Obsidian Agent Skills – The Essential 9

Not all Agent Skills are created equal. Even the ones published by Obsidian's CEO Staff include misses. And the official Obsidian skill in Open Cloud's legacy repo? Outdated — should be retired. This guide cuts through the noise, covering 9 essential skills: 5 from CEO Staff, 3 drawing skills from X (a leading AI blogger), and 2 deep-learning skills that can transform your knowledge workflow. Plus: plugin setup tips and a question to ponder.

🔑 Key Insights at a Glance

CEO Staff Skills

4 must-haves, 1 skip (Canvas)

Drawing Skills by X

Canvas, Mermaid, Excalidraw — all top-tier

Deep Learning Skills

Tutor (⭐ fast) & Scter (research)

⚠️

Avoid

Legacy Open Cloud Obsidian skill (uses old not-cli)

👤 CEO Staff's 5 Skills (GitHub: obskills)

Staff (maker of Mini theme & Web Clipper) maintains 5 skills. Here's the breakdown:

Defen

Web clipping tool — converts pages & YouTube videos to Markdown. npm install -g defen. Uses YouTube API (stable, no cookie config). Essential for any Obsidian user.

must-have

Obsidian CLI
(obci)

Official command-line tool for AI agents. Token-efficient, fast, and deeply integrated. Also must-have. (Dedicated video guide available.)

must-have

Basis

Teaches AI to write & modify Basis database files. Ideal for knowledge-base architecture, complex dashboards, and note tracking. Unique — install it.

must-have

Obsidian
Markdown

SOP for note-writing. Prevents AI from collapsing into generic Markdown. Customize it! Add your own style rules (e.g., no H1, no nested lists). No coding needed — pure Markdown.

customize

Canvas
(Jason as)

Whiteboard skill — but layout & sizing are often off. Better alternatives exist (see X's Canvas skill below). The only skip among Staff's five.

skip

🎨 X's 3 Drawing Skills (Better Alternative)

X (blogger @回到x one) created canvas, mermaid, and excalidraw skills with superior layout & precision. Even free models produce beautiful output.

Canvas
(cameras)

Mind maps & freeform charts. Node sizes auto-calculated, no text overflow. Two modes: structured mind map & freeform group chart. Best-in-class for Obsidian.

⭐ best

Mermaid

Diagrams & flowcharts. Clean, elegant, high success rate — rarely needs manual tweaking. Great for knowledge structuring.

excellent

Excalidraw
(excjosk)

Whiteboard-style sketches for deep thinking & brainstorming. #1 downloaded plugin in Obsidian. Perfect for visual ideation.

top pick

💡 Together, these three cover every charting need in Obsidian — mind maps, diagrams, and freehand sketches.

📚 2 Deep Knowledge Learning Skills (Highly Recommended)

🧑‍🏫 Tutor Skill ⭐ strongly recommended

Best for: Fast learning of documents, PDFs, code projects, exam prep, interviews. Creates a complete Obsidian knowledge base with bi-directional links, MOC maps, and structured tags.

            How it works: Place resources in a resources/ folder, run /t-setup in Open Code. The agent builds a full vault in study/ — notes, links, MOC, and even test questions with a learning dashboard.
        

Supports PDF, GitHub repos, and multiple documents
Generates exam-style questions & tracks mastery per topic
Works with free models (Xiaomi, Qwen via Open Code)
Minor quirks but overall very polished

✅ Perfect for 80% of learning scenarios. Token-efficient.

🔬 Scter Skill academic research

Best for: In-depth academic research, paper analysis, long-term research cycles. Heavy workflow orchestration with memory management.

Three-tier reading system (L3 = deep reading, async, hours-long)
Deeply depends on Open Cloud (large token consumption)
Requires obsidian-direct dependency (file IO, token-heavy)

⚠️ Token-intensive. Use Tutor skill for daily learning; reserve Scter for serious academic projects.

🚫 Avoid: Open Cloud's Legacy Obsidian Skill

The official Obsidian skill in Open Cloud's GitHub repo (skills/ folder) uses a 2023 open-source project (not the real Obsidian CLI). The project has been renamed to not-cli. It's file-IO based, token-wasteful, and lacks Obsidian's internal mechanisms. Do not use it. Instead, get the official skill from Cloud Hub marketplace.

⚙️ Plugin Setup (Quick Guide)

🔌 Clouding (Obsidian + Cloud Code)

Install Cloud Code, then add plugin via BRAT or manually (obsidian-plugins/)
Set display name & environment variables (for restricted regions)
Proxy configuration example shown on screen

🤖 Obsidian Agent Client (supports Open Code, Codex, Qwen, more)

Install via BRAT, add custom agent in settings
Fill Agent ID, display name, and path (where open-code to find path)
Arguments include your vault path — restart and test with "Hello"

Both plugins use a robot icon. Choose based on your workflow.

💭 Open Question for Reflection

The agent-generated MOC (Map of Content) in your vault contains beautifully linked notes. Should you manually write links & bi-directional connections, or use a Basis database instead? Basis doesn't create bi-directional links — so what's the purpose of MOC then? Share your thoughts.

🧠 This question explores the tension between manual linking and database-driven organization.

📘 Tutor Skill in Action (Example)

Input: Google's Prompt Engineering Guide (PDF) → placed in resources/. Ran /t-setup in Open Code (free model).

Output: A full Obsidian vault with notes, bi-directional links, MOC, exam questions, and a learning dashboard showing mastery per topic. The agent even drew concept diagrams in code blocks.

⏱️ The process took a few minutes (time-lapsed in video). Minor imperfections but overall impressive.

✅ Your Action Plan

Install Defen, Obsidian CLI, Basis, and customized Obsidian Markdown skills from Staff
Replace Staff's Canvas with X's Canvas skill for all whiteboard needs
Add X's Mermaid & Excalidraw skills for diagrams & brainstorming
Deploy Tutor skill for fast learning — use Scter only for deep research
Skip the legacy Obsidian skill from Open Cloud's repo
Set up Clouding or Obsidian Agent Client (pick one)

Generated by CuteNote.app Visual Notes

Obsidian Agent Skills9 Essential Tools & How to Use Them

Obsidian Agent Skills
9 Essential Tools & How to Use Them