Connect other tools

Shortcuts, launchers, scripts and AI assistants can add and find your Actions too. Which way in suits which job, and what each one can do.

Your Matters and Actions are notes in your vault, so anything that can read and write a folder of Markdown files can work with them. Matters that Matter offers four ways in, from a link you tap on your phone to an AI assistant that keeps your board up to date while you talk to it.

Which way in

  • Obsidian links, for Shortcuts, Raycast, Alfred, a link in a note, anything that opens a link. They add an Action, open quick add with some text in it, or open an Action, a Matter or a board.
  • The command line, for scripts, scheduled jobs and the terminal. It adds, changes, marks as done and reopens Actions; lists and shows them; says what matters today; adds and lists Matters; and shows the workflow.
  • AI assistants, for Claude, Codex and other assistants that run MCP servers. They get the command line’s abilities as tools, and a skill that teaches them the plugin’s words.
  • The note format, for other apps and your own code that write notes directly. Anything goes, as long as it writes what Matters that Matter reads.

The first three apply the plugin’s rules for you: titles become safe file names, statuses and types are stored by their IDs, the completion date is set when an Action is done. Writing notes directly means following those rules yourself, so prefer a link or the command line when one of them can do the job.

What they all have in common

  • Your words. Statuses, types, Spheres and Matters are named the way you named them, or by their IDs. Quick add’s words work wherever text is taken: Call Charlie about the worktop /call #Kitchen fri 10:00 !1.
  • Nothing is deleted. Links, the command line and assistants never remove a note or change the settings. To finish an Action, mark it as done; to drop one, delete it in Obsidian.
  • No Matters or people appear by accident. Naming a Matter that doesn’t exist puts the Action in the Inbox, and says so. Only the command line and AI assistants can add a Matter, and only when asked to. People are never created.
  • Your notes stay yours. Through links, the command line and assistants, only mtm- properties change, and in an Action’s body only the details, checklist items and links it is given. Everything else in a note stays as it is. The one other change: when the command line or an assistant gives an Action a new title, links to it in other notes (Actions and Matters among them) are updated, as Obsidian updates them when its Automatically update internal links setting is on. If another note already has the new name, links to that note get its path, so they keep reaching it.
  • Obsidian can stay open. It picks up changes from outside like any other edit, and the board follows.

Safety

Anything that can write your vault can change your Actions: your own scripts, other plugins, every device the vault syncs to. Matters that Matter can’t make that boundary safer, so it makes sure no way in lets anyone reach your notes who couldn’t before.

  • Everything is local. The command line and the MCP server run on your computer, as you, on the folder you name. They open no network port and send nothing anywhere. There’s no way to reach your vault from another machine through Matters that Matter.
  • Links are the one door a web page can open. Any page, email or app can open an obsidian:// link, so links can only add and open, never change or delete, and whatever they bring is written as plain text. You can turn adding through links off. See what a link can’t do.
  • AI assistants can be misled by what they read. The MCP server keeps what they can do small and visible: every write says what it changed, your assistant’s app can ask before each one, and you can offer it fewer tools or none that write. See AI assistants.