obsidian-example-lifeos: a bilingual example vault for the LifeOS Obsidian plugin

An example vault, not the plugin

The distinction matters for anyone landing on this repository from a search. This is the open-source LifeOS example vault, for the free LifeOS plugin, which lives in a separate repository at quanru/obsidian-lifeos. The repository is the example data and the templates, not the code that reads them.

The example vault idea is that you can see the structure working before you commit to it. Each language includes a LifeOS Vault with a small working example, and a LifeOS Blank Vault with the templates and folder structure for your own notes. The current starter packages support ten languages: English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, German, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean and Arabic.

The language coverage is deeper than a translated README. Folder names, templates and plugin settings use the same language as the vault, so a German vault has German folder names and German template text, not English labels with a translated help file. The README carries the same language bar across the top, with English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, German, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Arabic and Korean.

The project has been recognised outside its own site. The README links an award for third place in the Best Templates category at the 2024 Obsidian Gems of the Year awards, and there are badges for Product Hunt and Uneed. The homepage is lifeos.vip, the last push was on 2026-10-10, and the release history shows 1.20.0 on the same day after 1.19.0 on 2026-10-07 and 1.10.1 in April.

The root vault and the newer packages under examples/

The repository structure has two generations of vault in it, and the README says so directly.

The older article-rich examples remain in the root and in i18n/ for reference, and the new starter packages live under examples/. So the top level of the repository is itself a vault, and the file listing shows what a PARA vault looks like on disk: -1. Capture/, 0. PeriodicNotes/, 1. Projects/, 2. Areas/, 3. Resources/, 4. Archives/ and 5. Express/, plus a .obsidian/ directory, a HOME.canvas file, a TASK.md and a docs/ directory with a scripts/ folder.

The numbered folders are the PARA structure with a numeric prefix, which is a deliberate choice. A numeric prefix makes the folders sort in a fixed order in Obsidian's file explorer, so Projects always appears above Areas regardless of alphabetical sorting, and it leaves a slot at the front for a Capture folder that needs to be somewhere you look at constantly.

The examples/ directory has one folder per language, ar, de, en, es, fr, ja, ko, pt, zh-cn and zh-tw, plus a manifest.json and a README.md. The manifest is what a script would read to know which languages exist and what to expect in each, and the scripts/ directory at the root is where the tooling that maintains the packages lives.

So the two generations differ in character rather than in format. The root vault is documentation and worked examples, and the examples/ packages are the distributable starters, which is why the release ZIPs are built from there.

Theme mode, which drops the PARA structure

The most recent addition is the theme vaults, and they are a different model rather than a variation on the same one.

Each language now includes a LifeOS Theme Vault and a LifeOS Theme Blank Vault, alongside the existing PARA vaults. Theme mode uses a configurable theme directory with one folder and index note per topic, and it does not create Projects, Areas, Resources or Archives folders. In other words, theme mode gives up the PARA taxonomy entirely in favour of a flat list of topic folders, and the choice between the two is a setting.

To use it you enable Theme notes and turn off Use PARA in the open-source LifeOS settings. Then you create a theme with a tag, a folder and an index filename, associate a quick capture, and open the theme to see its tasks, records and files.

Two behaviours are worth knowing before you build on it. Tagged habit entries in the sample diary are intentionally excluded from capture and theme task and record queries, which is a filtering rule rather than a bug, and the diary theme list is a snapshot at creation time, so entries added later do not appear in that list until it is regenerated.

That second point is the kind of detail that decides whether a workflow fits, and it is the sort of thing you would otherwise learn from a confusing empty list.

What you install, and what the archive does not contain

The setup sequence is short and it involves two plugins rather than one.

You open one vault folder in Obsidian, install LifeOS and Dataview from Community plugins, and then open the local starting guide. The starting guide is inside the vault, so it is the thing to read first, and it is localised along with everything else.

What is not included matters. No Pro resources or plugin binaries are bundled, and the archives contain no plugin binaries, which is stated in both the general description and again in the theme notes section. The archives are the vault, not the software that reads it, so the plugin and Dataview are separate installs every time.

There is also a dependency split in what Dataview is for. Native theme lists and quick capture work without Dataview. The task, record and file query blocks require Dataview. So a vault built on theme mode still functions, with the Dataview-powered queries being the part that degrades.

The version requirement is stated in the release notes. Release 1.20.0 provides ten language packages and requires LifeOS 1.29.0 or newer. Each ZIP includes PARA example and blank vaults plus plain-theme example and blank vaults, and you can also open a vault directly under examples/<language>/ if you would rather clone it than download it.

One more limitation: local generation does not update public downloads. So if you build changes into a vault you have generated locally, the published ZIPs do not change, and the local vault is your working copy.

What the project depends on, and who maintains it

The acknowledgements section is the most useful part of the README for understanding what the vault actually does, because the plugin is assembled from other people's work.

The organisational method is PARA, credited to Tiago Forte, and the PARA Starter Kit by cotemaxime, which is described as a great starter vault. The inspiration for the plugin came from obsidian-periodic-notes by liamcain, which is why the PeriodicNotes/ folder is in the vault structure. The underlying plugin uses obsidian-dataview's query interface, by blacksmithgu, which is why the task, record and file queries need Dataview installed. And Templater by SilentVoid13 provides decoupled template creation, allowing a very large number of plugins to create files with the help of it.

So the vault is a composition: PARA for the folder taxonomy, periodic notes for the daily and weekly scaffolding, Dataview for the queries, and Templater for the file creation that makes quick capture work.

The wider feature list points at the plugin rather than the vault. LifeOS Basic, LifeOS Pro, DeepAsk AI for Obsidian and DeepAsk AI for Chrome are all listed, with Pro and the AI features documented on lifeos.vip.

On support, the project runs a Discord, a Telegram group, a YouTube channel, a podcast, a Bento page and an email address, and the donations section offers a Buy Me a Coffee link, Alipay and WeChat Pay. The licensing is the one loose end. The repository-level metadata lists the licence as unknown and there is no licence file among the top level entries, so what terms the vault content and templates are under is not stated in the repository itself, which is worth checking before you redistribute one.

Editorial conclusion

This vault fits an Obsidian user who wants the LifeOS plugin's structure understood before committing to it, since each language ships a small working example alongside a blank template, and it fits a non-English user who wants folder names, templates and plugin settings in their own language. It is a poor fit if you want the plugin itself, since the plugin lives in a separate repository and no plugin binaries are bundled here, and a poor fit if you want a finished knowledge base, since the example vaults are scaffolds with sample content. Before adopting, download the language package you need from the latest release, install LifeOS 1.29.0 or newer plus Dataview from Community plugins, and open the local starting guide inside the vault.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. Issues
2. Project website
3. quanru/obsidian-example-lifeos on GitHub
4. README
5. Releases