How to build a second brain with Obsidian and Claude Code (step by step)

Malik Chohra Posted on May 30 • Originally published at codemeetai.substack.com How to build a second brain with Obsidian and Claude Code (step by step) # claude # obsidian # ai # productivity Six folders, one context file, a memory directory, and a handful of slash commands. The exact setup, in build order. TL;DR A second brain fails when notes pile up and nobody reads them again. The fix is a layer underneath the notes that an LLM reads for you. This is the setup I built in about a day and have run for two weeks: PARA folders, a CLAUDE.md context file, a memory directory, and slash commands. Obsidian holds the markdown. Claude Code reads it, writes to it, and runs commands against it. Steps 1 to 4 are the structure. Steps 5 and 6 are the part that makes it stick. It is plain markdown in a folder. Nothing is locked in. If Claude disappears tomorrow, you still have your notes. For the full guide, with the prompt that you can use directly to generate your second brain, and a step-by-step, detailed guide, is here : https://choumed.gumroad.com/l/nhgsxf . you can grab it for free What is a second brain? A second brain is a personal knowledge system that lives outside your head. It holds your ideas, decisions, project state, and references in a place you can return to and build on. The term comes from Tiago Forte's book Building a Second Brain . His original framing assumed a human would read the notes back. Mine assumes an LLM will. Two tools do the work. Obsidian is the storage. A desktop app that opens any folder of markdown files and adds links, search, and a graph view on top. Your files stay on your disk. No cloud unless you turn it on, no proprietary database, no export step. If you want your notes back, you already have them. Claude Code is the operator. A tool from Anthropic that runs in your terminal, reads files in a folder you point it at, and runs against saved prompts. You tell it to read your vault and act. It does. The pair is the whole idea. Obsidia