Reads and writes notes across Claude/CoWork sessions using direct REST calls — no MCP server required, but routed through a bundled validated client (scripts/echo.sh) that status-checks every write. Built for Jason Stedwell (Director of Technical Services / Systems Engineer, MPM / ALABAMA wISP), who is both the operator and the architect of this vault.

The plugin is the single source of truth. All control logic — bootstrap/repair, operating contract, taxonomy, frontmatter conventions, and the canonical note templates — ships inside this plugin under skills/echo-memory/. The vault itself holds data only: there are no CLAUDE.md / BOOTSTRAP.md / STRUCTURE.md / index.md control docs in it. This makes ECHO self-bootstrapping (point it at an empty Obsidian vault and it stands up the full structure), easy to update (update the plugin, not the vault), and portable to any other vault.

What it does

Loads operator preferences, current context, and relevant project notes at the start of substantive conversations
Writes facts, preferences, and decisions Jason asks Claude to remember
Logs working sessions so future conversations can pick up where they left off
Bootstraps an empty vault from the bundled scaffold/ (folders, templates, anchor seeds, marker) and repairs/migrates an existing one via scripts/bootstrap.sh / scripts/migrate.sh — see skills/echo-memory/references/bootstrap.md
Exposes /echo-load, /echo-save, /echo-triage, /echo-health slash commands as explicit entry points, and coordinates concurrent Claude/CoWork sessions via a cooperative advisory lock

Configuration

The plugin is hardcoded for:

Server: https://echoapi.alwisp.com (reverse proxy → backend Obsidian Local REST API)
API Key: stored in the skill (personal plugin, not for distribution)

The endpoint presents a valid TLS certificate, so -k is not required. The bearer key lives only in the plugin — never inside the vault (per the vault's own safety rules).

Vault layout (root-addressed)

/vault/
├── README.md     ← thin human signpost (not read for routing)
├── inbox/        (captures, imports, processing-log)
├── journal/      (daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual, templates) — one time-series stream; rollups live here, not in a separate reviews/ tree
├── projects/     (active, incubating, on-hold, archived)
├── areas/        (business, personal, learning, systems)
├── resources/    (companies, concepts, references, people, meetings)
├── decisions/    (by-date)
└── _agent/
    ├── echo-vault.md   ← bootstrap marker (schema_version + date)
    ├── context/        ← task-scoped context bundles
    ├── memory/         ← working / episodic / semantic
    ├── sessions/       ← YYYY-MM-DD-HHMM-<slug>.md
    ├── health/         ← YYYY-MM-vault-health.md (monthly self-maintenance audit)
    ├── templates/      ← canonical note templates (seeded from the plugin's scaffold/)
    ├── skills/         ← active / archived
    ├── heartbeat/      ← last-session.md orientation pointer (read at load, written at session end)
    └── locks/          ← vault.lock — cooperative advisory multi-writer lock

Control logic and the master scaffold live in the plugin, not the vault:

commands/                          ← slash commands: echo-load, echo-save, echo-triage, echo-health
skills/echo-memory/
├── SKILL.md                       ← operating procedure (authoritative)
├── references/
│   ├── operating-contract.md      ← durable principles + safety + concurrency
│   ├── bootstrap.md               ← bootstrap / repair / migrate an empty vault
│   ├── vault-layout.md            ← canonical layout + frontmatter
│   ├── routing-map.md             ← complete endpoint→logic map (human authority)
│   ├── api-reference.md           ← REST endpoint patterns + routing map
│   └── session-log-template.md
├── scripts/
│   ├── echo.sh                    ← validated API client (auth, status-check, retry, verify, lock, scope)
│   ├── routing.json               ← canonical machine-readable route manifest (linter enforces it)
│   ├── vault-lint.sh              ← read-only invariant checker (monthly Vault Health pass)
│   ├── bootstrap.sh               ← deterministic, idempotent vault setup/repair
│   └── migrate.sh                 ← deterministic schema migration (dry-run by default)
└── scaffold/                      ← verbatim files the bootstrap writes into the vault
    ├── README.vault.md  echo-vault.md
    ├── templates/  (8 note templates)
    └── anchors/    (operator-preferences, current-context, inbox seeds)

Skills & commands

Skill	Triggers
`echo-memory`	"remember that", "save to memory", "what do you know about me", "load my profile", "check my notes", "log this decision", "add to my inbox" — and proactively at the start of substantive conversations

Command	Does
`/echo-load`	Cold-start context read (profile, scope, latest session, today, inbox)
`/echo-save <text>`	Route + persist content to its canonical home (search-first, idempotent)
`/echo-triage`	Drain aging inbox captures to their homes, logging each move
`/echo-health`	Run `vault-lint.sh` and summarize invariant violations

Requirements

Obsidian running on the backend with the Local REST API plugin enabled
HTTPS access to https://echoapi.alwisp.com from the Claude/CoWork session environment