I Spent 200+ Hours Explaining to AI Who I Am. Then I Found a Way to Do It Once - And Never Again Eve

Everyone who uses Claude or ChatGPT does the same thing. Open a new tab. Type who you are. What you do. What you're working on. AI answers. You close the tab. Tomorrow - start over. Like Groundhog Day, except you lose 10 minutes and the context of everything that came before.

I did the math: over a year that's roughly 200+ hours spent explaining to a machine what it should already know.

Then I found a setup that breaks this. One file on your computer - and AI never forgets you again. Doesn't guess. Doesn't hallucinate. Knows.

This isn't one guide - it's three viral articles (8M+ views combined), merged and improved into one document. Every prompt. Every command. Every trick. Even if you've never heard of Obsidian - you'll be set up in one evening.

— "Obsidian Graph View - this is what your vault looks like after a month. Every dot is a note, every line is a connection"

First - why this matters at all

Right now you use AI like this: upload files, AI reads them, gives an answer. Close the tab - everything vanishes. Next time it reads the same files all over again. From scratch. Every time. Burning tokens on knowledge it already had yesterday.

Andrej Karpathy (ex-OpenAI, ex-Tesla AI) published a GitHub gist in April 2026 with a simple but powerful pattern. Called it LLM Wiki. 5,000+ stars in days.

The idea: AI cleans, structures, and links all your data once. Then it only works with the clean base. Never goes back to raw files.

His analogy: raw documents are source code. The wiki is the compiled product. You don't recompile a program every time you run it.

→ 70-90% fewer tokens on repeat queries

→ significantly better answers

→ automatic links between documents

→ visual knowledge graph

→ system that grows without you

— "Karpathy's Wiki Layer: raw files → clean knowledge base → rules"

Step 1 - Install Claude Desktop and Obsidian

Claude Desktop: claude.com/download → install → Pro subscription $20/mo → click the Code tab

Obsidian: obsidian.md → free → Create new vault → name it "brain" → Create

Why Obsidian? It stores everything as plain .md files on your drive. Any AI can read them. Switch models anytime without migration. No lock-in.

Step 2 - Connect Claude to your vault

Option A: Local REST API plugin

In Obsidian: Settings → Community plugins → Browse → Local REST API → Install → Enable. Copy the API key (without "Bearer"):

claude mcp add-json obsidian-vault '{
  "type": "stdio",
  "command": "uvx",
  "args": ["mcp-obsidian"],
  "env": {
    "OBSIDIAN_API_KEY": "YOUR-KEY",
    "OBSIDIAN_HOST": "127.0.0.1",
    "OBSIDIAN_PORT": "27124"
  }
}'

Option B: mcpvault (no plugin needed)

claude mcp add-json obsidian-vault '{
  "type": "stdio",
  "command": "npx",
  "args": ["-y", "@bitbonsai/mcpvault@latest", "/шлях/до/твого/vault"]
}' --scope user

Test it: tell Claude "list every file in my Obsidian vault". If it reads your notes - you're connected.

Step 3 - Upload yourself into the system

An empty brain is useless. Have Claude interview you and create CLAUDE.md:

> Prompt > > You are setting up my second brain. Interview me ONE question at a time to build my profile. Ask about: who I am and what I do, my goals for this year, how I want you to talk to me, my strengths and weaknesses, and my current projects. Wait for each answer before the next question. When finished, write everything into a file called CLAUDE.md at the vault root, structured with headers, so you load it automatically every session.

# CLAUDE.md - Second Brain Operating Instructions

## Who You Are
You are [name]'s AI agent. You are not a generic
assistant - you are a thinking partner with full context.

## My Profile
- Role: [what you do]
- Goals 2026: [your goals]
- Working style: [how you work]

## Current Projects
- [[project-1]] - description and status

## Wiki Knowledge Base
1. Read wiki/hot.md first
2. If not enough, read wiki/index.md
3. Drill into pages only when needed

Claude loads this file first every session. It never starts from zero again.

Step 4 - Project structure

> Prompt > > Create a project folder in my vault called youtube-channel. Inside it, create four folders: Inputs, Process, Outputs, Feedback. Then write a CLAUDE.md inside that project folder describing what this project is, its one goal, and your specific role in helping me hit it.

brain/
    ├── CLAUDE.md           ← your profile
    ├── raw/                  ← raw materials
    ├── wiki/                 ← clean knowledge base
              ├── hot.md             ← context cache
             └── index.md        ← page index

    ├── youtube-channel/
              ├── CLAUDE.md         ← project context
              ├── Inputs/           ← ideas, materials
              ├── Process/        ← working notes
              ├── Outputs/       ← finished work
             └── Feedback/       ← metrics
├── freelance-clients/

The trick: when working on a project, open only its folder as a separate vault. Obsidian: vault name → Manage vaults → Open folder as a vault. Claude sees one project, not the chaos.

