Daily Skill
This skill opens the day with full context so you can hit the ground running. It bridges yesterday's loose ends with today's priorities, keeping nothing lost between sessions.
Step 1: Find Yesterday's Context
Look in daily/ for the most recent daily note before today. Read it and extract:
- Any unchecked tasks (
- [ ]) or items under End of Day that signal unfinished work - Any Blockers that were listed
These become the Carry Forward section in today's note.
If no previous daily note exists, skip this step — it's a fresh start.
Step 2: Read or Create Today's Daily Note
Check for daily/YYYY-MM-DD.md using today's actual date.
If it exists: Read it and use it as the basis for the briefing. Don't overwrite the user's content.
If it doesn't exist: Create it using the template from references/templates.md:
- Use the Standard Weekday template as the base
- On Mondays, add the Week Focus section
- On Fridays, add the Week Retro section
- Populate Carry Forward with items extracted in Step 1
- Replace
{{DATE}}with today's date inYYYY-MM-DDformat
Step 3: Scan Active Work
Scan projects/ for any files. For each project file found, check if it mentions a status — surface anything that isn't explicitly marked as completed or archived. Rank by file modification time (most recent first).
Also check inbox/ — list any unprocessed files. If the inbox philosophy from CLAUDE.md applies ("inbox should stay empty"), mention how many items are waiting.
Step 4: Briefing
Present a concise morning briefing:
Good morning.
**Carried forward:**
- [items from yesterday, or "Clean slate — nothing carried forward"]
**Active projects:**
- [project name] — [status/next action from file]
**Inbox:** [N items waiting | Empty]
What are we working on today?
Keep it tight — this is a launchpad, not a report. If there are blockers from yesterday, call them out prominently.
Troubleshooting
| Problem | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| No previous daily note found | First time using the skill, or daily/ folder is empty | Skip carry-forward — start with a clean slate |
| Template not found | references/templates.md missing (located relative to this skill's root directory) | Create the daily note with a minimal template: heading + sections for capture, tasks, log |
projects/ folder missing | Vault doesn't use this folder name | Check CLAUDE.md for the vault's actual project folder name and scan that instead |
| Briefing shows stale data | Daily note was created by another tool with different structure | Read whatever exists — adapt to the note's actual sections rather than forcing the template |
Edge Cases
- Weekend/holiday gap: If the last daily note is several days old, still carry forward its open items
- Multiple daily notes for same date: Use the one matching
YYYY-MM-DD.mdexactly; ignore timestamped variants - Empty inbox: Report "Inbox: Empty" — this is a positive signal, not an error
Platform Notes
This skill works on macOS, Linux, and Windows. File paths use forward slashes in vault context regardless of platform — Obsidian normalizes paths internally.
Gotchas
- Stale carry-forward across weekend/holiday gaps: "Most recent daily note before today" can be 3-5 days old. Items there may already be done — present them as "carried from {date}" so you can scan and prune, not auto-trust.
YYYY-MM-DD.mdcollision with timestamped variants: Tools like Obsidian's Periodic Notes plugin may produce2026-05-12-1430.md. The skill matches exactYYYY-MM-DD.mdonly — variants are silently ignored, including ones that hold the day's actual work.- Project status detection is text-search, not structured: A project file containing "completed previous milestone" surfaces as completed even when active. Look for explicit
status:frontmatter or top-line markers, not loose keyword matches. - Timezone drift creates wrong-day notes after midnight: If the system clock is UTC but you live in a
-3timezone,date +%Freturns tomorrow's date after 21:00 local. Anchor to a tz-aware date source if creating notes late in the day. inbox/count includes hidden files and.DS_Store: macOS adds metadata files silently — "3 items waiting" might be 1 real item plus noise. Filter to*.mdor visible files before counting.- Briefing overwrites existing carry-forward on re-run: Calling the skill twice in one morning regenerates the note. If you've already manually edited carry-forward, a second invocation can blow away your additions — always read existing content first.