Describing What You Want
Use Obsidian's area names when telling the agent what to do — it maps them to the right capabilities.
Obsidian area glossary
| What you see | Official name | How to phrase it |
|---|---|---|
| Narrow icon bar on the far left | Ribbon | "Add an icon to the left ribbon that opens…" |
| Thin bar at the bottom | Status bar | "Show … in the status bar" |
| The palette opened with Ctrl/Cmd+P | Command palette | "Register a command named…" |
| A draggable side panel | Panel / view | "Open a right-side panel showing…" |
| The note you're editing | Active note | "Summarize the current note…" / "Insert at the cursor" |
| Categorized settings pages | Settings tab | "Add an option in the host settings…" |
| The vault file tree | Vault | "Count the whole vault…" |
Example requests
Create a sub-plugin (Create Mode):
Create a plugin with a panel showing the folders in this vault and the file count under each folder.
Modify an existing sub-plugin:
Change folder-stats to group the stats by file type instead.
Read-only question (Chat Mode):
Find notes containing "reading" and count them.
Read/write notes (Edit Mode):
Turn the list above into a note under the Inbox folder.
Tips
- Think about the goal first (the result you want), then the form (panel / command / icon / status bar);
- Not sure of the name? Describe the position ("that icon at the bottom left") — the agent understands;
- Writes always go through approval — that's normal.