The FIRM Directory for Obsidian
Every Module in the book, as one fill-in notebook.
Every one of the book's 29 Modules as a blank note, in the order the book builds them, in one Obsidian notebook that lives inside your Vault. Free, nothing to sign up for, and nothing leaves your machine.
Keeping the FIRM System on paper, or building it your own way? The same 29 templates are on this site to print or download — start from the four SAFE Areas.
What it is
The book's on-disk arrangement is the FIRM Directory: one top-level directory, four folders — one per SAFE Area of Focus — and one file per Module, the whole container protected by encryption. This download lays that structure down as one Obsidian notebook, a folder named FIRM Directory:
- Start Here — three lines on how to use it, the build order in one sentence, and a checklist of all 29 Modules that doubles as your progress tracker.
- Four Area notes — one per SAFE Area: a one-line description and the list of its Modules.
- 29 Module notes — each opens with what goes in it and why, and names its chapter. The top half holds the Secure Guide blanks: a bold label for every field, a table for every list. The bottom half holds the Family Guide headings: what exists, who manages, who to call. The thirteen Modules that take one record per thing — a device, a person, a policy — give you a numbered block to copy.
Plain text, plain Markdown. No properties panel, no plugins, no example family, no settings to learn: open a note and write after the labels. The principles stay in the book; the notebook is the blanks.
Inside your container, the FIRM Directory folder stands alone at the top level: its four Area folders are the FIRM Directory's four SAFE directories. Put scanned documents and exports inside the Area folders beside the notes they belong to; the notebook's own settings folder is its cover, not family content.
What it is not
- Not the Vault. Obsidian keeps every note as a plain text file on disk. The notebook has no protection of its own — it is safe only inside the encrypted container you control, which is why the install below moves it there before Obsidian ever opens it.
- Not a cloud service. Nothing leaves your machine unless you set that up yourself, and for this notebook you should not (see the sync warning below).
- Not something this site can see. The download is a folder of text files. This site has no input fields and collects nothing; what you type into the notebook stays with you.
- Not an endorsement. Obsidian is one example of a notes tool that meets the book's criteria — portable plain-text files, no account required, encryption you add yourself — the same criteria the Reference Stacks page applies to every stack it lists. Any tool that meets them is as sound a choice.
Two guides, one note
Each Module note carries both of the book's guides. The top half is The Secure Guide, the record that stays inside your Vault. The bottom half is The Family Guide, the page a trusted person can read and act on without a key. What decides which half a fact belongs in is the kitchen-counter test: if this page were left on a kitchen counter, could its contents cause harm? If yes, it belongs in the Secure Guide. If no, it belongs in the Family Guide. Every note carries the test as a one-line reminder.
The book is unambiguous about where the Family Guide lives: "The Family Guide should not live inside the Vault. It is the opposite artifact — meant to be reached, not opened with a key." The notebook keeps the master copy of both guides inside the container, as the File Storage Module describes; what your family holds is a copy of the Family Guide halves — printed, exported to PDF, or pasted into a plain document — kept where a trusted person can reach it. Make that copy from the Family Guide half only, and never move the notebook itself out of the container.
One thing goes in neither half. The Vault Key Rule is absolute: the Vault Key is never stored inside the Vault it opens, so that a trusted person can reach the Vault when the primary keyholder cannot. Who holds the key, and how to reach them, is a who-to-call line for the Family Guide copy; the key itself is never written anywhere in the notebook.
One naming collision
One naming collision to be aware of: Obsidian calls each of its notebooks a “vault.” That is Obsidian's word for a folder of notes — it is not the Vault of the FIRM System, which is your encrypted, family-controlled container for secrets. An Obsidian “vault” becomes part of your Vault only when it lives inside encryption you control.
Before you begin
- Whole-device encryption on, on every computer that will open the notebook — the first layer the book's Encryption Module asks for. Obsidian keeps a small index of note names, headings and links in its own settings folder, outside the notebook; device encryption is what covers that index.
