Build Your AI Second Brain with Obsidian + Claude Code (Free Setup)

Hello everyone and welcome to this new video. And in today's video, I'm going

video. And in today's video, I'm going to show you how you can build your own AI sum brain with Obsidian connected with CL code and I will give you the

entire setup entirely for free that you will be able to copy paste directly on your computer. So let's just get

your computer. So let's just get started. First, let's understand why you

started. First, let's understand why you should build your own AI second brain.

And for that, we need to understand the problem underlying it.

The problem is that you probably consume everything and retain nothing. I bet you read a lot of books, say articles, watch videos, try to take notes, but a week

later you could not explain what you learn even if your life depended on it.

And maybe you even have notes that exist somewhere, but the problem is that you never really use it. And the problem is not that you consume too little, it's that you consume too much with no system

to turn it into something. So the

solution, you already know it. It's to

build a second brain to externalize everything you've ever read, think, thought, or aired into a digital system.

But the problem is that when you try to implement that second brain, the solution is even worse than the original problem. You have to learn complex

problem. You have to learn complex methods like the para method, settle casten, MOC's, summarization, and stuff like that. And they are all valid

like that. And they are all valid methods, but they all require maybe months of learning before they work. And

so what happened is that most people spend more time building the system than using it. And at the end you end up with

using it. And at the end you end up with a beautifully organized graveyard. And

at first AI was supposed to fix it. But

it did not because you open code in CH GPT, you explain the context and you get a decent answer. Then you close the tab and get on with your day. But the next session you have to start from zero. You

have to give the same explanations every single time for AI to give you decent output. The concrete problem is that the

output. The concrete problem is that the AI does not know you. It cannot know you and it doesn't have access to the second brain you build to externalize all of your thinking and your thoughts and your notes. So it cannot understand your

notes. So it cannot understand your projects, your voice, your problematics and all of the stuff around you. And so

because you're working with generic context with AI, you end up having generic results. The promise with this

generic results. The promise with this video is to help you build a fully functional AI second brain from scratch.

And it will be entirely free. The setup

will be under 15 minutes and you will have at the end an AI that reads your notes, organizes your inbox, finds connections, and creates content from your own thinking. You won't have to

learn complex methodologies and try to implement them for months because the AI will handle the methodology for you. So

to get started, you need two things.

First, you need a vault template and an AI agent that works inside that vault.

So the vault template is inside Noah's Arc Bank, my free collection of templates to build your own AI second brain and you will get the complete eparax structure that we're going to use

to build your AI second brain. So it's

completely free and the link is in the description. Then the AI agent that

description. Then the AI agent that we're going to use is Cloud Code. So the

app is free to install, but you will need to pay 20 a month to get access to your AI subscription that you will use with CL code inside your vault. And

that's the entire setup that I'm going to show you today. So let's begin. So

the part one is to set up your second brain system. And the first step is to

brain system. And the first step is to download Obsidian. So it's free. It

download Obsidian. So it's free. It

requires no subscription. And the main benefit of Obsidian is that your files live on your computer. So you completely own them. It's a modern format. So it's

own them. It's a modern format. So it's

plain text that is readable by any app and readable by AI natively. And unlike

notion, even or any proprietary tool, you have no lock in when you start with the app. And there are no API overhead

the app. And there are no API overhead because cloud will read your files directly. So the second step is to

directly. So the second step is to download the vault template from noas or bank. So you go to know as our bank the

bank. So you go to know as our bank the link is in description. Once again it's completely free. You download the life

completely free. You download the life OS vault zip file. You unzip it. You

open obsidian. Then you open the folder as vault and then you will point it at the unzipped folder. And now you will have a complete second brain structure ready to use. So I'm just going to show

you what it looks like. So first we're going to Chrome then we're going to go to Noas Orcbank. So here you will be have uh the page download the setup. So

you do view course. I'm already uh connected because of course I created it. So it's uh already there but

it. So it's uh already there but basically when you will get into Noas or bank you will have the starter section and then here you have download your life vault and here you will have the

entire zip folder. So you just click it and you download it. Once it's

downloaded, then you just have to open it. And here you will have Noas or Bing

it. And here you will have Noas or Bing vault with the entire vault just there.

So now we're going to open it inside Obsidian. So I'm just going to open

Obsidian. So I'm just going to open Obsidian. I will put this full screen.

Obsidian. I will put this full screen.

And here, of course, there is already my own second brain that's open. And you

will have the exact same structure except you won't have all of my files.

