Guide · Agent skill
How to use the Query Obsidian Wiki agent skill (wiki-query)
Updated · written with AI from the project's own documentation and checked against our catalogue data
The wiki-query skill lets an AI agent answer a question using only the notes in your Obsidian vault, a folder of Markdown notes, and it cites the pages it used. It is built for people who keep a research or knowledge wiki in Obsidian and want answers traceable to their own notes. By the end of this guide you will know what the skill does, how to install it, how to phrase requests so it triggers, and what it needs to run safely.
Query Obsidian WikiAgriciDaniel/claude-obsidian · MIT Download the skill Quick start
- 1Install the claude-obsidian product. Make sure the installed claude-obsidian product includes scripts/claude-obsidian.py and scripts/retrieve.py, and that Python 3 is available as python3.
- 2Add the skill. Unzip the downloaded skill and place the wiki-query folder in ~/.claude/skills/ or a project's .claude/skills/, or upload it under Settings → Capabilities → Skills in the Claude apps.
- 3Check your vault. Confirm your Obsidian vault has a wiki/ folder. Provenance ledgers are optional but enable full evidence assessment.
- 4Name the vault in your request. Use a trigger phrase such as query the wiki or find in wiki so the skill is selected and the vault is the evidence source.
- 5Pick a depth. Ask for quick, standard or deep work depending on how broad the question is and how much reading you want the agent to do.
- 6Review the citations. Check each wikilink in the answer and note any contested, provisional or unsupported labels before relying on the result.
What is an agent skill, and what does wiki-query do?
An agent skill is a folder containing a SKILL.md file that tells an AI agent how to handle a certain kind of task. When a request matches the skill's description, the agent follows the instructions in that file.
The wiki-query skill applies only when you explicitly make your vault the source of evidence. The agent reads wiki/hot.md and wiki/index.md, retrieves and reads the relevant wiki pages, and then answers with wikilink citations such as [[Page#Heading]]. It separates accepted, provisional, contested and unsupported claims using the vault's provenance ledgers, and when the vault does not contain the answer, it says so instead of filling the gap from general knowledge.
- Answers are grounded in pages inside the wiki/ folder of your vault.
- Contested claims are shown with their conflicting positions rather than silently resolved.
- Unsupported claims are labelled as unsupported.
- The skill never edits, creates, saves or logs anything in the vault.
Install the wiki-query skill
Download the ZIP for the skill from this page and unzip it. The skill folder contains SKILL.md. Place the folder in one of these locations:
- Personal skills: ~/.claude/skills/ for use across your projects.
- Project skills: the .claude/skills/ folder inside a specific project.
- Claude apps: open Settings → Capabilities → Skills and upload the skill there.
Install the claude-obsidian product it depends on
The skill is not self-contained. It runs scripts from an installed claude-obsidian product, so that product must be present on your machine. The skill looks for scripts/claude-obsidian.py and scripts/retrieve.py inside that product root and checks that both exist before it runs. It resolves the product root from the skill's own location, not from your vault or current folder.
Without the product, the skill may give incomplete answers.
Trigger the skill with natural requests
The skill is triggered when you clearly select the vault as the evidence source. Use phrases like the ones listed in its description. Mention the wiki or vault explicitly so the agent does not treat your question as general knowledge.
- query the wiki: what did my notes conclude about remote work productivity?
- query quick: summarize the vault's position on cache invalidation.
- query deep: find every contested claim about the pricing study in my wiki.
- explain from the wiki: why did we drop the second vendor?
- find in wiki: where do my notes mention retention windows?
- based on the wiki, what open questions remain for the Q3 project?
Choose a depth: Quick, Standard or Deep
The skill supports three depths. Quick reads the hot file and index and checks directly linked evidence, and stops once the answer is fully supported. Standard retrieves candidate pages, reads the most relevant ones and follows only links that can change the answer. Deep broadens the candidate set, inspects competing pages and provenance, and states remaining gaps.
Each depth has a cumulative read budget: 12 KiB for Quick, 48 KiB for Standard and 128 KiB for Deep. If the budget cannot resolve your question, the agent reports the missing evidence or asks before widening the search.
Read the answer and its evidence labels
Expect a direct answer first, followed by the evidence and caveats you need to use it. The agent says whether a point comes from vault evidence or from its own inference. Claims are labelled by their status in the provenance ledgers: accepted claims are presented as established only when current support meets the source rules, provisional claims are tentative, contested claims show both sides, and unsupported claims are flagged.
If you want to keep an answer, the skill does not save it. Hand the answer and citations to a separate save skill as a new operation.
What people use it for
- Finding what your research notes concluded about a topic, with links to the exact pages.
- Spotting contested or stale claims in a knowledge base before writing a report.
- Asking where a term or decision is mentioned across a large wiki without editing any notes.
- Getting a summary of what your vault says about a project, with caveats where evidence is thin.
Frequently asked questions
How do I install the wiki-query skill?
Download the skill ZIP from this page and unzip it. Put the wiki-query folder in ~/.claude/skills/ or in a project's .claude/skills/ folder, or upload it in the Claude apps under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.
What do I need to run wiki-query?
You need Python 3, an installed claude-obsidian product containing scripts/claude-obsidian.py and scripts/retrieve.py, and an Obsidian vault with a wiki/ folder. Provenance ledgers are optional but needed for full evidence assessment, and a prebuilt retrieval index from the wiki-retrieve skill is optional.
Is wiki-query free?
The skill is released under the MIT licence. Pricing for the Claude apps or any other service you use with it is not covered by the source.
Does wiki-query change my Obsidian notes?
No. The skill never creates, edits, saves or logs anything in the vault and does not refresh caches. To keep an answer, you need a separate save skill.
Why doesn't the skill answer my general question?
It is meant only for explicitly vault-scoped questions. For general knowledge with no vault involved, the skill is not the right tool, so name your wiki or vault in the request.
What if the skill says the vault doesn't have the answer?
That is intentional. It names the missing evidence and stops rather than answering from general knowledge. You can then consider a separate wiki-ingest or autoresearch workflow, which the skill suggests and which requires your consent.
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Our verdict
Use wiki-query if you keep a research or knowledge wiki in Obsidian and want traceable, read-only answers with explicit caveats about contested and stale claims. Pick something else if you want general-knowledge answers, automatic note saving, or you do not want to install the claude-obsidian product alongside it.
Download the skill