Most people use Obsidian for notes and their file manager for everything else. I use my Obsidian vault as my filesystem.

Consider planning a trip to Japan. You have flight confirmations (PDF), accommodation bookings (PDF), a packing list (markdown), restaurant research with screenshots (markdown + PNG), scanned visa documents (PDF), itinerary notes (markdown). In a traditional setup, these scatter across Documents/Travel/, Pictures/2026/Japan/, Downloads/, and the Obsidian vault. You’re constantly asking “where did I put that?” because the organisation is by filetype, not by topic.

With vault-as-filesystem, it’s all in one place: 03 Projects/Japan Trip/. Every file related to the trip, regardless of format, lives together. You remember the trip, you go to the trip folder, everything’s there.

NIPARAS: The Seven Folders

Most filing systems fail because they’re either too rigid or too flexible. NIPARAS solves this by answering one question: what is this thing’s lifecycle?

#FolderWhat goes here
01NowActive working memory. What’s in flight this week. Your Works in Progress.md lives here.
02InboxJust landed, needs processing. Downloads, screenshots, quick captures. Everything starts here.
03ProjectsDiscrete efforts with defined end states. “Plan Japan trip”, “Launch blog”. These finish - outcomes move to Areas, Resources, or Archive.
04AreasDomains of life you maintain indefinitely. Health, Finances, Photography. Each contains its own nested resources. You’ll never “complete” fitness.
05ResourcesGeneric reference material that doesn’t belong to an Area yet. Journal, recipes, screenshots. When a cluster develops enough mass, it graduates to an Area.
06ArchiveCold storage. Completed projects, old session logs, historical reference.
07SystemMeta. Context files for Claude Code, vault organisation docs, templates.

The numbers keep them sorted. The names tell you where things go. And CLAUDE.md at the root explains the whole structure to anyone — human or AI — who needs to navigate it.

Key Principles

Organise by actionability, not by topic. Projects are most actionable; Archives are least.

Projects have endpoints. If it never ends, it’s an Area, not a Project. This distinction matters - Areas are maintained, Projects are completed.

Areas contain their own resources. Everything related to Photography lives inside 04 Areas/Photography/ - portfolios, gear notes, learning materials, and the raw photos and exports themselves. No separate Resources/Photography/ folder. This eliminates the “Areas or Resources?” decision.

Selective Syncing and Versioning

The trick that makes this practical: Git tracks only .md files (via .gitignore). Syncthing syncs only .md files (via .stignore). Media files live alongside the notes but don’t bloat sync or version control.

This means you get full version history on your thinking, with photos and PDFs co-located but not duplicated across devices.

Set this up: paste into Claude Code

Context

I want to set up an Obsidian vault that serves as my unified file system, following the pattern where:

  1. The vault contains everything - markdown notes, PDFs, images, code, any file type
  2. Files are organised by topic/purpose, not separated by file type
  3. Git tracks only .md files - version control for notes, not media
  4. Syncthing syncs only .md files - notes sync across devices, large files don’t
  5. One NIPARAS hierarchy - Now/Inbox/Projects/Areas/Resources/Archive/System structure

Implementation Steps

  1. Create or identify your vault location

    • If starting fresh, create a directory (e.g., /path/to/vault/)
    • If you have an existing Obsidian vault, work with that location

  2. Set up NIPARAS structure (if not already present):

    01 Now/
02 Inbox/
03 Projects/
04 Areas/
05 Resources/
06 Archive/
07 System/

  3. Create essential files:

    • 01 Now/Works in Progress.md - overview of active work
    • CLAUDE.md at vault root - orientation file for Claude Code

  4. Configure Git to track only .md files:

    # .gitignore
*
!*.md
!.gitignore
!*/
.obsidian/workspace*
.obsidian/plugins/*/data.json

  5. Configure Syncthing (if using):

    // .stignore
(?d)*
!*.md
!.obsidian/app.json
!.obsidian/appearance.json
!.obsidian/core-plugins.json
!.obsidian/hotkeys.json

  6. Configure Obsidian attachment settings:

    • Settings → Files & Links → “Default location for new attachments” → “Same folder as current file”

Questions to Clarify

Before implementing, let me know:

  1. Vault location: Where is (or will be) your Obsidian vault?
  2. Git remote: Push to GitHub or just local versioning?
  3. Syncthing: Are you using Syncthing or another sync solution?
  4. Existing files: Do you have existing files to migrate?

Series: Claude Code + Obsidian