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A vault is a named reference to a directory of Markdown files on your filesystem. smolbren stores the vault’s search index and knowledge graph separately in its data directory (~/.smolbren/vaults/<name>/), so your source files are never modified. All commands that operate on notes (search, query, get, links, etc.) require at least one vault to be registered and indexed.

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vault add

Register a new vault by giving it a name and pointing it at a directory. Synopsis 
smolbren vault add <name> <path> [--default]
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name
string
required
A short, memorable name for this vault. Used with --vault to select it in other commands. Must be unique across all registered vaults.
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path
path
required
Absolute or relative path to the root directory of your Markdown vault. The path is canonicalized to an absolute path at registration time; the directory must already exist.
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--default
boolean
Mark this vault as the default. When --default is set, subsequent commands that need a vault will use this one automatically without requiring --vault. The first vault you add is always made the default regardless of this flag.
Example 
smolbren vault add notes ~/Documents/notes --default

{"name": "notes", "path": "/Users/alice/Documents/notes", "default": true}
The path in the response is the canonicalized absolute path. The default field reflects whether this vault is now the active default.

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vault list

List all registered vaults and their current status. Synopsis 
smolbren vault list
Output Returns an array of vault objects. Each object contains:
FieldTypeDescription
namestringThe vault’s registered name
pathstringAbsolute path to the vault directory
defaultbooleanWhether this is the current default vault
indexed_at_msinteger | nullUnix timestamp (ms) of the last completed index run, or null if the vault has never been indexed
Example 
smolbren vault list

[
  {
    "name": "notes",
    "path": "/Users/alice/Documents/notes",
    "default": true,
    "indexed_at_ms": 1751234567890
  },
  {
    "name": "work",
    "path": "/Users/alice/work-vault",
    "default": false,
    "indexed_at_ms": null
  }
]

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vault remove

Unregister a vault by name. Synopsis 
smolbren vault remove <name>
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name
string
required
The name of the vault to remove, as it appears in vault list.
vault remove permanently deletes the vault’s index data from ~/.smolbren/vaults/<name>/, including the notes dataset, edges dataset, and ontology cache. Your source Markdown files are untouched, but you will need to run smolbren index again if you re-add the vault. This operation cannot be undone.
If the removed vault was the default, no default vault is set afterward — you must either add a new vault with --default or update your config manually. Example 
smolbren vault remove work

{"removed": "work"}