Second Brain Demo

A starter template for an AI-powered personal knowledge base. Clone it, open it in Obsidian, point Claude CoWork or Claude Code at it, and start talking.

What Is This?

A Markdown-based personal vault designed to work with an LLM assistant. The AI reads your notes, helps you think, and updates the knowledge base as you go. See the full blog post for the idea behind it.

Quick Start

1. Clone this repo
2. Open the folder in Obsidian
3. Point Claude CoWork or Claude Code at the repo
4. Start a conversation - try "What's in this vault?" or "Help me write a journal entry"

Structure

00-meta/          Conventions, templates, repo docs
01-journal/       Daily entries and topic pages
10-areas/         Ongoing life/work areas (no end date)
20-projects/      Time-bound projects (have a finish line)
30-evergreen/     Permanent notes, one idea per note
40-references/    Book notes, articles, saved material
.claude/          AI rules and skills

How the AI Layer Works

The vault contains three things the AI uses:

• CLAUDE.md (root) - tells the AI how the vault is organized and what principles to follow
• CONTEXT.md (in each area/project) - gives the AI background on specific topics so it loads only what's relevant
• .claude/rules/ - conventions the AI always follows (how to write journal entries, format evergreen notes, etc.)
• .claude/skills/ - reusable workflows you can trigger:
  • /expand - turn a rough thought into a polished evergreen note
  • /consolidate - review recent journal entries for themes and patterns
  • /commit - commit changes to git with clean messages

Make It Yours

This is a starting point. Replace the sample content with your own:

1. Edit the areas in 10-areas/ to match your life
2. Update the CONTEXT.md files with your own context
3. Start journaling in 01-journal/
4. Add rules in .claude/rules/ for any conventions you want the AI to follow
5. Create skills in .claude/skills/ for workflows you repeat often

The structure is a suggestion - bend it to fit how you think.

Requirements

• Obsidian (free) for browsing and reading
• Claude CoWork or Claude Code for the AI layer
• Git for version control