So you won't have any vaults at the moment, but you can go just here. And

here you will have manage vaults. And so

you go there and you will be able to open a folder as vault. So you just open it and here you go inside your downloads folder or whatever you put the the

template and here you open it. So of

course I recommend you to rename it um and just rename it for example life OS.

I will just put that so I don't confirm both. And you open it and that's so it

both. And you open it and that's so it will look like inside your obsidian. It

will have your interval. So you have a little uh welcome message here to uh explain to you a bit what's already inside the template and how to get

started. And so now let's take a look at

started. And so now let's take a look at what's inside the wall vault. So what's

inside the vault? So the vault follows what I call the eparax structure. It's

six folders each with a clear purpose.

So first we have the inbox. The inbox

goal is to put everything here before we process it into the following folders.

Then we have projects. Projects are

timebound outcomes with a finish line.

Then we have areas which are the ongoing responsibilities with no end date. Then

we have resources which are reference material, templates, guides and SOPs.

And then we have the archives folder where you will put every completed project, past content, historical records and stuff like that. And finally

we have the galaxy which is your zetto caston system. The goal here is to have

caston system. The goal here is to have one note per concept with a flat structure that's living forever and that will be your growing knowledge base. So

if you're not familiar with the parameter and the the Z caston method, don't worry. Uh I have videos explaining

don't worry. Uh I have videos explaining all of that on my channel. But that's

the basis of the system that I'm showing you in this video. And as I said, you will have AI that is already trained uh on the system. So you won't even have to spend months learning this complex

methodologies. You will just have to

methodologies. You will just have to have a basic understanding of how it works and AI will be able to implement it for you. So as I just said the structure combines two system. First we

have the first five folders which are based on par. So it's actionbased organization. The core rule of par is to

organization. The core rule of par is to uh ask what you're going to do with the content and put it where you're going to use it. So it's not about classing

use it. So it's not about classing things by topics but by uh how we're going to use it. That single question wrote every note to the right place.

Then we have the galaxy folder. So

that's where it's different. It is your zetal caston system. It's a flat permanently connected knowledge base. So

you have no subfolders in the galaxy and you have only one nodes with one concept and each of these notes are connected with weakenings. Over time your galaxy

with weakenings. Over time your galaxy becomes the most valuable part of your second brain because it compounds and it's where you will have all of your notes with all of the topics you studied

yourself. So this template comes with

yourself. So this template comes with predefined rooting rules. So inbox is all the inprocessed stuff. So if you don't know where to put something, you just put it inside the inbox before

processing it. If it has a finish line,

processing it. If it has a finish line, a deadline and a clear completion criterion, then it's a project. Orios

are the ongoing responsibility. So it

can be health, business and relationship. Resources will be the

relationship. Resources will be the reference material. Archives is done

reference material. Archives is done stuff and galaxy is your original thinking or synthetized knowledge. There

is already a t taxonomy that is built in inside this template. So this vault will include a complete flat tax system to organize your system and that will be complimentary with folders and you will

have type uh tags which are basically is it a note, is it a newsletter, is it a book, is it the SOP. Then we have status tag to track uh where it is in its life cycle. Then we have subject tag to

cycle. Then we have subject tag to understand what it is about. And so the tags purpose is to have an easy retrieval when you want to find things because you can just find by subject, by tags and stuff like that. So it will

help with retrieval. Once again, I made an entire video on the full system on my full seven brain system and how to build it. So if you want to go deeper, the

it. So if you want to go deeper, the link is in the description and it will also be showing in at your screen right now. And so if you want to understand

now. And so if you want to understand the world eparax system and get more more understanding about uh how both the paramedan method works in tandem, then I highly

recommend you to watch these videos. But

as I said, you will have AI that is trained on the methodologies with my template that you're getting. So you

don't even have to like be very knowledgeable about the system because the AI will handle it for you. So now I will just show you a bit how it looks like inside the pre-made vault. So you

have a wakecom, you have a preconfigured cloud MD file. We're going to uh talk about this later. And as I said, you have the inbox. So every time you have uh things you want to uh process, you

put it here. Inside your project, you will have as I said your project that you're working on. It can be a product, it can be an offer, it can be maybe an app your vibe coding or stuff like that.

