obsidian-yanxin/.claude/saves/research/SAVE_20260404_001_obsidian-openclaw-archiving.md

Save Entry: Obsidian Document Archiving via OpenClaw Agent

Date: 2026-04-04 Type: research Tags: obsidian, openclaw, telegram, archiving, pdf, ocr, skills

Context

• What: Designing a workflow to archive documents (PDFs, images) into the Obsidian vault using an OpenClaw agent on a Razer Blade laptop
• Why: User wants to send documents via Telegram, have the agent convert them to markdown, and save both originals + markdown into the vault
• Where: /Users/ylu/Documents/me/obsidian-yanxin (git-synced between Mac and Razer Blade)

Vault Structure

• 179 markdown files
• Key folders: copilot/, documents/ (has argo/ subfolder), journals/, notes/ (books, martial_arts, medical), Readwise/, templates/, travels/, writing/
• Git-synced repo, master branch

Key Findings

OpenClaw Capabilities (from docs.openclaw.ai)

1. Telegram integration is production-ready with media support (PDFs, images, audio)
   • Supports long polling (default) and webhook mode
   • Media files up to 100MB (mediaMaxMb)
   • Inbound media normalized into shared channel envelope
2. PDF tool built-in: extracts text from PDFs, supports local paths and URLs, native mode for Anthropic/Google providers
3. Vision available for image OCR/transcription
4. Skills system: AgentSkills-compatible folders with SKILL.md files
   • Skill locations (priority order): workspace skills > project agent skills > personal agent skills > managed skills > bundled > extra dirs
   • Install custom skills in ~/.openclaw/skills/<skill-name>/SKILL.md or workspace skills/ folder
   • Browse/install from clawhub.ai
5. Slash commands supported for triggering skills

Proposed Architecture

• No inbox folder needed - Telegram IS the inbox
• User sends PDF/image via Telegram to the OpenClaw agent
• Agent receives media, processes it (PDF tool or vision), converts to markdown
• Agent saves original + .md to documents/archive/ in the vault
• Agent runs git add, commit, push
• User pulls on Mac to get the files

What Needs to Be Built

• A custom OpenClaw skill (e.g., /archive) in ~/.openclaw/skills/archive-to-vault/SKILL.md
• The skill should:
  1. Receive media file from Telegram message
  2. Use PDF tool or vision to extract content to markdown
  3. Save both files to documents/archive/ in the vault
  4. Git commit and push

Next Steps

1. Look at OpenClaw skill SKILL.md format/examples more closely
2. Scaffold the archive-to-vault skill
3. Configure git on the Razer Blade for auto-commit/push
4. Test with a sample PDF and image via Telegram

References

• Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai/
• Telegram channel docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai/channels/telegram.md
• Skills docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai/skills/
• PDF tool docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai/tools/pdf.md
• Vault repo: /Users/ylu/Documents/me/obsidian-yanxin