# Vault Import

> Backfills the Obsidian vault with historical Claude Code sessions using conversation search and parallel sub-agents. Use when: (1) /vault-import command to import recent sessions, (2) /vault-import 30d to import last 30 days, (3) /vault-import project:api-service 30d to filter by project, (4) user wants to populate vault with past session history.

- **Type:** Skill
- **Install:** `agentstack add skill-abhattacherjee-claude-code-skills-vault-import`
- **Verified:** Yes — security-reviewed for prompt injection and unsafe behavior
- **Seller:** [abhattacherjee](https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/abhattacherjee)
- **Installs:** 0
- **Category:** [Productivity](https://agentstack.voostack.com/c/productivity)
- **Latest version:** 0.1.0
- **License:** MIT
- **Upstream author:** [abhattacherjee](https://github.com/abhattacherjee)
- **Source:** https://github.com/abhattacherjee/claude-code-skills/tree/main/plugins/obsidian-brain/skills/vault-import

## Install

```sh
agentstack add skill-abhattacherjee-claude-code-skills-vault-import
```

Requires the [AgentStack CLI](https://agentstack.voostack.com/docs/cli). Works with Claude Code, Cursor, and any MCP-compatible agent.

## About

# Vault Import — Backfill Historical Sessions

Discover historical Claude Code sessions, summarize them via parallel sub-agents, and write structured session notes to the Obsidian vault. Skips sessions already present in the vault.

**Tools needed:** Bash, Write, Read, Skill (for /context-shield sub-agents)

**Prerequisites:**
- `/conversation-search` skill must be installed
- `/context-shield` skill must be installed
- Obsidian Brain must be configured (run `/obsidian-setup` if not)

## Procedure

Follow these steps exactly. Do not skip steps or reorder them.

### Step 1 — Read config

Run:

```bash
cd "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null || pwd)"
python3 -c '
import sys, os
import glob; sys.path.insert(0, max(glob.glob(os.path.expanduser("~/.claude/plugins/cache/*/obsidian-brain/*/hooks")), default="hooks"))
from obsidian_utils import load_config
c = load_config()
if not c.get("vault_path"):
    print("ERROR: vault_path not configured", file=sys.stderr)
    sys.exit(1)
print("VAULT=" + c["vault_path"])
print("SESS=" + c.get("sessions_folder", "claude-sessions"))
print("INS=" + c.get("insights_folder", "claude-insights"))
'
```

Parse each output line as KEY=VALUE, splitting on the first `=`.

If the command exits non-zero or prints ERROR, tell the user:

> Config not found. Please run `/obsidian-setup` first to configure your Obsidian vault.

Stop here if config is missing.

Store the extracted values as `VAULT_PATH` and `SESSIONS_FOLDER` (default `claude-sessions`).

### Step 2 — Validate vault access

Run:

```bash
test -d "$VAULT_PATH/$SESSIONS_FOLDER" && test -w "$VAULT_PATH/$SESSIONS_FOLDER" && echo "OK" || echo "FAIL"
```

If FAIL, tell the user:

> The sessions folder `$VAULT_PATH/$SESSIONS_FOLDER` does not exist or is not writable. Run `/obsidian-setup` to fix this.

Stop here if FAIL.

### Step 3 — Parse arguments

Parse the user's invocation to extract:

- **Time range:** A duration like `7d`, `14d`, `30d`. Default is `7d` if not specified.
- **Project filter:** An optional `project:` argument (e.g. `project:api-service`).

Examples:
- `/vault-import` — last 7 days, all projects
- `/vault-import 30d` — last 30 days, all projects
- `/vault-import project:api-service 14d` — last 14 days, only api-service
- `/vault-import project:api-service` — last 7 days, only api-service

Store as `TIME_RANGE` and `PROJECT_FILTER` (empty string if no filter).

### Step 4 — Discover sessions

Use the `/conversation-search` skill's underlying search script to find sessions matching the time range and project filter.

Run:

```bash
bash ~/.claude/skills/conversation-search/scripts/search-conversations.sh --days  --format jsonl
```

If a project filter is specified, add `--project ` to the command.

If the script is not found, fall back to manually scanning `~/.claude/projects/` for session JSONL files modified within the time range:

```bash
find ~/.claude/projects/ -name "*.jsonl" -mtime - -type f 2>/dev/null
```

Parse the output to build a list of sessions. Each session needs:
- `session_id` — extracted from the filename or JSONL content
- `session_path` — absolute path to the JSONL file
- `project` — extracted from the directory path or JSONL content
- `date` — file modification date

If no sessions are found, tell the user:

> No sessions found in the last `` matching your filters.

Stop here if no sessions found.

### Step 5 — Filter already-imported sessions

Check the vault for existing session notes that match discovered session IDs.