It will go here. You can put um prog project in progress here or on a whole as you want. Then inside the areas you can put the ongoing uh responsibilities you want to manage. Maybe everything

that's relating to your relationship or to your business admin or stuff like that. Then inside the resources, you

that. Then inside the resources, you will have all of the free templates and resources that's inside Noas Bank. So

you have multiple AI promps that are preconfigured with newsletter creation workflow, uh Twitter content workflow, um prompts to create multiple angles, uh

interactive AI learning workflow where you have a lot of stuff. I'm not going to show you everything. You also have content templates, SOPs to manage your entire uh system with to learn the

digital custom method to define your freely moving task in your business to uh create a content writing system and stuff like that. And finally, you have this little custom template which are

basically templates for your literature notes and your permanent notes that you can use to manage your entire system.

So, as I said, it's very complete and the AI will be trained on everything and the archive, well, it's empty. So your

resources are already there with all the content and inside the galaxy you will have all of your notes and you have also the tag taxonomy and so uh that's basically the uh note that explain how

to use tags inside your system. So uh

here you have an example of how to put the metadata and the different kind of tab tags. So I will let you look at that

tab tags. So I will let you look at that inside your own vault. Anyway, let's get back to the mind map. So now we're going to see how to connect AI to your second

brain. So the first step is to download

brain. So the first step is to download the cloud app. So you just go to cloud.ai/d download and you download the

cloud.ai/d download and you download the desktop app. Inside the app you will

desktop app. Inside the app you will find the cloud code section. And so the cloud code section is a bit different from uh the other section inside the app. Uh because it's not a chat

app. Uh because it's not a chat interface even though it is but it's not only that because it's uh allowing you to manage cloud code as an AI agent that have direct access to your file system.

So you just open your obsidian obsidian vault folder inside cloud code in one click. So I will just show you how to do

click. So I will just show you how to do that right now. So right now what you going to do is find the cloud app. You

will open it. And so when you will open the cloud app you will be natively into the classic chat app but we're not going to use that today. What we're going to

use is the code section. So you just go here you click code and it will open the code interface inside the app directly.

And once you're there, the only thing you need to do is to select the folder where your Obsidian vault resides. So

here I will just go on local. I will

just select a folder and here I will find uh the folder that we created for vault. So you just go there. So for me

vault. So you just go there. So for me it was the uh it was this folder and you just select it and boom that's done. And

now clot code is connected to your folder and it will have the permission.

So we're going to see later how to use that. The next step is to enable the

that. The next step is to enable the Obsidian CLI. So CLI stands for command

Obsidian CLI. So CLI stands for command line interface. It's an option that will

line interface. It's an option that will allow cloud to natively navigate inside your Obsidian vault using commands inside the terminal basically code

instead of just reading your markdown file. So it will be more token efficient

file. So it will be more token efficient and it will have a native complete understanding of how your vault is structured. So it will make it even more

structured. So it will make it even more efficient. So it's very simple to

efficient. So it's very simple to activate. You just have to go inside

activate. You just have to go inside Obsidian. So I will open it. You go into

Obsidian. So I will open it. You go into your settings and here you have the command line interface. You just have to uh to just to check it and it will be installed and everything will be done.

So as I said instead of reading raw markdown files one by one close navigates your vote natively using search read create happens and backlinks command that will allow him to be way

more efficient. So that's just one

more efficient. So that's just one setting to uh implement and you will have cloud code that is dramatically more efficient inside your vault. Now

the next step to finalize your AI second brain setup is to configure your cloud MD file. So the vault template as I

MD file. So the vault template as I showed you includes a cloud MD file.

Cloud reads it at every session startup automatically before anything else. So

it will serve as the global context that the AI will always have about yourself and your vault. And so inside it contains the vault structure, rooting rules, note format and t taxonomy that

are already written inside. So clo

understand how the system works. But

what clo still needs is your own context which is who you are, what you do, what you're building and what your current focus is. So the first thing I recommend

focus is. So the first thing I recommend you to do is to open cloud code and ask it to ask you questions to fill in the cloud MD file and then cloud will interviews you your answers and it will

automatically write and update the file.

And then the best thing about that is that the more you're using clo code inside your Obsidian vault, the more it will update its clogd file and its memory file. And so the better it will

memory file. And so the better it will get at understanding who you are, what you're working on, what's your writing style, what's your tone and stuff like that. And it will get more and more

that. And it will get more and more concept context about you. So my tip to do that is to use a voice dictation tool. I personally use whisper flow and

tool. I personally use whisper flow and it allows me to speak directly to cloud instead of tipping. And so this this way you give it 10 times more context in a quarter of the time because of course

it's way faster to speak than to write.

