brain

Personal compounding knowledge base backed by Git, powered by Claude Code + Obsidian. A developer's second brain that captures learnings, decisions, and research — then connects them over time. Clone it on every machine and pick up exactly where you left off.

Quick Start

git clone <repo-url> ~/brain

1. Open ~/brain/vault/ as an Obsidian vault (Obsidian → Open folder as vault)
2. Go to Settings → Community plugins → Browse and install the required plugins below
3. Enable each plugin and configure as noted

Required Obsidian Plugins

Plugin	Purpose
Git	Auto-commit and push on interval; keeps vault synced via Git
Templater	Powers note templates with dynamic date variables
Daily Notes	Creates daily notes from the template in vault/templates/daily.md
Calendar	Visual calendar sidebar for navigating daily notes

Optional Obsidian Plugins

Plugin	Purpose
Telegram Inbox	Captures Telegram messages into vault/inbox/ for later processing
Dataview	Query notes as a database (tag counts, linked mentions, etc.)

Terminal Capture Setup

Add to ~/.zshrc:

source ~/brain/scripts/note.sh

Reload your shell: source ~/.zshrc

Usage:

note "TIL: something interesting"       # appends to today's daily note
note -i "something to process later"    # creates a timestamped inbox capture

Claude Code Commands

Run these from ~/brain/ with claude or inside a Claude Code session:

Command	Purpose	Example
/capture	Quick capture with AI routing to the right note	/capture TIL: parallel worktrees speed up AI dev
/consolidate	Process inbox items into permanent notes	/consolidate
/search	Deep semantic search across the vault	/search parallel worktrees
/weekly-review	Synthesize the week's learnings into a weekly review	/weekly-review
/import-learnings	Pull learnings from a project directory	/import-learnings ~/Desktop/trade/
/trend-check	Research current trends on a topic	/trend-check AI agent frameworks

Server Deployment (Autonomous Brain)

Deploy to any Linux server for 24/7 autonomous intelligence gathering.

Prerequisites

Tool	Purpose	Install
git	Version control	apt install git
Claude CLI	AI command execution	See docs
gh CLI	GitHub PR creation	apt install gh

One-command deploy

# On the server:
git clone <your-brain-repo-url> ~/brain
bash ~/brain/scripts/deploy.sh

This will:

1. Check prerequisites (git, claude, gh)
2. Create brain.conf from template
3. Install cron jobs for autonomous operation
4. Run a health check

What runs automatically

Schedule	Command	What it does
Daily 6 AM UTC	/pulse	Scans community sources, checks watch topics
Daily 7 AM UTC	/consolidate	Processes pulse briefs into permanent notes
Sunday 8 AM UTC	/audit-library	Health-checks library against community
Wednesday 8 AM UTC	/trend-check	Monitors configured topics

Configuration

Edit brain.conf (gitignored, per-deployment) to customize schedules, log paths, and notification channels. See brain.conf.example for all options.

Health check

bash ~/brain/scripts/health-check.sh

How autonomous changes work

Cron jobs run on a brain-auto/YYYY-MM-DD branch and create PRs for review. Nothing touches the main branch without your approval.

OpenClaw Integration

Route Telegram captures and run scheduled consolidation from ~/brain/:

# Route a Telegram message through AI capture
claude -p '/capture <message text>'

# Run consolidation on a schedule (e.g., nightly via cron)
claude -p '/consolidate'

Obsidian Git Plugin Config

Settings → Git:

Setting	Value
Auto-commit interval	10 minutes
Auto-push after commit	enabled
Pull on startup	enabled

Vault Structure

brain/
├── vault/              # Obsidian vault (open this folder in Obsidian)
│   ├── daily/          # Daily notes (YYYY-MM-DD.md)
│   ├── inbox/          # Unprocessed captures
│   ├── projects/       # Per-project notes and logs
│   ├── coding/         # Code patterns, tools, debugging notes
│   ├── ai-workflows/   # AI tooling, prompts, workflows
│   ├── decisions/      # Decision records (ADR-style)
│   ├── weekly-reviews/ # Weekly synthesis notes
│   ├── industry/       # Industry and market observations
│   ├── innovations/    # Emerging tech and ideas
│   ├── tools/          # Tool configs and notes
│   ├── library/        # Reusable AI artifacts
│   ├── templates/      # Obsidian note templates
│   └── _attachments/   # Images, PDFs, attached files
├── data/               # Database files (brain.db)
├── mcp-server/         # MCP server (TypeScript)
├── dashboard/          # Next.js dashboard
├── docs/               # Reference docs
├── scripts/            # Shell scripts (note.sh)
└── .claude/
    └── commands/       # Claude Code slash commands