A neural network of every thought, conversation, and idea from the last five years of my life. This is how it's built.
This is the companion to Day 01 of Finding AI tools that are actually worth it, the weekly Reel series. The Reel's the review. This page is the how-to.
I tested Obsidian as the vault layer for a personal AI knowledge base, paired with Claude Code as the agent that maintains it. Plain markdown files on disk, a wiki Claude builds and re-reads as it learns, all your business context flowing in automatically every morning.
If the review made you want to try it yourself, the setup starts here.
| Dimension | Score / 10 | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Setup | 5 | You need to know your way around Claude Code to actually get this running. |
| Substance | 9 | AI that genuinely knows everything about you is where this whole space is going. |
| Usefulness | 6 | Strong on demand, hard to integrate into daily use. |
| Security | 8 | App's clean. Runs locally, no account. The real risk is centralisation of your data. |
| Longevity | 9 | Stored as markdown. A format that's been around since the internet started. |
| Overall | 37 / 50 |
Verdict: TRY IT.
If you've already got Claude Code running and want to give your AI a real memory layer, this is worth a weekend. If "set up an MCP" sounds like another language, skip it for now. There'll be lower-friction options soon.
One paste, plus an optional install that makes it smarter.
Step 0. Install the BYS skill (optional, recommended).
📦 Download the skill (zip):
A Claude Code skill that researches every documented way people have done a thing, filters through your specific situation, and gives you a recommended path with the alternatives flagged. Built for "I'm about to start X" moments where a naive Google search or a one-shot ChatGPT reply isn't enough.
Four stages: The Sniff (it asks about your situation), The Prowl (disciplined multi-source research), The Pounce (synthesis), The Way (the personalised plan).
To install: unzip the download above, drop the before-you-start/ folder into ~/.claude/skills/, then start a Claude Code session. ~30 seconds.
Having BYS installed makes the master prompt below smarter. Claude pulls live research where Maran's documented path needs adapting to your stack. You'll also have BYS for any future project where you're starting something new. It's the same skill, just pointed at a different challenge.
Skip Step 0 and the prompt still works on its own.