So weeks so whisper works inside any text field on your computer. So

including cut code. So if you want to try it and support me at the same occasion I included a little affiliate link in the description that you can check out. And so now I will just show

check out. And so now I will just show you how to configure the uh clo MD file directly inside cloud code. So, I will show you what I like to do when I'm working with AI inside my second brain

is that I like to um put my Obsidian in full screen and I like to also have the cloth cut app in full screen. And what I like to do is just uh putting them like

that together. So, I have my little

that together. So, I have my little interface here and my vault on the right side. Something like that. So, now cloud

side. Something like that. So, now cloud code is connected to my vault as we've seen. And so, let's just do what I said

seen. And so, let's just do what I said before. So I want you to help me

before. So I want you to help me personalize the code MD file at the root of the folder. So start an interview to

understand everything you need to know about me to create a powerful and efficient AI7 brain. And so you just send it and then you wait for cloud to

work. So of course right now because

work. So of course right now because I've never uh connected cloud code to uh this folder, it will ask you to give it permission. So clo can run command to uh

permission. So clo can run command to uh manage your own your own vault. So I

will trust and I will give the permission so clo can work and now it's starting.

So I'm going to allow it. So yeah your if it's the first time you're doing so it will ask you uh to give the permissions as I just said. So that's

the first step you will need to have.

Once the permissions are given you won't have to do it every time. So it's just something you do once. Of course, uh be careful about where you're putting your

vault inside your um your uh computer. I

highly recommend you to put it in a folder where you only have your second brain and where uh clot cut doesn't have access to the wall root folder of your computer because if anything goes wrong

and it has access to the entire files of your wall computer, then uh things can go south very quickly. And so as I said, it's starting the uh interview process.

So it will ask me uh what I'm doing uh what I'm and stuff like that. So I'm

just going to answer very quickly to show you how it works and how it will uh update the MD file by itself. So my name is Noah. I'm France. I work in French

is Noah. I'm France. I work in French and English. I'm content creator and

and English. I'm content creator and educator. I help creators build second

educator. I help creators build second brain system and turn it into a profitable and purposeful business so I

can fulfill their potential as a human being. Right now I'm focusing on

being. Right now I'm focusing on creating valuable content code on YouTube. So I will just give it that and

YouTube. So I will just give it that and right now it will ask me even more questions. So I would just ask it to

questions. So I would just ask it to update your cloud MD file with that. Of

course, I'm not going to go through the whole interview process. And as I said, it's way faster to actually speak than to type uh this kind of stuff. So I will

I will allow it to modify the files. And

now if I go to the cloud.mdg, it's

updated with the context that I've gave it. So and now this context will always

it. So and now this context will always be loaded inside its memory every time I open code inside my Obsidian. And that's

it. Now you have a fully functional AI sum brain that is entirely set up on your computer with local files using obsidian and combined with cloth code.

So now you just have to start using it.

And so now let's get back to the mind map and uh just let's talk about the compounding effect this will have because the first time you use it cloud we knows your folder structure because the cloud MD file is already configured

but then the more you will use it the more cloud will know your project your current focus your voice and then when you're using it every day for a month it will be your own personalized operating

system. It will know more about your

system. It will know more about your system than you can consciously remember. And the more you use it, the

remember. And the more you use it, the smarter it gets automatically because it will always improve and updates its own files the more you're using it. And you

can of course get into advanced features like connecting it with MCP to other apps you're using, creating skills, sub aents and stuff like that. So for

example, you can have code to have external tools, uh building custom slashcomands, launching sub aents and all of that stuff I covered in my previous video on the channel. Uh, so I

really really recommend you to go watch it for the deep dive. But for today, the setup that I already just show you is already more powerful than 99% of AI workflows out there that are just using

the chats and prompts. So now let's look at the different use cases that you could implement to boost your workflow if you're a content creator or something

like that. So here are some example of

like that. So here are some example of use cases. So first use case that's very

use cases. So first use case that's very interesting is automatic inbox triage.

So you can just drop your files, notes, documents and highlights into your inbox and you can tell cloud process my inbox for me and cloud rereads every item, roots each file to the correct eper

folder and asks you when it when it is unsure. This way your inbox goes to zero

unsure. This way your inbox goes to zero and you did nothing. And of course anytime you want to upgrade your setup or you want to make any change on the original EPA structure that I gave you, then you just have to ask code to update

your own second brain for you. And

that's amazing because one of the major roadblock of having a second brain before was that there were a lot of maintenance maintenance work that was coming with the second brain system. And

so sometimes we were spending more time um maintaining the system than using it and now with AI this is no longer the case. So that's amazing. A second use

case. So that's amazing. A second use case example you can do is use it as a learning coach for for example your books. So you finish a book you have

books. So you finish a book you have highlights and maybe a literature note.

