Migration guide
Migrate an Obsidian Vault to a Source-Backed LLM Wiki
Register an Obsidian vault as a read-only Wenlan source, resync it on demand, and distill the most-reused notes into citation-backed wiki pages that AI agents can query.
About this guide
Workflows
Obsidian users who want AI agents to read their notes through a maintained wiki
6 min read
01
Register the vault as a read-only source; Obsidian stays the human-owned writing surface.
02
Resync the source on demand after editing sessions, then refresh the distilled pages.
03
Agents query cited, reviewed answers instead of re-reading raw notes every session.
01
Quick answer
Register the vault as a read-only Wenlan Source with `wenlan sources add <vault path>` and keep writing in Obsidian. Resync on demand after edits, then distill the topics you and your agents re-read most often into maintained Pages with citations. Your notes are never moved, rewritten, or deleted by the migration.
Wenlan is a local-first, open-source (Apache 2.0) LLM wiki built around a lightweight Rust daemon. It reads an Obsidian vault as a read-only Source and resyncs its Markdown on demand. Distilled Pages keep citations, staleness, revisions, and human review, and automatic refresh rejects citation-poor drafts. Nothing about your vault is moved or rewritten.
02
When this problem appears
An Obsidian vault grows into a personal archive, but AI agents can only use it through direct file access. They re-read raw Markdown every session, mix up old and current notes, and leave no trail of which conclusion came from which note. Copying notes into a second tool fixes nothing: the truth splits in two, and the copy goes stale while the vault keeps evolving.
03
Migrate one topic at a time
Do not import the whole vault on day one. One topic keeps the first loop visible and the first failure small.
- Back up the vault first. A vault is plain Markdown files on disk, so copy the folder or rely on your existing backup before the first import.
- Pick one topic that you and your agents ask about often, such as a project folder or an MOC. A small boundary keeps failures visible.
- Install the runtime for your operating system and run `wenlan status` to confirm the local daemon is healthy.
- Run `wenlan sources add <vault path>` and read the found, ingested, and skipped counts. Markdown content ingests; plugin-specific features like Dataview queries, Canvas boards, and embedded views are treated as plain Markdown text, not re-executed.
- In a Wenlan plugin client, run `/distill <topic>` and then `/pages <topic>`. In an MCP-only client, use the equivalent Wenlan tools that client exposes.
- Run `/lint` and `/curate` to catch malformed citations, orphan links, and broken embeddings before anyone relies on the Page.
- Optional round trip: symlink `~/.wenlan/pages/` into the vault so distilled Pages are visible where you write. Your edits stay human-owned; machine refreshes become reviewable revisions.
- Verify the loop: ask your agent a question the vault answers, open the citation behind the answer, edit the source note, and confirm the Page is marked stale before trusting it again.
Register the vault and distill one topic
wenlan status
wenlan sources add ~/Documents/obsidian-vault
# in a Wenlan plugin client:
/distill <topic you re-read often>
/pages <topic you re-read often>
/lint
/curate04
What to check next
Keep Obsidian as the writing surface. The vault Source resyncs on demand, not in the background, so re-run the sync after heavy editing sessions. Image-only or scanned attachments need OCR before their text is extractable, and a Page is only as current as its last reviewed refresh.
Move one vault topic, verify the loop
Register the vault as a read-only source, distill one repeated topic, then prove that citations and staleness work before migrating more.
FAQ