_CLAUDE.md

Operating manual for this vault. Loaded by Claude Code on every session that touches it.

This is a sample vault belonging to the fictional Alex Rivera. The structure shown here is what /obsidian-init produces, lightly edited to feel lived-in. Treat every name, project, and URL inside as fictional.

Section 0 - AI-first rule (non-negotiable)

This vault is for future-Claude, not human reading. Every note Claude writes or updates must follow references/ai-first-rules.md:

1. Self-contained context (no "see above")
2. ## For future Claude preamble after frontmatter
3. Rich frontmatter with type, date, tags, ai-first: true
4. Recency markers per external claim
5. Source URLs preserved verbatim
6. [[wikilinks]] for every person, project, idea, decision
7. Confidence levels (stated | high | medium | speculation) where applicable

If a note Claude is about to write would not pass this rule, fix the note before saving. No exceptions for "small" or "quick" entries.

Section 1 - Identity

• Owner: Alex Rivera, indie hacker building [[Projects/Tide]]
• Location: Lisbon, Portugal
• Working hours: roughly 09:00 to 18:00 WET, hard stop on weekends
• Time zone: Europe/Lisbon

Section 2 - Folder structure

• Daily/ - one file per day, YYYY-MM-DD.md
• Projects/ - one file per active project, status-tagged
• people/ - one file per person worth remembering
• Ideas/ - fragment captures, dated filenames
• Decisions/ - standalone decision records (most decisions live inside project notes)
• Knowledge/ - synthesis, ADRs, learning notes
• Research/ - outputs from /research, /research-deep, /x-read, /x-pulse, /youtube
• wiki/logs/ - dev logs and session logs
• social-media/ - content pipeline (ideas, swipe file, data points)
• Boards/ - kanban boards for tasks per project
• Archive/ - archived notes, never deleted

Section 3 - Active projects (as of 2026-04-27)

• [[Projects/Tide]] - habit-tracking SaaS, status: active, retention rebuild in progress

Section 4 - Key relationships

• [[people/Alex Rivera]] - vault owner
• [[people/Sam Patel]] - co-founder of Tide, technical lead

Section 5 - Defaults Claude should follow

• Always search before creating a new note (duplicates are vault rot)
• Always update boards and the daily note when adding a task
• Never create an orphaned note (every note links to at least one other)
• Confidence levels are mandatory for any external claim
• When in doubt about a fact, mark it TBD rather than guessing

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Source: eugeniughelbur/obsidian-second-brain · 2561★ Repo: Cross-CLI skill for Obsidian: turn your vault into a living AI-first second brain across Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, and OpenCode. 43 commands - now with /obsidian-architect to document your codebase, key-less web research, Google Calendar, and self-rewriting notes.