You tell Clude, "Okay, help me work through this book." Cloud will read your highlights and ask you which concepts surprise you. Which ones challenge what

surprise you. Which ones challenge what you already believe and it will suggest which ideas are worth turning into permanent notes. And this way you decide

permanent notes. And this way you decide and you write and it will help you sort signal from notes because not every highlight deserves a permanent note. You

can also use it for space repetition and ask it to quiz you on the key concepts a week later. And this way your own galaxy

week later. And this way your own galaxy folder will grow from your own thinking and not only from cloud output, which is very important.

And of course it's something you would be able to do in the chat as well. But

because it is inside your second brain clo will also have access to the other notes you have on other books. So it can help you find unexpected connections between all the different material that

you have inside your second brain. And

that's actually the third use case I wanted to show which is the connection finding. So as your galaxy grows you

finding. So as your galaxy grows you will stop seeing all the connection manually because you will have so many notes uh here. So something where uh clo can help you a lot is just to uh find

notes for you or find unexpected connection that you hadn't found maybe before. So you can ask it what notes in

before. So you can ask it what notes in my vault relate to this concept and clothes will search the entire vault surface notes you had forgotten and even suggest new links. Another use case is of course using it as a writing port. So

if you want to write a newsletter or YouTube video on any topic, clo can scans your entire vault and it will find your past content for voice reference, your galaxy notes, the concepts you return to, the structure you already use

and all of that stuff. And it will surfaces related ideas you had forgotten and suggest a structure aligned with all you already write and you will give you the context, the connections and the scaffolding and then you will be able to

write. This way the voice is yours, the

write. This way the voice is yours, the thinking is yours, but you have an AI process that elevates your notes, elevates your content, and elevates your world workflow without replacing your

original thinking. And the best thing is

original thinking. And the best thing is that AI that knows your vault produces output that sounds like you build from what you actually think and not from the language models training data, which as I said at the beginning of this video,

if you have generic context, you will have generic output, which is not the case anymore with that system. And final

use case example is to use it for journaling pattern analysis. So if you journal regularly inside your vault over time you can ask clo to analyze all of your entries and it will finds recurring

themes, emotional patterns, blind spots, the same blocks showing up under different names and this way your second brain becomes a mirror and can become a AI powered digital journal that will

help you grow tremendously as a human being. So there's all some examples of

being. So there's all some examples of how you can use that. Of course, there are as much use cases and as much workflow as people exist on earth, which is the beauty of uh AI and this whole

system. But I would just warn you and

system. But I would just warn you and give you one rule for all of this that I really recommend you to follow is that I am not recommending you to let AI build your second brain for you. And what I

mean by that is not having AI write your notes and write all of your contents for you. Because if Claude creates all of

you. Because if Claude creates all of your permanent notes and then your galaxy is Cloud's thinking and not yours and if Claude writes all of your content then your audience is following a longage model and not you. So at this

point what I really recommending you to use AI is as a partner that elevates your thinking. It will help you surfaces

your thinking. It will help you surfaces relevant information suggest new connections or ideas that you might have not found and structures for you the concept before you create your own

content. But you are the one who

content. But you are the one who synthesize, decide and create yourself.

And that distinction is everything because your second brain should compound your intelligence and not replace it. So that was it for today's

replace it. So that was it for today's video. If you want to get the full

video. If you want to get the full setup, once again, it's in noas or bank.

It's free. The link is in the description and in the pin comments. You

can download the template, the cloud.mdg, and everything ready to

cloud.mdg, and everything ready to import into obsidian. And one thing to know, by joining Noah's Arc Bank, you will also be subscribed to my daily emails. And I write every day about

emails. And I write every day about building a second brain and turning it into a profitable and purposeful business. And you can unsubscribe at any

business. And you can unsubscribe at any time, of course. But if you want to join this community that I'm building uh of sovereign creators, then I will be glad to have you be part of it. So if you want to understand what I'm building

with Noah's Arc and my own business, the goal is to help you build a sovereign second brain, turn it into a profitable and purposeful business and use that business to fulfill your potential as a human being. This is what I write about

human being. This is what I write about every day on email, on my YouTube, on Subtag and on X. So if that resonates with you, I would love to see you inside the ORC. And so as always, if you like

the ORC. And so as always, if you like the video and if you found any value, uh please like, subscribe, and you can drop any questions in the comment. I answer

to everyone. And once again, thank you for watching and welcome back to Noah's Arc.