Obsidian Bases

Obsidian Bases is a community skill for creating and managing Obsidian Bases files, covering view definitions, filters, formulas, summaries, and database-style note organization within Obsidian vaults.

What Is This?

Overview

Obsidian Bases provides patterns for building structured database views over notes in an Obsidian vault. It covers base file creation with JSON configuration for defining table, card, and list views, filter definitions using property conditions to narrow displayed notes by tags, dates, and custom fields, formula columns that compute derived values from note properties, summary rows for aggregating counts, sums, and averages across filtered results, and multi-view configurations that present the same data in different layouts. The skill enables knowledge workers to organize and query their notes as structured datasets without leaving the Obsidian environment.

Who Should Use This

This skill serves Obsidian users who want database-like views of their notes and properties, project managers tracking tasks and deadlines across vault notes, and researchers organizing literature reviews and reference collections.

Why Use It?

Problems It Solves

Finding notes that match specific property criteria requires manual search across large vaults. Aggregating data from note frontmatter into summaries needs external tools or complex Dataview queries. Viewing notes in card or table layouts for visual organization is not built into default Obsidian. Filtering and sorting notes by multiple properties simultaneously demands structured query capabilities.

Core Highlights

View engine renders notes as tables, cards, or lists based on JSON configuration. Filter system narrows results using property conditions with AND and OR logic. Formula engine computes derived columns from existing note properties. Summary aggregator calculates totals, averages, and counts across filtered sets.

How to Use It?

Basic Usage

{
  "name": "Project Tasks",
  "source": {
    "type": "folder",
    "path": "Projects"
  },
  "views": [
    {
      "name": "Table View",
      "type": "table",
      "columns": [
        { "field": "file.name",
          "label": "Task" },
        { "field": "status",
          "label": "Status" },
        { "field": "priority",
          "label": "Priority" },
        { "field": "due",
          "label": "Due Date" }
      ],
      "filters": [
        { "field": "status",
          "operator": "!=",
          "value": "done" }
      ],
      "sort": [
        { "field": "priority",
          "direction": "asc" },
        { "field": "due",
          "direction": "asc" }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Real-World Examples

{
  "name": "Reading List",
  "source": {
    "type": "tag",
    "value": "book"
  },
  "views": [
    {
      "name": "Cards",
      "type": "card",
      "coverField": "cover",
      "columns": [
        { "field": "file.name",
          "label": "Title" },
        { "field": "author",
          "label": "Author" },
        { "field": "rating",
          "label": "Rating" },
        { "field": "status",
          "label": "Status" }
      ],
      "filters": [
        { "field": "status",
          "operator": "=",
          "value": "reading" }
      ]
    },
    {
      "name": "Summary",
      "type": "table",
      "columns": [
        { "field": "author",
          "label": "Author" },
        { "field": "rating",
          "label": "Avg Rating",
          "summary": "avg" },
        { "field": "file.name",
          "label": "Count",
          "summary": "count" }
      ],
      "groupBy": "author"
    }
  ]
}

Advanced Tips

Combine folder sources with tag filters to create focused views that span multiple vault locations. Use formula columns to calculate days until deadlines or derive status labels from date comparisons. Create multiple views in a single base file to provide table, card, and list perspectives on the same data.

When to Use It?

Use Cases

Build a project management dashboard with task tracking, priority sorting, and deadline filtering across vault folders. Create a research database with paper references, reading status, and summary ratings in card view. Implement a CRM contact tracker with company references, interaction dates, and follow-up reminders.

Related Topics

Obsidian vault organization, note properties, Dataview plugin, personal knowledge management, and structured note-taking.

Important Notes

Requirements

Obsidian with Bases feature enabled in the vault settings. Notes with frontmatter properties that the base views reference. JSON syntax knowledge for editing base configuration files.

Usage Recommendations

Do: use consistent property names across notes to ensure base views display data correctly. Define default values in note templates to avoid empty cells in base views. Test filters with small datasets before applying to large vault collections.

Don't: create overly complex filter chains that are difficult to debug when results seem incorrect. Rely on base views as the only way to access notes since they are supplementary to vault navigation. Nest multiple formula dependencies that make column calculations hard to understand.

Limitations

Base views depend on note properties being consistently formatted across all referenced notes. Performance may decrease with very large vaults containing thousands of notes in a single view. Formula capabilities are limited compared to full spreadsheet functions.