Move Note

Move or rename a note and rewrite every link across the vault that points to it, like Obsidian's built-in rename. Incoming links in other notes — [[wikilinks]], [[wikilink|aliases]], [[wikilink#headings]], ![[embeds]], markdown, and frontmatter links (e.g. related:) — are updated to the new path; the moved note's own relative links are fixed so they still resolve from the new folder. A link is only rewritten when leaving it unchanged would break it, so a short [[Note]] that stays unambiguous after a folder move is left alone. Without this tool a move silently breaks every backlink.

Example: vault_move_note({ old_path: "Inbox/Draft.md", new_path: "Inbox/Spec.md" }) — pure rename. Example: vault_move_note({ old_path: "Inbox/Spec.md", new_path: "Projects/Spec.md" }) — move to another folder, updating links and the note's own relative links. Example: vault_move_note({ old_path: "Inbox/Spec.md", new_path: "Projects/Spec.md", prune_empty_folders: true }) — also remove "Inbox" if the move empties it.

When to use: Renaming a note or relocating it to a different folder while keeping the link graph intact. Prefer this over vault_write_note + vault_delete_note, which would orphan every backlink. To only change a note's body or properties, use vault_patch_note or vault_update_properties. Protected paths (About Me/, Daily Notes/) cannot be moved.

Errors:

• "destination exists: …" — a note already lives at new_path; this tool never overwrites. Pick a free path or delete the existing note first.

• "note not found: …" — old_path does not exist; verify it with vault_list_notes.

• "cannot move protected path …" / "cannot move into protected path …" — old_path or new_path sits under a protected folder.

• "only moves .md notes" — both paths must end in .md.

• "path traversal blocked" — a path escapes the vault root; use vault-relative paths.

• Mid-move I/O failure (rare, e.g. a permission or disk error while writing) — the move aborts and the original note is deleted only after the destination and all backlinks are written, so a failure never loses data. The error message names what failed and the resulting state: if a backlink write failed, new_path exists and the original is intact (re-run the move, deleting the partial new_path first, to finish); if the final delete failed, both old_path and new_path exist (delete old_path to finish).

Obsidian syntax: Link rewrites preserve each link's existing form — embed marker (!), heading anchor (#…), and alias (|…) are kept; a markdown link keeps its .md extension and link text. Only the target path is changed.

Returns: JSON with moved_to (the new path), links_updated (count of link occurrences rewritten), updated_notes (sorted paths of the other notes that were edited; the moved note is implied by moved_to), and pruned_empty_folders (count of source folders removed — 0 unless prune_empty_folders was set).