Daily Notes Playbook

Daily Notes covers every setting. This page covers using them: what a note looks like, what to say during the day, how to switch over from however you build daily notes today, and what to do when something looks wrong.

Why daily notes run in BlackOps

A script or plugin that builds a daily note from your vault can only guess. It sees file dates and folder names, so it can't tell which notes matter, which tasks are still open, or what changed in a project since yesterday. If it carries tasks forward by matching their text, editing a task breaks the link.

BlackOps already holds what a good daily note needs, as data rather than guesses:

• Brains. BlackOps knows which brain every note belongs to and when it was created or changed. A daily note can list exactly what was added to your project brains since the last working day.
• Brain tasks. The open asks each brain is waiting on you for, with due dates and how long they've been open.
• The daily queue. Anything you tell your assistant to "put in tomorrow's note" is stored against a date and a context. Todos carry forward by ID until they're done.
• Your calendar. Fetched on the server from a private ICS link, so it works with Outlook, Google Calendar and iCloud, and your laptop doesn't need to be on.

The result is a note written on schedule that answers two questions from the source of truth: what needs me today, and what changed in the things I care about since yesterday.

What lands in your vault

Here's an excerpt of a work note as Obsidian receives it. The ^di-… at the end of each to-do is a block ID. It's how a ticked checkbox finds its way back to the right item.

<< [[Daily/2026/09-September/2026-09-23]] | [[Daily/2026/09-September/2026-09-25]] >>

## 🎯 Today's Focus
Six meetings, with the heavy block after lunch. The 10:00 defect triage overlaps
the team structure discussion. The config doc has waited three days and is the
one to clear first.

## ✅ To-dos
- [ ] Send the config doc to the front-end lead _(carried 3 days)_ ^di-3f2a6c1e-…
- [ ] Review the checkout QA plan before standup ^di-8b41d0a9-…

## 🧠 Waiting on you
- **Project Q&A:** Confirm the payment provider rollout date — due 2026-09-25

## 🆕 New in your brains
**Work Log**
- [[Work Log/2026-09-23-standards-debrief|Standards meeting debrief]] _(new)_

## 📊 Today's Meetings
| Time | Event | Link |
|------|-------|------|
| 08:00 – 08:30 | Front-end sync | [Join](https://teams.microsoft.com/…) |
| 10:00 – 11:00 | Defect triage | [Join](https://teams.microsoft.com/…) |

> [!warning] Schedule Conflicts
> - Defect triage overlaps Team structure discussion

Your own sections sit around these: Dataview queries, a daily log with a heading per project, a time log, whatever you already keep. Add them as markdown sections in the note's settings and they're copied into every note.

A day with it

1. At your send time, the note is written for the day, on the days of the week you picked. If the calendar or a brain can't be reached, that section says so and the rest of the note is still there.
2. In the morning, open today's note in Obsidian. Read the focus summary, work the to-dos, skim what's new in your brains.
3. During the day, anything that should show up tomorrow goes in through your assistant: a to-do, a note to reread, a reminder. Keep capturing work into your brains as usual; it surfaces tomorrow under "New in your brains".
4. When you finish something, tick it in Obsidian. Once your vault syncs, the item is closed and won't carry into tomorrow's note.
5. On Monday, a weekdays-only note covers the weekend: brain changes since Friday's note are listed.

What to say to your assistant

These work from any AI chat connected to BlackOps over MCP. Dates are read in the note's timezone, and the name you use ("work", "personal", "Apollo") is the note's context.

Say	What happens
"Put send the config doc in tomorrow's work note"	Queues a to-do for tomorrow. It carries forward until you tick it.
"Link the checkout QA plan in Monday's work note"	Queues a link to that note. It shows on that day only.
"Remind me in Friday's work note that the release freeze starts"	Queues a reminder line for that day.
"What's on my work list for tomorrow?"	Reads the feed without changing anything.
"Mark the config doc to-do done"	Closes it, same as ticking the box.
"Remind me to ask the QA lead for the regression matrix"	Opens a brain task. It appears under "Waiting on you" until closed.
"Regenerate today's work note"	Rewrites today's file with fresh data. Anything you typed into today's file is replaced.

