iOS Obsidian Quick-Note Shortcut

A two-tap iOS Shortcut for capturing notes from your phone directly into your vault’s Inbox/ folder. Each capture lands as a separate timestamped file ready for Jesse to find, act on, and archive.

The Problem

Ideas, follow-ups, and quick reminders happen away from the desk – in the car, on a walk, mid-meeting, in the kitchen. Without a frictionless capture path, they either rot in your head or get scattered across notes apps, email-to-self, and whatever scratch surface was nearest. Jesse’s Inbox flow only works if there’s a fast, reliable way to drop notes into it from a phone.

The Solution

An iOS Shortcut named “Add To AI Inbox” that, on a single tap:

1. Pops up a multi-line text input.
2. Generates a timestamp-prefixed filename (YYYY-MM-DD-HHMM-Quick-Note.md).
3. Creates that file in the vault’s Inbox/ folder via Obsidian’s obsidian://new URL scheme, with the typed text as the body.

Pin the shortcut to the Home Screen, Lock Screen, or an Action Button gesture and capture-to-Jesse becomes a sub-second operation.

Prerequisites

• The Obsidian iOS app installed, with your vault opened at least once on the device (so the obsidian:// URL scheme is registered).
• An Inbox/ folder in your vault (already part of the Jesse template).
• The Apple Shortcuts app (built into iOS).

Configuration

Create a new shortcut and add the following six actions in order. Each action below maps to a tile you drop in from the Shortcuts action library; values inside each tile are configured by tapping the tile.

1. Ask for Input

• Action: Ask for Input
• Input Type: Text
• Prompt: Note
• Allow Multiple Lines: On (so dictation and multi-paragraph captures work)

This fires the prompt when you run the shortcut.

2. Current Date

• Action: Current Date

No configuration. Outputs the current timestamp into the variable chain.

3. Format Date

• Action: Format Date
• Date Format: Custom
• Format String: yyyy-MM-dd-HHmm
• Locale: Default
• Input: the Current Date variable from step 2

Produces a string like 2026-05-01-0631. The HHmm token (24-hour time, no separator) keeps the filename shell- and link-friendly – no spaces, colons, or AM/PM tokens.

4. URL Encode

• Action: URL Encode
• Input: the Provided Input variable from step 1
• Mode: Encode (default)

Turns line breaks, spaces, and other characters into safe URL escape sequences so they survive being embedded in the URL in step 5.

5. URL

• Action: URL (the action that holds a URL string with variable interpolation)

• Value:

  obsidian://new?vault=YourVaultName&file=Inbox/[Formatted Date]-Quick-Note&content=[URL Encoded Text]&overwrite
  

  Where the bracketed pieces are variable references inserted by tapping into the URL field and choosing the variable from the picker – they should NOT be typed as literal text:

  • [Formatted Date] is the Formatted Date variable from step 3.
  • [URL Encoded Text] is the URL Encoded Text variable from step 4.

What each piece does:

6. Open URLs

• Action: Open URLs
• Input: the URL variable from step 5

This is what actually launches Obsidian and triggers the note creation.

Customization

Two pieces will need to change for your setup:

1. Vault name. Replace YourVaultName with the URL-encoded name of your vault. If your vault is MyNotes (no spaces), use vault=MyNotes. If it’s Personal Vault, use vault=Personal%20Vault. Easiest way: type your vault name into any URL-encoder and copy the result.
2. Inbox folder name. Replace file=Inbox/ with whatever capture folder you use – e.g., file=00-Inbox/, file=Daily/, or file=Quick-Capture/. The folder must already exist in your vault; Obsidian’s obsidian://new action does not create missing folders.

The filename suffix (-Quick-Note) is also stylistic – change it to whatever makes the captures easy to spot in the Inbox folder.

How It Works

1. You tap the shortcut (Home Screen icon, Lock Screen widget, Action Button, or a Back Tap gesture).
2. iOS prompts you for text, accepting typing or dictation.
3. The shortcut builds a filename from the current date and time and a URL containing your text.
4. Obsidian opens, creates the note in your Inbox/ folder, and shows it on screen.
5. Next time Jesse runs, the file is in the Inbox queue alongside any other captures from desktop, email, or other sources.

Tips and Gotchas

Add the shortcut to your Home Screen, Lock Screen, or Action Button. Otherwise you have to dig through the Shortcuts app every time – kills the friction-free capture promise. Share → Add to Home Screen for an icon; Lock Screen widget for zero-tap access from a locked phone; Settings → Accessibility → Touch → Back Tap for a gesture trigger.

Minute-resolution timestamps are the sweet spot. A minute prefix is short enough to read at a glance and precise enough to never collide unless you fire two captures in the same minute (rare). Going to the second adds noise; going to just the day means a second capture overwrites the first.

The overwrite flag is a safety net, not a feature. If you find yourself relying on it, your filename pattern isn’t unique enough – bump the resolution.

Obsidian must have opened the vault at least once. The obsidian:// URL scheme registers itself on first vault open. Reinstalling the app or wiping the device requires opening the vault once before the shortcut works again.

Test with the Run button before pinning. Running the shortcut from inside the Shortcuts app surfaces error messages directly. Errors triggered from a Home Screen icon are easier to miss.

Dictation works. “Hey Siri, run Add To AI Inbox” + spoken text + tap-confirm produces the same file. Useful while driving or hands-busy.