Run:

```bash
grep -rl "session_id:" "$VAULT_PATH/$SESSIONS_FOLDER/" 2>/dev/null | xargs grep -l "" 2>/dev/null
```

More efficiently, build a single grep command:

```bash
for f in "$VAULT_PATH/$SESSIONS_FOLDER/"*.md; do
  head -20 "$f" 2>/dev/null
done | grep "session_id:" | awk '{print $2}'
```

Collect all session IDs already in the vault into a set called `EXISTING_IDS`. Remove any session from the discovered list whose `session_id` is in `EXISTING_IDS`.

Store the remaining sessions as `PENDING_SESSIONS` and the count of skipped sessions as `SKIPPED_COUNT`.

If no pending sessions remain, tell the user:

> All `` sessions from the last `` are already in the vault. Nothing to import.

Stop here if nothing to import.

Otherwise, report:

> Found `` sessions, `` already imported, `` to import.

### Step 6 — Summarize sessions with parallel sub-agents

**This is the performance-critical step. Use parallel sub-agents to maximize throughput.**

For each session in `PENDING_SESSIONS`, delegate to a `/context-shield` sub-agent with this prompt:

> Read the Claude Code session transcript at ``. Extract and return a structured summary with these exact sections:
>
> - **Summary:** 2-3 sentence overview of what was accomplished
> - **Key Decisions:** Bulleted list of architectural or design choices made
> - **Changes Made:** Bulleted list of files created, modified, or deleted
> - **Errors Encountered:** Bulleted list of errors hit and how they were resolved (or "None")
> - **Next Steps:** Bulleted list of follow-up tasks mentioned (or "None")
> - **Git Info:** Branch name, commit hashes if any (or "None")
>
> Keep the total output under 300 tokens. Return only the structured summary, no preamble.

**Parallelism rules:**
- Launch up to 5 sub-agents in parallel (sessions are independent — no shared state)
- Wait for the batch to complete before launching the next batch
- If a sub-agent fails or times out, log the error and skip that session — do not block the entire import

Collect the distilled summaries. Store each as `SUMMARY` keyed by `session_id`.

### Step 7 — Construct and write session notes

For each successfully summarized session, construct a vault note with this format:

```markdown
---
type: claude-session
date: 
session_id: 
project: 
git_branch: 
duration_minutes: 
imported: true
imported_date: 
tags:
  - claude/session
  - claude/project/
  - claude/imported
---

# 

## Key Decisions

## Changes Made

## Errors Encountered

## Next Steps

## Git Info

```

Generate the filename using the same convention as other session notes:

1. **Date:** `YYYY-MM-DD` (session date)
2. **Slug:** Title lowercased, spaces to hyphens, non-alphanumeric (except hyphens) removed, truncated to 50 chars
3. **Hash:** 4-character hex hash from the session_id: `echo -n "" | md5 | cut -c1-4` (macOS) or `echo -n "" | md5sum | cut -c1-4` (Linux). Do NOT use `tail -c 4` — it counts the trailing newline as a byte and returns only 3 visible characters.

Final filename: `YYYY-MM-DD--.md`

Write each note:

```bash
mkdir -p "$VAULT_PATH/$SESSIONS_FOLDER"
```

Use the **Write** tool to write the file, then:

```bash
chmod 644 "$VAULT_PATH/$SESSIONS_FOLDER/"
```

### Step 8 — Report results

Print a summary report:

> **Vault import complete!**
>
> - **Imported:** `` sessions
> - **Skipped (already in vault):** `` sessions
> - **Failed:** `` sessions (if any)
> - **Time range:** last ``
> - **Project filter:** `` (or "all projects")
>
> New notes written to: `$VAULT_PATH/$SESSIONS_FOLDER/`

If any sessions failed, list them:

> **Failed sessions:**
> - ``: ``

Offer follow-up:

> Run `/vault-import ` to go further back, or open Obsidian to browse the imported sessions.

## Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

- **Author:** [abhattacherjee](https://github.com/abhattacherjee)
- **Source:** [abhattacherjee/claude-code-skills](https://github.com/abhattacherjee/claude-code-skills)
- **License:** MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.

## Pricing

- **Free** — Free

## Security capabilities

Automated source analysis of v0.1.0 — what this tool can access:

- **Network access:** no
- **Filesystem access:** no
- **Shell / process execution:** no
- **Environment & secrets:** no
- **Dynamic code execution:** no

*"Yes" means the capability is present in the source — more access means more to trust, not that it is unsafe.*


## Versions

- **0.1.0** — security scan: passed — Imported from the upstream source.

## Links

- Listing page: https://agentstack.voostack.com/l/skill-abhattacherjee-claude-code-skills-vault-import
- Seller: https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/abhattacherjee
- Browse the marketplace: https://agentstack.voostack.com/browse

---
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