obsidian-yanxin/VAULT_MAP.md

Vault Map

Personal knowledge base and document archive for Yanxin Lu and family.

If you are an LLM or agent working with this vault, read this file first.

People

Name	Relation	Aliases
Yanxin Lu	Primary owner	lu
Xuewei Jiang	Spouse	jiang, Erica
Fengqin Xue	Mother-in-law	xue
Xianlu Jiang	Father-in-law
Argo	Family cat

Vault Structure

home.md              — Personal dashboard (Obsidian Tasks widget)
VAULT_MAP.md         — This file. Vault guide for humans and LLMs.
README.md            — Git repo description.

copilot/             — Obsidian Copilot plugin data. Do not modify.
Readwise/            — Readwise sync plugin data. Do not modify.
templates/           — Note templates for journals, book notes, etc.

journals/            — Daily journal entries (2022-present)
notes/               — Personal notes: books, martial arts, tech setup
trip_plans/          — Trip itineraries and travel planning
writing/             — Long-form writing projects

documents/           — Document archive (see below)

Adding Content to This Vault

If you are an LLM or agent adding content to this vault, follow the guide for the relevant section.

The entire vault (not just documents/) is indexed by the notesearch skill (LlamaIndex + Ollama vector search).

Journals (journals/)

• One file per day, named YYYY-MM-DD.md
• Use the template at templates/daily_journal.md if it exists
• Free-form daily notes, reflections, logs

Notes (notes/)

• Personal notes organized by topic (e.g., notes/books/, notes/martial_arts/, notes/tech/)
• Use descriptive filenames in snake_case (e.g., brazilian_jiu_jitsu_log.md)
• No required frontmatter — these are freeform markdown notes

Trip Plans (trip_plans/)

• One file or folder per trip
• Include itinerary, bookings, logistics
• Name by destination and date (e.g., japan_2025.md, iceland_2024/)

Writing (writing/)

• Long-form writing projects
• Organize by project in subfolders if needed

Documents (documents/)

Archive of personal documents (PDFs, images, etc.) with markdown transcriptions alongside each file. This is the most structured section.

Folder Map

Folder	Contents
academic/	PhD thesis, conference presentations, coursework, papers
argo/	Vet records for family cat
car/	Vehicle purchase documents
dmv/	DMV applications and supporting docs
employment/	Job offers, onboarding docs (subfolders by employer)
finance/	Brokerage accounts, banking
house/	Home purchase (grant deed, inspection, renovation, quotes)
id/	Identity documents: DLs, passports, SSNs, China IDs, marriage certs (subfolders by person)
immigration/	H-1B petitions, green card, visa stamping, travel visas, passport renewal
insurance/	Auto and medical insurance
lease/	Rental leases, addenda, vacate notices
medical/	Medical records, lab results, prescriptions (subfolders by provider or condition)
receipts/	Purchase receipts, service receipts
tax/	Tax returns, W-2s, 1099s, 1098s, property tax (subfolders by year)
travel/	Flight itineraries, customs forms, EVUS, family visit docs
wedding/	Wedding-related documents

File Naming Convention

{person}_{doctype}_{year}.{ext}

• person: lu, jiang, xue, or omit if joint/obvious
• doctype: descriptive snake_case (e.g., w2_meta, dl_ca, eye_exam)
• year: 4-digit year, or YYYY_MM if needed for disambiguation
• ext: always lowercase

Transcription

Each original file has a matching .md transcription alongside it (e.g., lu_w2_meta_2025.pdf + lu_w2_meta_2025.md). The .md file is a faithful full transcription of the source — every data point preserved, not a summary.

Exception: immigration/ subfolders use a single summary.md per subfolder instead of per-file transcriptions, because immigration petitions reuse many of the same supporting docs.

Frontmatter — every .md transcription must have:

---
category: tax
type: tax-form
person: Yanxin Lu
date: 2025
source: lu_w2_meta_2025.pdf
---

• category: must match the top-level folder name under documents/ (see Categories below)
• type: must be one of the canonical types (see Types below)
• person: full name (Yanxin Lu, Xuewei Jiang, Fengqin Xue), or "Yanxin Lu & Xuewei Jiang" if joint
• date: year (YYYY) or year-month (YYYY-MM) if needed
• source: filename of the original document

Categories

Category always matches the top-level folder under documents/.

Category	Folder
academic	academic/
car	car/
dmv	dmv/
employment	employment/
finance	finance/
house	house/
id	id/
immigration	immigration/
insurance	insurance/
lease	lease/
medical	medical/
receipts	receipts/
tax	tax/
travel	travel/
wedding	wedding/

Types

Type	Used for
id	Driver's licenses, passports, SSNs, China IDs, visa stamps, EADs
marriage-cert	Marriage certificates and translations
tax-return	Federal and state tax returns (1040, 540, etc.)
tax-form	W-2, 1099, 1098, 1098-T, 1042, 1095-C, 8833, extensions, IRS transcripts
property-tax	Property tax receipts
registration	Vehicle registration
lease	Rental leases, addenda, vacate notices, credit checks
deed	Grant deeds, title reports
contract	Service contracts (remodel, DJ, etc.)
inspection	Home inspections, PID/NHD reports
financial	Bank statements, loan docs, preapprovals, brokerage applications
offer-letter	Job offers
lab-results	Blood work, semen analysis, exams, HSG, genetic screening
prescription	Eye prescriptions, medications
vaccine	Vaccine cards, declarations, COVID test results
medical-form	Intake forms, oral surgery forms
immigration	H-1B, I-140, I-485, PERM, passport renewal (in summary.md)
travel-visa	Visitor/Schengen visa applications (in summary.md)
visa-stamping	Consular H-1B visa stamping (in summary.md)
academic	Thesis, papers, presentations, posters, coursework
receipt	Payment receipts, invoices, shipping
quote	Price quotes
blueprint	Architectural drawings
travel-doc	Flight itineraries, customs forms, EVUS, invitation letters, Global Entry
vet	Vet medical records

Disambiguation Rules

When a document could belong in multiple folders, file by primary purpose:

Document	Goes in	Not in
W-2, 1099, 1098	tax/{year}/	employment/
Vehicle registration (for tax)	tax/{year}/	dmv/
Passport/visa copy (for immigration filing)	immigration/ (as part of petition)	id/
Passport/visa copy (standalone)	id/{person}/
Vaccine card (standalone)	medical/covid/
Vaccine card (for travel)	travel/
Insurance card	insurance/medical/	medical/
Supporting docs gathered for a specific application (DMV, immigration)	Stay with that application	Don't split out

Verify

• File is in the correct documents/{category}/ folder
• Filename follows {person}_{doctype}_{year}.{ext} convention
• .md transcription exists alongside the original
• Frontmatter has all 5 fields with valid category and type values
• Body is a faithful full transcription (not a summary)

When Nothing Fits

If content doesn't clearly belong in any existing section, folder, category, or type, do not force it. Flag it for the vault owner to review and decide. Do not create new folders, categories, or types without approval.

Do Not Modify

• copilot/ — Obsidian Copilot plugin data
• Readwise/ — Readwise sync plugin data
• templates/ — Note templates (read them, but don't change without asking)

Search

The vault is indexed by notesearch (LlamaIndex + Ollama embeddings). Search is semantic — query by meaning, not keywords. The index lives at .index/ and is rebuilt on the blade server after git pull.

Only .md files are indexed. Original binary files (PDFs, images) are not directly searchable but their content is captured in the .md transcriptions.