Integrating Obsidian with GitHub Copilot and VS Code

2026-01-07 15:17:55

Why this helps

Copilot works best when you give it context:

• your repo
• the files you open
• what you tell it in chat

It does not reliably “remember” past decisions unless those decisions exist somewhere it can read again.

Obsidian is an easy place to keep that context as Markdown.

The idea

• Write decisions, implementation plans, and gotchas in Obsidian.
• Configure Copilot (via copilot-instructions.md) to read/write notes.
• When you start a feature, ask Copilot to check your notes first.

Minimal setup

1. Store your vault on disk (Obsidian already does this).
2. In your project’s copilot-instructions.md, add:
   • your vault path
   • rules you want (save plans, search notes, etc)

Example: writing a plan from Copilot

cat << 'EOF' > "/path/to/vault/Feature Name.md"
---
created: 2026-01-07
tags: [implementation, feature-name]
status: draft
---

# Feature Name

## Goal

## Notes / decisions

## Steps

EOF

What to say in chat

• “Search my Obsidian vault for notes about X before changing code.”
• “Save this implementation plan to my vault as a new note.”
• “Update the existing note with the decisions we made today.”