Using OpenAI as a developmental editor

Knowledge management
1

On a whim, I thought I would ask OpenAI (via Codex) to provide feedback on my vault. The result was impressive. I didn’t exprect this level of detail from such a simple request. Some of the feedback I already identified, but Codex helped discover some things I probably would have never found. Nice!

This was the simple request string:

Review this Obsidian vault and provide feedback about it’s structure.

And the Output below.

Vault Structure Review

Overall, this is a well-designed, disciplined vault. The Johnny Decimal hierarchy is clear, scalable, and consistently applied. I’d rate the structure around 8/10.

What Works Well

  • Clear top-level separation between interests, resources, learning, personal material, projects, and publishing.
  • Excellent metadata consistency:
    • 630 of 633 notes have frontmatter.
    • 619 notes follow the documented one-type/one-status tag convention.
  • The Inbox, templates, dashboard, Bases reports, and documented workflows form a coherent operating system.
  • File names are descriptive, with no duplicate Markdown titles detected.
  • Links are remarkably healthy: only four potentially unresolved targets were found, two of which appear to be code syntax rather than real links.
  • The parallel audio/audio-notes structure in 40 Learning Library is especially sensible.

Main Opportunities

1. Process the Learning Library Backlog

Of 374 learning notes, 169 are tagged inbox. This makes inbox less useful as a short-lived capture status. Consider batch-changing imported lecture notes to draft, active, or complete, depending on what “processed” means to you.

2. Strengthen Note-to-Note Navigation

The vault is somewhat folder-driven: 261 of 633 notes have neither incoming nor outgoing links to another Markdown note. Add a small index or map-of-content note for major categories—particularly Learning, Resources, and each manuscript. Publishing currently has no note-to-note links.

3. Reconcile Documentation with Configuration

  • [[Vault Workflow]] says attachments go to 80 Attachments; the actual configured folder is 90 Attachments.
  • Inbox processing says retained notes always move to 10 Interests, although the vault also supports Resources, Projects, Personal, and Publishing.
  • [[Status Reporting.base]] recognizes archive, while the documented status is mothballed. It also reports publish as “Needs Work.”

4. Relax or Enforce the Note-Structure Rule

The workflow says every note should contain Related Notes and References. In practice, 417 contain Related Notes and only 119 contain a References section. Either update the rule to make these sections optional or extend the template so the intended structure is automatic.

5. Clean Minor Configuration Drift

  • Eight empty organizational folders.
  • .DS_Store files throughout the vault.
  • 22 enabled CSS-snippet names have no corresponding file in .obsidian/snippets.
  • Seven notes have empty tags; fourteen are missing a recognized type.

6. Document the Media-Storage Exception

40 Learning Library is about 5.9 GB and contains most of the vault’s 373 MP3 files. Keeping audio beside its notes is logical, but it differs from the centralized 90 Attachments policy. Document that exception. If iCloud or backup performance becomes troublesome, the audio library is the first candidate for external storage.

Recommended Sequence

  1. Correct the workflow and reporting mismatches.
  2. Batch-process the Learning Library statuses.
  3. Create lightweight hub notes for the major knowledge and manuscript areas.
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