Skip to content
staging mind
Sign in

// docs · obsidian

Bring your notes to the meeting

Your code says what changed. Your notes say why. Staging Mind can read your Obsidian vault next to your repository, so the panel asks about the decisions, trade-offs and loose ends you wrote down, not only the diff. Nothing is installed in Obsidian, and nothing in your vault is ever changed.

What the panel gets from your notes

A vault is a folder of Markdown files with a hidden .obsidian folder inside, and that folder is what Staging Mind reads. It starts from your recent notes, daily notes first, and works outwards: searching for what your commits mention, reading the notes that matter and following their links. It understands front matter, tags, aliases, headings and your Daily notes settings, and recognises notes named like 2026-10-29 in any folder.

It keeps the notes that matter for this meeting, and the panel can ask about them alongside your code. A vault you keep as a reference, with nothing new this week, is still read for the work you did.

Which way suits you

In the browser

This works in Chrome and Edge on a computer, which can open a folder. Safari, Firefox and phones can't, so use the command line tool there.

  1. Sign in and start a practice meeting.
  2. Choose Open a project folder and pick your vault: the folder Obsidian opens, or a folder up to three levels above it. Already opened your repository? Choose Add another folder for the vault.
  3. Your browser asks once whether Staging Mind may view the folder's files. It can only read them. The folder then shows as Obsidian vault · 9 notes since Tuesday, or however many changed.
  4. To keep folders out, choose Adjust what's included and lock them. A locked folder and everything in it is never read. This browser remembers your locked folders for that vault.

A vault on its own works too, for a 1:1 or a planning meeting where your notes matter more than your code.

From the command line

The command line tool reads your vault together with the repository you run it in. Sign in once with npx stagingmind login, then, in your repository:

npx stagingmind prep --vault ~/Notes

Give the folder Obsidian opens, or a folder with one vault a few levels inside it. On Windows, put a path with spaces in quotes:

npx stagingmind prep --vault "C:\Users\you\Documents\Notes"

Keep folders out with --private, once for each. Give the folder's path inside the vault:

npx stagingmind prep --vault ~/Notes --private Journal --private "Areas/Health"

The terminal shows how many notes it found, one line for each note it reads, and the notes the panel will see, so you can check before the meeting. It must run inside a git repository. If your vault is one (with the Obsidian Git plugin, for example), you can run it from the vault with --vault ..

A synced or remote vault

Staging Mind reads files, not Obsidian's servers, so it needs the vault to be a folder on a computer. Most synced vaults already are.

  • Obsidian Sync, iCloud Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive or Google Drive. On a computer where the vault syncs, open its folder in the browser or pass it to --vault. If your sync keeps files online only, make the vault available offline first, so every note is on the computer.
  • A vault in git. Pull it to a computer and use that folder. If it's in the same repository as your code, one npx stagingmind prep --vault docs/notes reads both.
  • A vault on another machine, such as a home server or a work laptop. Run the command line tool on that machine, over SSH or through a coding agent running there. It never asks a question, and the link it prints opens on any device you're signed in on, your phone included.
  • A vault only on your phone. Staging Mind can't read Obsidian's app storage. Share the notes you want as files and choose Add files, or copy them into Type or paste.

What stays private

  • Nothing is changed. Both ways only read, and the browser only asks for permission to view.
  • Locked and private folders are never read, by anything. Obsidian's own .obsidian and .trash folders are skipped, apart from the Daily notes and Templates settings.
  • Anything that looks like a key or a password is removed before a note leaves your computer.
  • Notes that are read go to Anthropic through Staging Mind to write the brief, and are not used for training. In the browser, the notes picked for the panel stay in that tab. With the command line tool, they are kept with your brief for as long as you chose.

The full details are in the privacy policy.

If something goes wrong

  • The folder doesn't show as an Obsidian vault. It needs a .obsidian folder, in it or up to three levels down. Obsidian makes one the first time it opens the vault.
  • There's no Open a project folder choice. Your browser can't open folders. Use Chrome or Edge on a computer, or the command line tool.
  • "there's no folder called…" after --private. Give the folder's path inside the vault, for example --private Journal or --private "Areas/Health".
  • "is not inside a git repository". Run the command line tool from your code repository, or use the browser for a vault on its own.
  • Recent notes are missing. They may be online-only in your sync app. Make the vault available offline and try again.

Still stuck? Email lee@stagingmind.dev.