Most people point Claude Code at a codebase. I pointed it at my notes.
Here is the whole trick, in a form you can copy in ten minutes.
1. A CLAUDE.md with house rules
Claude Code reads a CLAUDE.md in the folder it runs in. Mine says, in plain language:
- the folder structure (PARA: Projects, Areas, Resources, Archive, plus Inbox and Journal)
- the frontmatter every note needs (
type,status,created) - "never delete a note, move it to the archive"
- "check today's date with
date, never guess" - "before touching more than 10 files, show a list and ask"
That last line matters more than it looks. An agent on your personal notes needs a brake.
2. Four skills instead of forty prompts
A skill is just a SKILL.md in .claude/skills/<name>/ with a description (trigger phrases) and numbered steps. Claude picks it when you say the phrase. My four:
day-start – "start my day"
date +%Y-%m-%d- create
05 Journal/YYYY-MM-DD.mdfrom the template if it doesn't exist - collect every
- [ ]from projects withstatus: activeand from yesterday's note - put at most 3 under "Today's Focus", the rest under "Open" with a link to the source
- count inbox notes, nag if more than 5
sort-inbox – "sort my inbox": propose a table (note → folder → reason), execute only after "ok", move with the Obsidian CLI so links update.
weekly-review – "do my weekly review": read 7 daily notes, list what got done, one line per project, leave the two reflection questions empty for me.
link-note – "link this note": grep for 3–6 key terms, suggest the 5 best related notes with one reason each.
Haiku handles all of this. About 15 seconds per command.
3. Dashboards without AI
Obsidian Bases (built in since 1.9) read the frontmatter. A deadline traffic light is one formula:
if(!deadline, "⚪", if((date(deadline) - today()).days < 0, "🔴 overdue", if((date(deadline) - today()).days <= 7, "🟠 soon", "🟢")))
So the dashboards keep working when Claude is off.
What it changed
I stopped planning my day by hand. I capture everything into the inbox during the day and let the skill sort it on Sunday. The weekly review actually happens now, because the boring half is done before I open it.
Try it
The core (CLAUDE.md, the four skills, three templates) is free here: https://payhip.com/b/ObEnr
If you want the full vault with the dashboards, 40 prompts and guides, it's 12 USD: https://payhip.com/b/qfjuS (there is a German edition too).
Happy to answer questions about the skill format in the comments, or paste any of the files.
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