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EchoVault stores memories as Markdown files with YAML frontmatter, making them fully compatible with Obsidian. You can browse, edit, and visualize your agent’s memory using Obsidian’s powerful note-taking features.

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Why Use Obsidian?

  • Visual browsing: See all memories in a file tree organized by project
  • Graph view: Visualize connections between decisions, bugs, and patterns
  • Full-text search: Obsidian’s search is fast and supports regex
  • Manual editing: Fix typos, add context, or reorganize memories directly
  • Linking: Create [[Wiki-style links]] between related memories
  • Tags: Obsidian’s tag pane shows all tags across your vault

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Setup

1

Install Obsidian

Download from obsidian.md
2

Open your memory vault

In Obsidian:
  1. Click “Open folder as vault”
  2. Navigate to ~/.memory/vault/ (or your custom MEMORY_HOME)
  3. Click “Open”
3

Browse memories

You’ll see folders organized by project:
vault/
├── api-server/
│   ├── 2026-03-03-session.md
│   ├── 2026-03-02-session.md
│   └── 2026-03-01-session.md
├── web-app/
│   ├── 2026-03-03-session.md
│   └── 2026-02-28-session.md
└── mobile-app/
    └── 2026-03-01-session.md

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Memory File Format

Each session file follows this structure: 
---
project: api-server
sources: [cursor, claude-code]
created: 2026-03-03T14:32:18.123456+00:00
tags: [auth, jwt, api, security]
---

# 2026-03-03 Session

## Decisions

### Switched to JWT auth
**What:** Replaced session cookies with JWT for stateless auth
**Why:** Needed stateless auth for API
**Impact:** All endpoints now require Bearer token
**Source:** cursor

<details>
Context:
Existing session-based auth didn't work for mobile clients.
Needed a stateless approach that works across web and mobile.

Options considered:
- Option A: Keep session cookies, add OAuth for mobile
- Option B: Migrate to JWT for all clients

Decision:
JWT provides stateless auth that works everywhere.

Tradeoffs:
- Pro: Stateless, works across platforms
- Con: Token size larger than session ID

Follow-up:
- Implement token refresh
- Add token revocation
</details>

## Bugs

### Fixed CORS error in production API
**What:** Added Access-Control-Allow-Origin header to Nginx config
**Why:** Production API was rejecting browser requests from web app
**Impact:** Web app can now call API from different origin
**Source:** claude-code

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YAML Frontmatter

The frontmatter contains metadata for filtering and organization:
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project
string
Project name (typically the directory name)
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sources
array
Which agents contributed to this session (e.g., [cursor, claude-code])
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created
string
ISO 8601 timestamp when the session file was created
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tags
array
All tags from memories in this session (deduplicated)

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Category Sections

Memories are organized by category:
  • Decisions: ## Decisions
  • Bugs: ## Bugs
  • Patterns: ## Patterns
  • Learnings: ## Learnings
  • Context: ## Context
Each category appears as an H2 heading, with individual memories as H3 subsections.

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Details Collapsible

Extended details are wrapped in <details> tags, which Obsidian renders as collapsible sections (though it depends on your theme). 
<details>
Context:
Detailed analysis...

Options considered:
- Option A: ...
- Option B: ...

Decision:
...
</details>
You can expand these in Obsidian’s reading view.

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Obsidian Workflows

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Search by Tag

Use Obsidian’s tag pane to filter memories:
  1. Open the right sidebar
  2. Click “Tags”
  3. Click any tag (e.g., #auth) to see all memories with that tag

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Search by Content

Use Obsidian’s global search:
  • Cmd+Shift+F (Mac) or Ctrl+Shift+F (Windows/Linux)
  • Search for keywords like “JWT”, “authentication”, or “bug”
  • Supports regex: /(JWT|OAuth|token)/

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Graph View

See connections between memories:
  1. Cmd+G (Mac) or Ctrl+G (Windows/Linux)
  2. Obsidian shows a graph of all notes
  3. Manually add [[Wiki links]] between related memories to create connections
Example: 
### Implemented token refresh
**What:** Added refresh token rotation for JWT auth
**Related:** [[2026-03-03-session#Switched to JWT auth]]

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Daily Notes Integration

You can integrate EchoVault sessions with Obsidian’s Daily Notes:
  1. Enable “Daily notes” core plugin
  2. Set template to include: 
    ## Agent Memories
![[{{date:YYYY-MM-DD}}-session.md]]
  3. Obsidian will embed the session file into your daily note

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Editing Memories

Editing files directly in Obsidian bypasses EchoVault’s redaction layer. Be careful not to add secrets or credentials.
You can safely edit memories in Obsidian:
  • Fix typos: Correct mistakes in titles or descriptions
  • Add context: Expand details sections with new insights
  • Reorganize: Move memories between category sections
  • Add links: Create [[Wiki links]] to related memories
Changes are immediately reflected in EchoVault searches. 
### Implemented rate limiting
**What:** Added Redis-based rate limiting to API
**Related decisions:** [[2026-02-28-session#Added Redis caching]]
Now when you view “Implemented rate limiting” in Obsidian, you’ll see a clickable link to the Redis caching decision.

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Obsidian Plugins

Recommended plugins for working with EchoVault:

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Dataview

Query memories using SQL-like syntax. Example: Show all decisions from the last 7 days: 
```dataview
TABLE file.name as Session, project, tags
FROM "vault"
WHERE contains(file.content, "## Decisions")
  AND file.ctime >= date(today) - dur(7 days)
SORT file.ctime DESC


### Tag Wrangler

Bulk rename or merge tags across all memories.

**Example:** Rename `#js` to `#javascript` across all files:

1. Right-click `#js` in tag pane
2. Select "Rename tag"
3. Enter `javascript`

### Calendar

Visualize memories by date in a calendar view.

1. Install "Calendar" plugin
2. Open calendar pane
3. Days with session files are highlighted
4. Click a day to open that session

### Templater

Create templates for manually adding memories.

**Example template:**

```markdown
### <% tp.file.cursor(1) %>
**What:** <% tp.file.cursor(2) %>
**Why:** <% tp.file.cursor(3) %>
**Impact:** <% tp.file.cursor(4) %>
**Tags:** #<% tp.file.cursor(5) %>
Use Cmd+P > “Templater: Insert template” to add a new memory section.

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Syncing with Obsidian Sync

If you use Obsidian Sync or another sync service (Dropbox, iCloud, etc.), you can sync your memory vault across machines:
1

Move memory home to a synced location

memory config set-home ~/Dropbox/memory
2

Open the vault in Obsidian on all machines

On each machine:
  1. Open Obsidian
  2. Open ~/Dropbox/memory/vault/ as a vault
3

Verify sync

Save a memory on Machine A:
memory save --title "Test sync" --what "Testing cross-machine sync"
Check Machine B’s Obsidian vault — the memory should appear within seconds.
If using Git for sync, add index.db to .gitignore (it’s binary). Only sync the vault/ directory.

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Performance with Large Vaults

Obsidian handles large vaults well, but performance tips:
  • Exclude search paths: Settings > Files & Links > Excluded files
    • Add index.db, config.yaml to excluded files
  • Disable unnecessary plugins: Disable plugins you don’t use for memory browsing
  • Use Dataview sparingly: Complex Dataview queries can slow down large vaults
EchoVault’s session file format is optimized for Obsidian:
  • One file per day per project (not per memory)
  • Compact frontmatter
  • No nested folders

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Next Steps

Saving Memories

Learn the CLI commands for saving memories

Searching Memories

Use hybrid search to find memories

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