Set Up Aliases Skill

This skill enables agents to add meaningful aliases to Obsidian notes, improving note discoverability and enabling natural linking across languages and abbreviations.

Overview

Aliases are alternative names for a note stored in the YAML frontmatter. When an alias is defined, Obsidian treats it as an equivalent way to reference that note via wikilinks or search.

Why aliases matter:

• Cross-language support — Link to notes using translations

• Abbreviation linking — Use acronyms like [[CoT]] instead of [[chain of thought]]

• Natural language — Allow different phrasings to resolve to the same note

• Search discovery — Find notes using alternative terminology

Alias Guidelines

When to Add Aliases

Scenario Example

Acronym/abbreviation exists chain of thought → CoT

Translation needed machine learning → aprendizaje automático

Common alternative names artificial intelligence → AI

Disambiguation variants white-box (ai).md → IA de caja blanca

Alias Quality Criteria

Criterion Good Practice Avoid

Relevance Only add aliases that users would actually search for Generic or tangentially related terms

Accuracy Aliases must be true synonyms or translations Loosely related concepts

Minimal set 1-3 well-chosen aliases Dozens of marginal variants

Language consistency Match user's primary and secondary languages Random languages

Alias Types

• Acronyms — Standard abbreviations recognized in the field

• Translations — Full translations to user's secondary language (Spanish)

• Alternative names — Recognized synonyms in the same language

Frontmatter Format

aliases:

• first alias
• second alias

Rules:

• Use lowercase unless the alias is a proper noun or acronym

• No quotes needed unless the alias contains special characters

• Acronyms use standard capitalization (e.g., CoT , CLI , MCP )

Examples

Example 1: Technical Concept with Acronym

Note: chain of thought.md

aliases:

• cadena de pensamiento
• CoT

Reasoning:

• CoT — Standard acronym in AI/ML literature

• cadena de pensamiento — Spanish translation for cross-language linking

Example 2: Interface Concept

Note: command line interface.md

aliases:

• interfaz de línea de comandos
• CLI

Reasoning:

• CLI — Universal abbreviation

• interfaz de línea de comandos — Spanish translation

Example 3: Named Cycle/Framework

Note: thought-action-observation cycle.md

aliases:

• TAO
• ciclo pensamiento-acción-observación

Reasoning:

• TAO — Acronym derived from initials

• ciclo pensamiento-acción-observación — Direct Spanish translation preserving hyphens

Example 4: Disambiguated Concept

Note: white-box (ai).md

aliases:

• IA de caja blanca

Reasoning:

• Only translation provided since "white-box" has no common acronym in AI context

• The (ai) disambiguator is context, not part of the alias

Example 5: Protocol/Standard

Note: model context protocol.md

aliases:

• MCP
• Protocolo de Contexto para Modelos

Reasoning:

• MCP — Standard acronym

• Spanish translation uses proper capitalization for protocol names

Validation Checklist

Before finalizing aliases:

• Relevance — Each alias is a true synonym, acronym, or translation

• No duplicates — Alias doesn't match the filename exactly

• Correct format — YAML list syntax with proper indentation

• Acronym accuracy — Acronyms are recognized in the field, not invented

• Translation quality — Translations are accurate, not machine-literal

• Minimal set — No more than 3-4 aliases unless strongly justified

References

• Obsidian Aliases Documentation

• Properties and Frontmatter