Behind these are the queue_daily_item, get_daily_feed, complete_daily_item, open_brain_task, close_brain_task and generate_daily_note tools.

A note per part of your life

Make one daily note per context you want to keep apart:

• Work, weekdays at 06:00, pointed at your project brains and your work calendar.
• Personal, every day at 07:00, pointed at your home, health and travel brains, with your personal calendar.
• One per project, when a project deserves its own log, for example Projects/Apollo/Log/ with a path of Projects/Apollo/Log/{yyyy}-W{week}/{yyyy}-{mm}-{dd}.md.

Items you queue go to the note whose context you name. Items queued with no context only appear in notes that opt in to them (the Include items with no context option).

Moving from a script or plugin

If a routine, script or plugin builds your daily notes today, run BlackOps alongside it before switching:

1. Create a daily note with the same days and time, but point its path at a separate folder, for example daily/work/{yyyy}/{mm}-{month}/{yyyy}-{mm}-{dd}.md.
2. Rebuild your layout in What's in it: copy your Dataview blocks and headings into markdown sections, and drag the built-in sections where you want them. For queries that depend on the note's date, use this.file.day instead of a fixed date, for example WHERE created > this.file.day - dur(1 day).
3. Connect your calendar and pick the note's brains.
4. Compare a week of notes side by side. Adjust until the BlackOps note is the one you'd rather read.
5. Turn off the old script, then change the path to the folder your notes have always lived in. Existing files there are never overwritten; the first BlackOps note in that folder is the first day after the old script stops.
6. If any of your Dataview queries read the temporary folder, remove it from them.

Rules it follows

• It never overwrites a file it didn't write. If a file is already at a note's path and isn't that note, the file is left alone and the run is flagged.
• One note per day, per daily note. The scheduled run writes each day once. A note you generate by hand counts, so the schedule won't overwrite it.
• Regenerating replaces that day's file. Journal in the note freely, but regenerating the same day replaces what's there.
• Checkboxes flow one way. Ticking closes an item. Unticking doesn't reopen it; queue it again instead.
• Sources fail on their own. A dead calendar link or a slow model flags its own section; you still get a note.
• The calendar link is a secret. Paste it into the note's settings page, never into a chat.
• Folder-limited vaults stay limited. If your vault connection only covers one folder, notes must be written inside it.

Troubleshooting

"Calendar unavailable" in the meetings section. The ICS link didn't load. Republishing a calendar in Outlook issues a new link; replace it in the note's Calendar section. The error in the note says what came back.

A meeting is missing. The note only knows the calendar you published. An invite that lives on a different calendar (for example one synced into Google but not on the Outlook calendar you published) won't appear. Publish the calendar that actually holds the meeting, or connect a second daily note to it.

The list says writing to the vault didn't work. Most often a file you wrote yourself is already at that path. Move it or change the note's path, then generate again.

No note this morning. Check the note is on and today is one of its days. A run that couldn't save the note retries every 15 minutes for the rest of the day; the list shows the last result.

A to-do keeps coming back. It's still open. Tick it in any note that lists it, or ask your assistant to mark it done. Earlier days' notes keep their unticked copy; only new notes stop showing it.

"New in your brains" is empty. Nothing in the note's brains changed since the previous note, or no brains are selected. Check the Brains section of the note's settings.

A note you added to a brain doesn't show up. Notes written straight into the vault reach a brain when the vault push is processed and the brain recompiles, usually within a minute. If it's still missing the next day, check the brain's last-compiled time and recompile it.

Something you queued isn't in the note. It was queued under a different context, or none. Items with no context only appear in notes that include them.

Related

• Daily Notes: every setting, path token and section type.
• Daily Feed: the queue behind "put this in tomorrow's note".
• Brain Task Reminders: the open tasks that appear under "Waiting on you".