- An encrypted container you control — your Vault — open before you move the notebook into it, and closed when you are done.
- A desktop computer. The notebook is desktop-only: phone apps open folders only in their own storage or a platform cloud folder, both outside the container. The Family Guide copy you make is the phone-friendly piece.
Install
Bold labels are Obsidian's own. The order matters: the notebook goes inside your encryption before Obsidian opens it, because the first open records the folder's location in Obsidian's own settings and starts an index outside the notebook.
- Download and unzip. You get one folder, FIRM Directory, holding READ ME FIRST.txt, VERSION, Start Here, and the four Area folders.
- Open your encrypted container and move FIRM Directory inside it — before Obsidian opens it. Do not open it from the download folder first.
- Open the notebook. On a fresh install, Obsidian's picker opens by itself. If Obsidian already has a notebook open, choose the Vault profile (bottom left) → Manage Vaults.... Either way: at the right of Open folder as vault click Open, select the FIRM Directory folder in its new home, and click Open.
- Leave Restricted mode on. Settings → Community plugins shows Restricted mode on, and its only control is Turn on community plugins — do not press it. (If someone did: next to Restricted mode, select Turn on.) No community plugin in this notebook, ever; an AI plugin reads and transmits by design.
- Open Start Here from the file list and work the checklist from the top: System first, Estate last. Write after each bold label and under each heading.
- Close the container when you are done for the day. The notebook is only protected while the container is closed.
Adding a device, a person, a policy
Thirteen Modules take one record per thing — a device, a family member, a subscription, an insurance policy, a person's funeral wishes. In those notes the Secure Guide half opens with a numbered block (Device 1, Person 1, Policy 1) and ends with the line Copy the block above for each …. Select the block from its heading to its last line, copy it, paste it below, and change the number. Nothing else to set up.
Sync warning. This notebook is plain text. Any service that syncs folders copies it as plain text unless it encrypts on your device and cannot read what it holds. If a sync service offers its own encryption password, treat that password as a Vault Key: its existence goes on the Family Guide copy, its value goes to a trusted person. No cloud folder and no sync service for the notebook unless it sits inside your encryption — the container comes first, the notebook lives inside it, and if anything syncs, it is the encrypted container.
Plugins and File Recovery
No community plugin in this notebook, ever — an AI plugin reads and transmits by design, and Restricted mode is what keeps that door shut. File Recovery is off in the shipped notebook. If it is ever turned on, its copies live outside the notebook; Settings → Core plugins → File recovery → Clear history → Clear removes them.
The notebook is a blank template, and the site's rule about AI tools applies to it unchanged:
One rule: only ever give an AI tool the blank template. Never paste your real information — passwords, account numbers, anything you'd keep secret — into an AI tool, an online service, or anywhere outside your own Vault. Customizing an empty form is fine; filling it in happens privately, offline. That's the same rule this site follows: nothing sensitive ever leaves your hands.
For the notebook that means: only the blank template may go to an AI tool. Never connect the notebook folder to an assistant, and keep any file-indexing assistant out of the container's location.
Download
One ZIP, one notebook, no installer. It is built from the same template data as every page on this site, so the blanks match what you see on the Module pages.
When the templates change, the list hears first. Join the list at recoverable.family.
Updating
When a newer version is posted here, download it and unzip it beside your notebook, never over it. Your notes are never touched by an update: copy across only what you want from the fresh tree — a note whose blanks changed — and delete the rest. The VERSION file in every download records which template state it was built from, and the read-me's last line says the same, so you can tell at a glance whether yours is current.
Requirements
Obsidian, any current desktop version, on Windows, macOS, or Linux. Obsidian is free to use; the notebook needs no account, no sync service, and no community plugins — Restricted mode stays on throughout. The notebook is desktop-only; the Family Guide copy you make is the phone-friendly piece.