feat(obsidian-plugin): "New AI Session" command — scaffold session folder + apply template

[bobthearsonist]

Problem

Creating a new AI session note today is a manual ritual that has to be re-implemented everywhere it happens (Claude Code skill, manual Obsidian use, any future automation). The canonical convention is well-defined:

• Folder: {ai_session_folder}/{YYYY-MM-DD} {topic}/
• Summary file inside: {YYYY-MM-DD} {topic}.md populated from Templates/AISessionSummaryTemplate.md (frontmatter type: ai-session, schema: v2, context: <name>, tags: [ai-session, date/YYYY/MM/DD], plus a \``visual-notes ` codeblock for inline graph mounting)
• Daily note cross-link: - [[{slug}]] under ## Sessions

But there's no plugin command for this. Templater's folder_templates could be configured for the AI Sessions folders, which would handle frontmatter on creation — but it wouldn't handle the parent folder, the slug computation, or the daily-note cross-link. And it would leak the convention into vault config rather than living in code.

The bridge that exists today is the obsidian-notes skill in bobthearsonist/ai-private (skills/obsidian-notes/SKILL.md) walking through the steps manually — which is fine for one consumer but doesn't scale to other entry points (mobile, manual UI use, future automations).

Proposal

Add a visual-notes:new-ai-session command (and a ribbon/palette entry) that:

1. Prompts for topic (free text). Computes slug = {YYYY-MM-DD} {topic.toLowerCase().replace(/[\/\]/g, '-').trim()}.
2. Resolves the active context:
   • If daily-context plugin is installed, read its contexts setting and pick a context — match against the current daily note's folder if open, else prompt with the available context IDs.
   • Otherwise fall back to a plugin setting (defaultAiSessionFolder).
3. Creates the folder {ai_session_folder}/{slug}/ (auto-disambiguates with (2), (3) etc. on collision — propagated to both the folder name and the .md filename so they stay matched).
4. Creates the summary file {slug}.md inside, populated from a configurable template (default: Templates/AISessionSummaryTemplate.md). Expand Templater placeholders if Templater is available; otherwise do a lightweight in-plugin substitution for <% tp.date.now(...) %> and <% tp.file.title %>. Set the frontmatter context: field to the resolved context (the current template hardcodes personal, which is wrong for any other context).
5. Cross-links from today's daily note: append - [[{slug}]] under ## Sessions (create the heading if missing). Use the daily folder from the resolved context.
6. Opens the new file (active leaf).

Settings

• templatePath (default: Templates/AISessionSummaryTemplate.md)
• defaultAiSessionFolder — fallback when daily-context isn't available
• addDailyNoteCrossLink (default: true)
• dailyNoteSectionHeading (default: ## Sessions)

Acceptance criteria

• Command appears in palette as Visual Notes: New AI Session
• Ribbon icon (optional, gated by setting)
• Works when daily-context is installed (uses its contexts API)
• Works when daily-context is absent (uses defaultAiSessionFolder)
• Resolves and uses the correct context (not always 'personal')
• Daily-note cross-link respects existing ## Sessions block; adds heading if missing
• Collision disambiguation tested ( (2), (3), ...)
• Opens the new file
• Settings tab entry under the existing visual-notes settings

Out of scope

• Auto-creating a starter whiteboard.json — the codeblock processor already prompts the user / handles emptiness gracefully (PR feat(obsidian): codeblock processor + legacy auto-mount removal (closes #24, supersedes #28) #29).
• Migrating existing AI session notes — separate concern.

Why visual-notes is the right home

• Already has session-related commands (extract-current-note, regenerate-current-note-force, pin/unpin-overview, delete-current-sidecar).
• Already writes inside AI Sessions folders (sidecars).
• The session template body includes a \``visual-notes ` codeblock — tight coupling with the renderer this plugin owns.
• daily-context is a read-only context aggregator; bolting a write/create command onto it would expand its scope unnecessarily.

Related

• ai-private obsidian-notes skill currently mentions template=AISessionSummaryTemplate explicitly — that line can be removed once this command lands.
• ai-private local.yaml obsidian.contexts.<name>.ai_session_folders shape mirrors daily-context's data.json — consistent across all three places.