pshreyas77/hermes-railway/obsidian-sync-doctor

Obsidian Sync Doctor

Overview

Diagnose the full loop: Hermes writes to the VPS vault folder, obsidian-headless syncs it, and Obsidian on the Mac receives it. Prefer concrete filesystem and service checks over vague advice.

Diagnostic Order

1. Confirm the expected vault path.
2. Confirm OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH points to that exact path.
3. Confirm ob is installed and authenticated.
4. Confirm the vault folder is the folder configured by ob sync-setup.
5. Confirm obsidian-sync.service is active and enabled.
6. Inspect recent logs.
7. Run a one-off sync.
8. Optionally create a test note and sync it.
9. Ask the user to confirm the note appears on the Mac.
10. Ask the user to create a Mac note and confirm it appears on the VPS.

Quick Command

Read-only check:

bash scripts/verify_hermes_obsidian_loop.sh --vault /root/HermesVault

Write a test note and run sync:

bash scripts/verify_hermes_obsidian_loop.sh --vault /root/HermesVault --write-test

Common Diagnoses

• Notes created but not synced: service down, bad auth, wrong vault path, or wrong remote vault.
• Service active but no Mac note: Mac is on a different account or remote vault.
• ob missing: npm global bin is not on PATH, or obsidian-headless was not installed.
• Login failures: often inactive Obsidian Sync or wrong account.
• Vault at /root: setup was run from the wrong directory.

Resources

• Read references/diagnostic-playbook.md for the full decision tree.
• Run scripts/verify_hermes_obsidian_loop.sh on the VPS.

Completion Criteria

Finish only when the cause is identified or the user has a concrete next check, and the two-way sync test has either passed or failed with a specific reason.