Sebastien Dubois

The through-line

Across nearly every post, Sebastien Dubois returns to one idea: systems should do the mechanical work so a person can keep doing the thinking. Whether he is talking about Templater scripts, a Kanban plugin, a Discord exporter, or AI transcription, the pattern is the same: build or configure a tool that files, formats, and structures information automatically, but never let it write the notes or make the decisions for you. He states this most directly as a rule for AI in note-taking [15], but the same instinct drives his plugin and template work, where automation always ends in the note landing, correctly structured, without his manual intervention [12][6][3].

Over the course of these posts the focus narrows from individual mechanics (Templater syntax, CLI triggers) [1][6] toward a broader system built around note types that drive Kanban boards, calendars, and dashboards [3][4][11]. The underlying preoccupation with "file over app" and trusted, curated systems stays constant [4][7].

On automating the plumbing, not the thinking

Dubois is explicit that automation has a boundary. "Automate the plumbing, not the thinking... AI should file, format, cross-link, summarize, fetch, clean, maintain. You still write the notes. You must not delegate your own thinking." [15] This extends to how he wants AI agents to behave when generating documentation: "If your coding agent writes documentation for you, give it the rules first." [2] It also shows up in his stance on privacy and local processing, framing subscription-based cloud AI as an unnecessary trade-off when "local AI keeps getting better" [10].

On file over app

A second theme is his insistence that structure should live in the notes themselves, not in a separate app layer. He built the Kanban Action Planner specifically because "every Kanban plugin I tried for Obsidian had the same fatal flaw: one set of columns, for everything," when in fact "tasks, goals, books, and articles all have different workflows" [3]. The fix is a plugin that "understands note types," giving each "its own statuses, its own columns, its own colors" [3], with boards that write back to Markdown rather than forking off into a separate tool [9]. He ties this directly to AI-friendliness, noting "why file over app makes all of it AI-friendly" [4], and describes filing as something that happens invisibly through templates: "the last thing my templates do is rename and move the note to the right folder... I never touch folders" [12].

On knowledge management as a trusted system

Dubois frames knowledge management not as exhaustive capture but as curation. "Knowledge Management is not about trying to capture everything, but actually leveraging a trusted system to capture what really makes a difference and what is really valuable to hold on to." [7] He extends the same logic to journaling, describing it as a shift in identity rather than a habit: "Journaling as a personal operating system changes the dynamic. It transforms you from someone who just reacts to someone who learns from experiences and is mindful, intentional, effective, creating something meaningful." [8]

On building his own tools

Rather than adopting existing solutions, he repeatedly chooses to build what's missing. Beyond the Kanban plugin [3], he built "a Discord channel(s) exporter" to "keep up with certain discord servers/channels I'm interested in," designed so exported Markdown can be imported "easily into my Obsidian vault (curated content)" [5]. He treats these tools as shareable by default, publishing the technical-documentation-skill as "Apache-2.0, free, forkable" [2] and floating open-sourcing the Discord exporter "if there's interest" [5].

From the stage

In the podcast, Dubois discusses a very different chapter: going solo as a game developer on Gladiabots after prior work at Ubisoft and a smaller studio, with "over 12 years of experience" [16]. He describes having "handled almost all aspects of the game's development himself," with one deliberate exception: audio, "the only domain where he decided not to invest time in learning," planning instead "to hire a professional composer for the official release" [16]. This is the one place across all the material where he describes consciously choosing not to build or learn something himself, contrasting with the do-it-yourself pattern seen in his later Obsidian tooling posts.

Takeaways

• When letting a coding agent write documentation, give it rules first via the technical-documentation-skill, installable with one line and free/forkable under Apache-2.0 [2].
• Templater's whole syntax reduces to one distinction: `<%` prints, `<%*` runs; everything else (choices, dynamic dates, auto-filing) builds on that [1].
• If a single Kanban board's columns don't fit your different note types (tasks, books, articles), give each type its own statuses and columns rather than forcing one workflow [3].
• Automate the mechanical steps of note-taking (filing, formatting, cross-linking, summarizing) but keep the actual writing and thinking to yourself [15].
• Templates can end by renaming and filing a note into the right folder automatically, so folders never need to be touched manually [12].
• Prefer local AI processing for private dictation and audio/video transcription over subscription services that send conversations to a server [10].