This is both a table of contents for this published vault and a high-level explainer of my folder set-up, as it also defines folders I haven’t shared. For a more detailed explainer, check out system documentation.
- Auxiliary - Houses self-referencing notes I need for my Obsidian workflow, or about Obsidian itself. Formerly “Space” or “Outer Space.”
- Archive - If I want to retire a set of notes (e.g. Project has ended) but want to keep the relational links, it gets moved here.
- Attachments - Default folder to catch attachments like pasted images. Some project-specific attachments might live inside their own parent folder. This is useful in cases where I might archive or delete the whole folder.
- Obsidian Meta - Contains three types of notes: explainers for visitors (like this note!), plugin documentation and references, and project notes specific to tweaking my Obsidian workflow.
- Ontology - Defines common, significant properties and metadata you might find around the vault. In cases like the pillar note, you can skim the graph and backlinks for notes that are of that type.
- Templates - Default folder that the vault and any plugin will look at for templates. This also makes it easy to keep templates immune to plugins like Linter.
- Widgets, Scripts - Contains reusable blocks of code like Buttons, or Javascript files which you cannot see but can be handled by Templater.
- Binder - Functionally a digital counterpart to my bullet journal, with a focus on information I’ll want to reference or find quickly. Many of them are unlikely to form relationships outside this folder. Formerly “Notebook.”
- Books - Exactly what it says on the tin.
- Collections - General lists and groups of things, such as 2026 Reading Queue and vaults and gardens of interest.
- Dashboards - Pretty much like lists, except they group related notes within the vault. (If you’re Obsidian-learned, my Bases default here.)
- Docs - Life maintenance documents like IDs, forms and health printouts. Technically they’re not needed in the vault, but they’ve been so much easier to find since being placed here.
- Miscellaneous - For things I want to keep but don’t require their own category yet. Currently holds two recipes.
- People - Contacts folder, a poorly-maintained personal relationship manager. People who are knowledge sources, such as commonly referenced authors and creators, will instead be honored in Content Maps, not here.
- Pillars - For pillar notes.
- Pursuits - For pursuit notes.
- Captures - Default folder for new notes that I don’t want to process right away, a direct implementation of the rapid capture and inbox principles.
- Grimoire - Houses notes specific to mysticism, although there can and will be cross-linking to notes in Knowledge, as God intended.
- Indexes - Unlike the rest of the vault which is primarily bottom-up, the Grimoire benefits from some kind of structure and looking up notes by their area/discipline first. See: astrology or tarot.
- Journal - Notes which are personal to me, such as my own timings, placements and patterns. This folder shall remain fully private.
- Lexicon - One of very few corners of the vault that has a third level of folders. Under here you will find atomic, almost ontological, notes sorted by discipline. In many cases they also have a sort order and links to the Next/Previous note in order. See: 1 (Numerology), Ace of Cups (Minor Arcana), and The Sun (Luminary).
- Resources - The closest equivalent to Media, but for mysticism.
- Spells - The closest equivalent to Guides, but for witchcraft.
- Knowledge - The main meat of the vault: the commonplace, the zettelkasten, the digital garden.
- Content Maps - Notes of personal interest to me which attempt to group together other notes, such as by author (e.g. Mary Oliver) or by topic (e.g. PKM). Ideally this will be re-worked to disambiguate between Content Maps (has context, like PKM) and indices (no context, only links, like Mary Oliver).
- Guides - Knowledge notes oriented towards instructions and practical steps, for use while doing work e.g. how-to guides, glossaries and cheat sheets.
- Ideas - Notes which are more for the learny, thinky half of my brain, and not necessarily to guide my work. Again the closest thing I have to a zettelkasten implementation.
- Media - Media attachments like research papers (PDFs) and infographics (JPG/PNG) that are knowledge items on their own. Disambiguate from Attachments folder which exist to be put into notes.
- Poems - Not my poems. To respect copyright, this will remain a private archive.
- Syllabus - One aspect of my personal curriculum attempt that survived even though the pursuit itself has been abandoned/archived. Once Bases are publishable on the site, the syllabi will be indexed here.
- Makoltaverse - Top-level project folder of my fictional universe WIP. Child folders are hopefully self-explanatory. For the most part these will remain unpublished, unless I find the diligence to create preview-specific notes.
- Archive
- Characters
- Indexes
- Seedbox
- Worldbuilding
- Writing - Catch-all folder for writing that doesn’t warrant its own top-level project folder.
- Drafts
- Newsletter Archive - This link may or may not work. / Archives my newsletter past issues in HTML form.
- Seedbox - Writing ideas that aren’t in use yet.