily Notes Workflow use?

About 2k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 7.9k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Daily Notes Workflow?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Daily Notes Workflow: LLM Wiki (lewislulu/llm-wiki-skill, 655 stars), Solomd (zhitongblog/solomd, 1.2k stars), Journal (thoreinstein/gemini-obsidian, 102 stars) and Obsidian CLI (pablo-mano/Obsidian-CLI-skill, 451 stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Daily Notes Workflow?

ballred (a GitHub user) maintains it in ballred/obsidian-claude-pkm, which has 1,876 GitHub stars. The repository holds 13 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on February 18, 2026.

Source: ballred/obsidian-claude-pkm on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.