Step 5 - 6 commands you'll use every day

ingest file.pdf - feed a source. Claude creates 8-15 linked pages

ingest all of these - feed a batch. Parallel agents cross-reference everything

what do you know about X? - ask your brain. It scans the index, pulls pages, cites sources

/save - turns current conversation into a permanent note

/autoresearch [topic] - autonomous research: 3 rounds of search, fetch, synthesize, file

lint the wiki - cleanup: orphans, dead links, stale claims, missing connections

At the end of every session Claude refreshes the hot cache. Next session starts with full context. No recap. No re-explaining.

Step 6 - Skills and workflows

Anything you do more than once becomes a command:

> Create a skill > > I want to turn this into a reusable skill. Here is how I do [task], with an example: [example]. Save this as a markdown skill file inside this project's skills folder.

> Before a meeting > > I'm about to meet with [name] about [topic]. Pull relevant notes from /People/[name].md and any active projects linked to them.

> After a meetingFormat these meeting notes, extract action items with owners and deadlines, and append them to [name].md and the relevant project README.

> End of day > > Review today's Daily Note, extract any open tasks, link them to their relevant projects, and add a TL;DR summary at the top.

> Hard decisions > > /think should I [describe decision]?

The /think command runs a 10-step reasoning loop instead of a snap answer.

Official Obsidian skills by kepano (35,000+ stars):

claude plugin marketplace add kepano/obsidian-skills
claude plugin install obsidian@obsidian-skills

Step 7 - One brain, every project

This is what 95% of people miss. Point every project at the same vault. Add to any project's CLAUDE.md:

## Wiki Knowledge Base
Path: ~/path/to/vault

When you need context not already in this project:
1. Read wiki/hot.md first
2. If not enough, read wiki/index.md
3. Only then drill into specific pages

Do NOT read the wiki for general coding questions.

Your code, content, research, finances - all drinking from one knowledge base. Read once, use everywhere.

Step 8 - Live data

claude mcp add google-workspace uvx workspace-mcp --tools calendar

> Prompt > > Read my calendar for today, log what I committed to in each meeting into my tasks project, and flag anything without a clear next step.

> Safety rule > > Always grant read-only access. "Don't delete this" is advice, not a safeguard. If the agent can delete a file - eventually it will. Control at the permission level.

Step 9 - Autopilot at 7am

In Claude Desktop: Schedule → + New task:

Frequency:  Daily, 7:00am
Folder:     your vault
Prompt:     Check my vault. File anything new.
            Link it. Flag stale notes.
            Write 3-line summary of changes.

> Weekly audit > > Walk through the entire vault. Find notes that contradict each other. Flag stale content older than 90 days. Reconnect orphan pages. Surface contradictions as [!contradiction] callouts with both sources. Write a report to /Weekly-Review/[date].md.

Step 10 - 5 hacks that change everything

1. PARA mode - Projects, Areas, Resources, Archives: bash bin/setup-mode.sh

2. Obsidian Web Clipper - browser extension. Article → .raw/ in one click. Sunday: ingest all of these

3. Lint weekly - lint the wiki finds contradictions as [!contradiction] callouts. Your brain tells you when it disagrees with itself.

4. Obsidian Git - auto-commits every 15 min. Full history. Roll back anything.

5. /think before decisions - 10-step reasoning loop: /think should I niche down or post broad?

Ready-made solutions from GitHub

git clone https://github.com/AgriciDaniel/claude-obsidian
cd claude-obsidian && bash bin/setup-vault.sh

obsidian-second-brain - 43 commands. Works with Claude, Codex, and Gemini.

second-brain-starter - interviews you, generates a plan, builds from scratch.

Karpathy-LLM-Wiki-Stack - full architecture docs. Drop it to Claude: "Set up an LLM Wiki based on this blueprint."

Add to an existing vault:

> Prompt > > Read WIKI.md in this project. Then: 1. Check if Obsidian is installed. If not, install it. 2. Check if Local REST API plugin is on port 27124. 3. Configure the MCP server. 4. Ask me ONE question: "What is this vault for?" Then scaffold the full wiki structure.

The honest timeline

Day 1 → 5 pages, a tiny graph. The system knows the basics about you.

Week 2 → 40+ sources. The graph becomes a web. Queries start citing things you forgot you read.

Month 2 → You stop googling things you already know. You ask your vault first. It answers in 2 seconds with sources. The brain starts feeding you.

BEFORE AFTER

1. AI knows you from word one. 1. Every session from scratch.
2. Context persists forever. 2. 10 min explaining who you are.
3. Vault grows and links itself. 3. AI forgets when you close the tab.
4. Every morning: 3 lines of changes. 4. Notes rot in folders.
5. System works while you sleep. 5. Prompts are your only tool.

Same subscription. Same price. Completely different machine.

People spent years searching for the perfect prompt. The answer turned out to be not how you ask AI. But what AI knows about you before you even open your mouth.

Most people will read this and build nothing. The ones who do will open their graph in a month and freeze - because it will know things they already forgot about themselves.