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.py) that status-checks every write. The toolchain is pure Python, so it runs identically on Windows, macOS, and Linux (only a Python 3 interpreter is needed — no bash). 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
One-call capture routes a memory to its canonical home, stamps frontmatter, indexes it, auto-links any entity it mentions, and logs it — driven by a machine-maintained entity index so routing is an alias-aware lookup, not a fuzzy search
recall returns a topic's matching notes and their one-hop linked neighbourhood (Related links + source_notes) for comprehensive context; resolve maps any mention to its canonical path; link adds reciprocal cross-links
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), repairs/migrates an existing one via scripts/bootstrap.py / scripts/migrate.py, and brings an upgraded vault up to spec (index + cross-links) via scripts/sweep.py — see skills/echo-memory/references/bootstrap.md
Exposes /echo-load, /echo-save, /echo-recall, /echo-triage, /echo-health, /echo-sweep 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)
    ├── index/          ← entities.json — machine-maintained slug→{path,kind,aliases} registry
    └── 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-recall, echo-triage, echo-health, echo-sweep
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/                       ← pure Python; run with python3 (Windows: python / py -3)
│   ├── echo.py                    ← validated client + high-level CLI (capture/resolve/recall/link/load/scope/lock)
│   ├── echo_index.py              ← entity index (registry, resolve, name→path map)
│   ├── echo_links.py              ← cross-link primitives (Related parsing, bidirectional linking)
│   ├── echo_ops.py                ← high-level ops (capture, recall, resolve, link, agent-log)
│   ├── routing.json               ← canonical machine-readable route manifest (linter enforces it)
│   ├── vault_lint.py              ← read-only invariant + graph-health checker (Vault Health)
│   ├── check_routing.py           ← verifies routing docs stay in sync with routing.json (offline)
│   ├── test_echo_client.py        ← offline regression tests + the routing-sync guard
│   ├── bootstrap.py               ← deterministic, idempotent vault setup/repair
│   ├── migrate.py                 ← deterministic schema migration (dry-run by default)
│   └── sweep.py                   ← bring an upgraded vault up to spec (build index + symmetrize links)
└── 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 via one-call `capture` (index-resolved, auto-linked)
`/echo-recall <query>`	Recall a topic's matching notes plus their linked neighbourhood
`/echo-triage`	Drain aging inbox captures to their homes, logging each move
`/echo-health`	Run `vault_lint.py` and summarize invariant + graph-health violations
`/echo-sweep`	Bring the vault up to current spec (build index + symmetrize links)

Requirements

Python 3 available in the session environment (the scripts use only the standard library; invoke as python3, or python / py -3 on Windows)
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