/obsidian-checkin

description: Ask the owner whether old people and project notes still hold - shows what each note says and when it was last checked, re-asks until answered, saves the news
category: vault
trigger-mode: explicit
triggers_en: ["vault check-in", "check my old notes", "which notes are out of date", "ask me about stale notes"]
triggers_de: ["Vault-Check-in", "prüf meine alten Notizen", "welche Notizen sind veraltet", "frag mich nach veralteten Notizen"]
triggers_es: ["revisión de la bóveda", "revisa mis notas viejas", "qué notas están desactualizadas", "pregúntame por notas viejas"]
triggers_pt: ["check-in do cofre", "revise minhas notas antigas", "quais notas estão desatualizadas", "me pergunte sobre notas antigas"]
triggers_zh: ["知识库核对", "检查我的旧笔记", "哪些笔记过时了", "问我旧笔记有没有更新"]

Use the obsidian-second-brain skill. Execute `/obsidian-checkin $ARGUMENTS`:

A fact check compares notes with other notes, so news that never reached the vault (a bill settled, a move, a new job) leaves a note stale and no lint can see it. The owner is the only source. This command asks them, a few notes at a time, and saves what they answer.

The argument picks the mode: `ask` (default), `nudge`, `answer <the owner's reply>`, or `status`. The deterministic work lives in `scripts/checkin.py` (run it from the skill root: its absolute path was given at session start as **Skill root**; substitute it for `SKILL_ROOT`). Every call takes `--path <vault>`. The open questions live in `<vault>/.checkin.json`, never in the chat, so a question the host drops is sent again on the next run until it is answered.

1. Read `_CLAUDE.md` first if it exists in the vault root, for the vault path and privacy rules.

Mode: ask (once a day)

2. Run `uv run --directory "SKILL_ROOT" scripts/checkin.py --path <vault> pick`. It returns up to 3 notes whose facts are older than 14 days (`--days N` to change), never more than 3 open at once (`--max-open N`). People tagged `family`, `relationship: strong` and `checkin: priority` come first, then active projects, then the most linked notes. Notes with a closed `status`, `checkin: never`, an open card, or a skip in the last 14 days are left out. An empty list means nothing is due: send nothing and stop. 3. For each picked note, read the note itself (the `excerpt` is a hint, not the source) and write **1 to 3 facts**:

• One short line each, under 140 characters, in plain words.
• Taken from the note only. Never add, guess, or round a fact. Keep dates and amounts exactly as written.
• Prefer facts that can change: job, where they live, status, money, health, who they are with. Skip timeless ones like a birth date.

4. Open each card: `checkin.py --path <vault> ask --note "<path>" --fact "..." --fact "..."`. 5. Run `checkin.py --path <vault> message` and send its output to the owner **verbatim**, as one message. Do not add commentary, a summary, or a second message. A host may put its own marker (for example a notification emoji) in front.

Mode: nudge (every few hours while the owner is awake)

6. Run `checkin.py --path <vault> message`. If it prints nothing, nothing is open: send nothing. Otherwise send the output verbatim. It repeats each card in full (name, date of the facts, the facts) with a reminder count, because the owner will not remember what an earlier message said. Never send a bare "still waiting" without the cards.

Mode: answer (whenever the owner replies, even days later)

7. Run `checkin.py --path <vault> status` to see the open cards. Numbers in the reply refer to the last message sent (`last_message` in `.checkin.json`), so `--number N` resolves them. 8. Read the reply. It may cover several cards: `1 same`, `2 moved to Rotterdam`, `skip 3`, one per line or comma-separated. Free text with no number answers the only open card, when exactly one is open. If it is ambiguous, ask once which number it is for. 9. For each answer:

• **same**: `checkin.py --path <vault> done --number N --outcome same`. This stamps `last-checked` with today, and the note stays quiet for 14 days.
• **skip**: `done --number N --outcome skipped`. Nothing is stamped. The note can come back after 14 days.
• **news**: update the note first, then `done --number N --outcome updated`.
• Rewrite the stale claim where it lives. Do not only append. When the old value is still useful as history (an original bill before a settlement), keep it and label it as the earlier value.
• Stamp the new claim: `(stated by <owner> YYYY-MM-DD)`, confidence `stated`. Anything the reply leaves out (a name, a date, an amount) is `TBD`, never guessed.
• Set `updated:` to today on every note whose facts changed. Do NOT touch `updated:` on a note you only linked or formatted, or it hides from the check-in for a cycle.
• Propagate: every person, project, or place in the news gets the change on its own note too, as `/obsidian-save` would, with `[[wikilinks]]` both ways.

10. Check every note you wrote: `uv run --directory "SKILL_ROOT" scripts/check_notes.py --path <vault> --fix "<path>" ...`. It runs the same AI-first check Claude Code runs on every write, fixes banned characters, and exits 1 on anything left. Fix what it reports before you finish. 11. Reply with one short line, for example `Saved: 1 same, 2 updated (Ana, moved to Rotterdam).` If cards are still open, say nothing more: the next nudge will carry them.

Mode: status

12. Run `checkin.py --path <vault> status` and show the open cards as a short list: name, date of the facts, times sent.

Rules

• **Private channel only.** Check-in messages and answers can hold family, health, and money facts. Send them only to the owner directly, never to a group chat, a team channel, a post, or a log that others read.
• **Short.** One message per run, at most 3 cards in it. The script does the formatting so every host sends the same shape.
• **Explicit only.** Never start a check-in because a conversation drifted near an old note. It runs wh