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Obsidian Vault Local Setup

Local configuration of the Obsidian vault on Ubuntu 24.04 (HP EliteBook 845 G8) with a public subfolder connected to GitHub and deployed via MkDocs Material.

Folder structure

~/obsidian/
├── .obsidian/              ← Obsidian config, plugins (local only)
├── 0_inbox/                ← raw captures, voice transcripts
├── 1_journal/
├── 2_areas/
├── 3_projects/
├── 4_resources/
├── 5_system/               ← templates, workflow notes
├── 6_archive/
└── public/                 ← separate git repo (obsidian-public)
    ├── .git/
    ├── .github/workflows/
    ├── docs/
    │   ├── azure/
    │   ├── devops/
    │   ├── homelab/
    │   ├── portfolio/
    │   └── til/
    └── mkdocs.yml

The public/ folder is an independent git repository nested inside the vault. The outer vault has no git — only public/ is version controlled.

Git isolation strategy

The public/ repo .gitignore excludes:

.obsidian/          ← plugins, API keys, personal config
_inbox/             ← raw unprocessed notes
site/               ← MkDocs build output
*.canvas            ← Obsidian canvas files

This ensures only finished, intentional content reaches the public repository.

Daily publishing workflow

# 1. Write note in Obsidian, save to ~/obsidian/public/docs/
# 2. When ready to publish:
cd ~/obsidian/public
git add docs/
git commit -m "add: note title"
git push
# GitHub Actions builds and deploys automatically

No auto-commit. Every push is intentional — the public git history is clean and visible to potential employers.

GitHub Actions pipeline

On every push to main:

  1. Installs mkdocs<2.0 and mkdocs-material
  2. Runs mkdocs gh-deploy --force
  3. Pushes built site to gh-pages branch
  4. GitHub Pages serves at notes.serg-markovich.de

Full pipeline: deploy.yml

DNS configuration

Cloudflare DNS:
Type:   CNAME
Name:   notes
Target: serg-markovich.github.io
Proxy:  DNS only (grey cloud)

SSL is handled automatically by GitHub Pages via Let's Encrypt.