Recommended Obsidian Plugins — PUMA Vault

Overview

Complete setup guide for getting the most out of this vault.


🔧 Essential Plugins (Install First)

1. Dataview

ID: blacksmithgu/obsidian-dataview Purpose: Query your vault like a database. Powers all dynamic tables and dashboards.

Key queries used in this vault:

TABLE status, deadline, priority
FROM "90 - GTD/91 Tasks"
WHERE status != "done"
SORT deadline ASC

Setup: Enable “Enable JavaScript Queries” in settings.


2. Templater

ID: SilentVoid13/Templater Purpose: Advanced template engine with JavaScript support and date functions.

Configuration:

Template folder: 00 - Meta/Templates
Trigger Templater on new file creation: ON
Enable JavaScript templating: ON

Key templates in this vault:

  • Template-Literature-Note-Paper.md → for all papers
  • Template-Permanent-Note.md → for Zettelkasten atoms
  • Template-Experiment-Note.md → for each PUMA experiment run
  • Template-Prompt-Note.md → for all prompts
  • Template-Daily-Review.md → daily GTD review
  • Template-Weekly-Review.md → weekly GTD review

3. Tasks

ID: obsidian-tasks-group/obsidian-tasks Purpose: Track tasks across the entire vault with due dates, priorities, and filters.

Key shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+T to toggle task status.

Example query for PUMA dashboard:

```tasks
not done
due before in two weeks
path includes "40 - Projects/PUMA"
sort by due
```

4. Calendar + Periodic Notes

IDs: liamcain/obsidian-calendar-plugin + liamcain/obsidian-periodic-notes Purpose: Daily/weekly note navigation from a calendar view.

Configuration:

Daily notes folder: 90 - GTD/95 Reviews
Daily template: 00 - Meta/Templates/Template-Daily-Review.md
Weekly notes folder: 90 - GTD/95 Reviews
Weekly template: 00 - Meta/Templates/Template-Weekly-Review.md

5. Kanban

ID: mgmeyers/obsidian-kanban Purpose: Visual Kanban board for project task management.

Create a PUMA Kanban board:

---
kanban-plugin: board
---
 
## 📥 Backlog
- [ ] Implement heuristic baseline classifier
- [ ] Download TAWOS dataset
- [ ] Set up Docker Compose
 
## 🔄 In Progress
- [ ] Write Chapter 2 literature review
- [ ] Implement TriageAgent class
 
## ✅ Done
- [x] PEC1 submitted
- [x] Environment verified

6. Obsidian Git

ID: Vinzent03/obsidian-git Purpose: Auto-commit vault to GitHub repository.

Configuration:

Auto pull on startup: ON
Auto push after auto commit: ON
Auto commit interval: 30 minutes
Commit message: "vault: auto-save "{{date}}"

Setup commands:

# In vault directory (before opening Obsidian)
git init
git remote add origin https://github.com/[username]/PUMA-Vault
git add .
git commit -m "Initial vault structure"
git push -u origin main

7. QuickAdd

ID: chhoumann/quickadd Purpose: Fast note creation from keyboard shortcut using templates.

Configure macros:

  • Alt+F → Create Fleeting Note (in 10 - Inbox/Fleeting-Notes/)
  • Alt+L → Create Literature Note (in 20 - Literature/)
  • Alt+P → Create Permanent Note (in 30 - Permanent/)
  • Alt+E → Create Experiment Note (in 40 - Projects/PUMA/41.7 Experiments/)

8. Smart Connections

ID: brianpetro/obsidian-smart-connections Purpose: AI-powered note recommendations — shows semantically related notes automatically.

Note: Requires API key (OpenAI) or can use local models. Helpful for discovering connections between Zettelkasten notes.


9. Zotero Integration (Citations)

IDs: mgmeyers/obsidian-zotero-integration OR hans/obsidian-citation-plugin Purpose: Import Zotero references directly into Obsidian as literature notes.

Workflow:

  1. Add paper to Zotero
  2. In Obsidian: Ctrl+Shift+Z → search Zotero library
  3. Select paper → inserts formatted citation and creates literature note from template

Zotero connector setup:

  • Install Better BibTeX in Zotero
  • Export library as Better BibTeX JSON to 00 - Meta/zotero-library.json
  • Point citation plugin to this file

Excalidraw

ID: zsviczian/obsidian-excalidraw-plugin Purpose: Embedded whiteboard drawing for architecture diagrams and concept maps.

PUMA use: Drawing the PUMA architecture (Figura 1 equivalent), experiment design diagrams.

Tag Wrangler

ID: pjeby/tag-wrangler Purpose: Rename, merge, and manage tags across the entire vault.

ID: zolrath/obsidian-auto-link-title Purpose: Automatically fetches page title when pasting a URL.

Better Word Count

ID: lukeleppan/better-word-count Purpose: Shows word count per section and overall — useful for tracking chapter progress.

Table Editor (Advanced Tables)

ID: tgrosinger/advanced-tables-obsidian Purpose: Easy table editing with Tab navigation and formula support.

Footnotes

ID: MichaBrugger/obsidian-footnotes Purpose: Quickly insert footnotes with Ctrl+Shift+F — useful for academic writing.

Front Matter Title

ID: snezhig/obsidian-front-matter-title Purpose: Display title from YAML frontmatter as the note title in file explorer.


📋 Vault Configuration Settings

Obsidian Core Settings

Default new note location: 10 - Inbox
New note template: (handled by Templater + QuickAdd)
Attachments folder: 00 - Meta/Attachments
Use Wikilinks: ON (not Markdown links)
Always update internal links: ON

Graph View Configuration

  • Node colour: by folder (colour-code 30-Permanent green, 20-Literature blue, 40-Projects orange)
  • Filter: exclude 70 - Archive, 00 - Meta
  • Forces: Link strength 1, Repel force 10

🔌 Plugin Startup Checklist

First-Time Setup — Complete in Order

After installing all plugins, verify each item below before using the vault.

  • Dataview: Enable JS queries
  • Templater: Set template folder + hotkeys
  • Tasks: Configure global task format
  • Periodic Notes: Set daily/weekly template paths
  • Calendar: Show week numbers ON
  • Git: Set remote + auto-commit interval
  • QuickAdd: Configure all 4 macros
  • Zotero: Export library + configure path
  • Test: Create one note of each type using hotkeys