Claude Code x Obsidian
“Your notes are passive. They don't have to be.”
Set your Obsidian vault as Claude Code's working directory. Now Claude can read your notes, process your inbox, build knowledge graphs, and generate daily briefings. A second brain that actually works.
How Claude Lives Inside Your Vault
Your Obsidian vault becomes the working directory. Claude reads notes, writes summaries, moves files, and syncs context to external tools through MCP connections.
Open your terminal, navigate to your vault, and start Claude Code. That's it. Claude will read CLAUDE.md automatically.
cd ~/Obsidian/MyVault claude # Claude now has read/write access to every note. # Set up CLAUDE.md and run /inbox-processor to start.
Five Folders. Everything Else Is Chaos.
PARA is the organisational backbone. Five folders, clear rules, and Claude to route and maintain everything. Click each folder to see what goes inside and what Claude does with it.
The entry point for everything. Meeting notes, stray ideas, links, voice memos transcribed, emails forwarded. Nothing is processed here — it just lands.
Any initiative with a clear goal and a deadline. Client deliverables, product launches, hiring sprints. Each project is a folder with a README, action log, and relevant notes.
Things that never fully close. Finances, health, client relationships, team management. Areas have standards to maintain, not outcomes to achieve.
Everything you might need later. Research, templates, frameworks, notes on tools, saved articles. Organised by topic, not by project.
Projects that finished. Areas you stepped back from. Anything no longer active but worth keeping. Clean storage, not a junk drawer.
What Claude Does Every Day
These five workflows cover 90% of what you need a second brain to do. Each is a skill file you drop into .claude/skills/.
Every note in 00_Inbox gets evaluated and moved to the right PARA folder. Claude reads the content, decides where it belongs, and updates your daily log.
# .claude/skills/inbox-processor.md /inbox-processor Read every file in 00_Inbox/. For each: 1. Identify the PARA category 2. Move to the correct folder 3. Add to today's routing log 4. Link to related existing notes
Drop raw meeting notes in the inbox. Claude extracts decisions, action items, and client context — then syncs to Attio.
# .claude/skills/meeting-log.md /meeting-log [file?] Process the latest meeting note in 00_Inbox/: - Extract decisions and action items - Identify people mentioned, link to Attio contacts - Create structured note in the right project folder - Sync to Attio: update contact notes, create tasks
Claude scans your vault and creates bidirectional links between related notes. Surfaces connections you never noticed.
# .claude/skills/link-ideas.md /link-ideas [topic?] Scan 03_Resources/ and find conceptual connections. For each note, suggest 2-3 related notes to link. Add [[wiki-links]] where the connection is strong. Create a topic cluster index if 5+ notes share a theme.
Long notes get distilled to key insights. Claude highlights the most important passages and writes a one-paragraph summary at the top.
# .claude/skills/weekly-synth.md /weekly-synth For each note modified this week in 03_Resources/: 1. Add bold highlights to key sentences 2. Write a 3-sentence summary at the top 3. Tag with #synthesized and today's date 4. Link to any new connections found this week
Every morning, Claude generates a briefing from your vault: open projects, today's priorities, overdue items, and a prompt for your focus.
# .claude/skills/daily-review.md
/daily-review
Generate today's briefing:
1. Open projects — status and next action
2. Area health check — anything overdue?
3. Inbox count — items waiting to be processed
4. Today's focus — one sentence recommendation
5. Write to: 00_Inbox/briefing-{date}.mdSix Commands That Run Your Second Brain
Each skill is a markdown file in .claude/skills/. Drop them in and they become slash commands you can call from any Claude Code session inside your vault.
Claude That Remembers Everything
Auto-memory persists your preferences, patterns, and client context across every session. No more re-explaining who you are or how you work.
Where it lives
- ~/.claude/projects/<repo>/memory/MEMORY.md
- Vault-level: vault/MEMORY.md
- Claude reads it at the start of every session
- Asks permission before writing new entries
What gets saved
- Your naming conventions and folder preferences
- Client names, industries, and communication style
- Recurring tasks and scheduling patterns
- Tools you use and how you prefer outputs formatted
How it learns
- Claude surfaces patterns it noticed during the session
- You approve or reject proposed memory entries
- Approved entries persist immediately
- Builds up over weeks into a full preference profile
Example entries
- Prefers ISO date format: YYYY-MM-DD
- Client Acme Corp: B2B SaaS, decision maker is Sarah
- Weekly review: Sunday 18:00 Europe/London
- Briefings go to 00_Inbox/briefing-{date}.md
Obsidian Canvas Integration
Use Obsidian Canvas as a visual project board. Claude can read and update canvas nodes directly, turning your visual workspace into an interactive command centre.
Multi-Scope Configuration
Layer CLAUDE.md files at different scopes. Global preferences at the top, vault-level conventions in the middle, client-specific rules at the project level.
Vault Setup Wizard
Five steps. Work through them in order. Each step builds on the last. Click a step to expand it, then mark it complete when you're done.
Create a vault-level CLAUDE.md that tells Claude the folder structure, your naming conventions, your timezone, and your working style.
# vault/CLAUDE.md ## Vault Structure - 00_Inbox/ — raw captures, process daily - 01_Projects/ — active work with deadlines - 02_Areas/ — ongoing responsibilities - 03_Resources/ — reference and knowledge - 04_Archive/ — completed or inactive ## Conventions - Note format: YYYY-MM-DD-title.md - Timezone: Europe/London - Weekly review: every Sunday 18:00
Add rule files that constrain Claude's behaviour in your vault. These apply automatically on every session.
# .claude/rules/vault-safety.md Never delete notes — move to 04_Archive/ instead. Never rename files without logging the change. Always preserve original content when summarising. Use [[wiki-link]] format for all internal links. When unsure of PARA category, default to 00_Inbox/.
Install the /inbox-processor skill. This is the single most valuable skill for vault management — run it daily.
mkdir -p .claude/skills cat > .claude/skills/inbox-processor.md << 'EOF' # /inbox-processor Read every file in 00_Inbox/. For each file: 1. Determine PARA category (P/A/R/Archive) 2. Move to correct folder 3. Create a brief routing note 4. Log action in today's daily note 5. Link to existing related notes EOF
Enable auto-memory so Claude learns your preferences, client names, and working patterns across sessions.
# ~/.claude/settings.json (add this)
{
"autoMemory": {
"enabled": true,
"path": "~/.claude/projects/{repo}/memory/MEMORY.md",
"savePatterns": [
"client preferences",
"naming conventions",
"recurring tasks",
"communication style"
]
}
}Open Claude Code from your vault directory, run /inbox-processor, and watch it organise your notes. Your second brain is live.
# Open Claude Code from your vault root cd ~/Obsidian/MyVault claude # Run the inbox processor /inbox-processor # Generate your first briefing /daily-review # Claude will ask to save preferences to MEMORY.md # Say yes — this is how it learns your vault
Test What You Learned
Five questions on Claude Code + Second Brain integration. No retries per question.