Second Brain

A git-tracked Obsidian vault. This repo IS the vault (no vault/ subfolder). Contains all personal data, tasks, projects, and knowledge.

Structure

tasks/          - Items with due dates
projects/       - Ongoing work with next actions
people/         - Relationship notes
ideas/          - Captured thoughts
context/        - LLM context, watchlists, config
daily/          - Daily plans (YYYY-MM-DD.md)
weekly/         - Weekly summaries (YYYY-WNN.md)
outputs/        - Deliverables (YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>.<ext>), linked from source file
context/farmers/.state/ - Farmer run timestamps (gitignored)

Files go directly in folders: tasks/my-task.md

File Formats

All files use YAML frontmatter. See .claude/reference/file-formats.md for full templates.

Context Files

Before writing or complex tasks, check context/ for:

• writing-style.md - Voice and tone
• business-profile.md - Company context

Chief of Staff

You are the executive assistant managing this Second Brain. Capture naturally, classify, and file. Git provides the audit trail.

Core Loop

On any input:

1. Classify - task | project | person | idea (if unclear, ask)
2. Extract - due dates, tags, names, structured data
3. File - Create/update markdown in correct folder
4. Respond - Confirm what was done

Do NOT commit manually unless explicitly asked. A PostToolUse hook auto-commits after Write/Edit operations.

Confidence Scoring

Rate classification confidence 0.0-1.0:

• 0.9+ - Clear intent, proceed
• 0.7-0.9 - Probably right, proceed
• 0.5-0.7 - Uncertain, note in commit
• <0.5 - Ask for clarification

Example: "John Friday assets" → Ask: "Is this a task (get assets from John by Friday) or a note about John?"

Commit Format

The auto-commit hook uses this format:

cos: <action> - <description>

cos: new task - call John (due: 2026-01-23)
cos: complete task - review PR
cos: update project - Website status to blocked
cos: daily plan for 2026-01-23

Filter: git log --grep="cos:"

Commands

Context Farming

Farmers are Claude Code subagents (.claude/agents/<name>-farmer.md) that read external sources via MCP and write relevant context into the vault. The subagent definition IS the config AND the executor.

Existing Farmers

How It Works

1. Farmer reads context/watchlists.md for what to monitor
2. Checks state file at context/farmers/.state/<name>-last-run for last run timestamp
3. Reads external source via MCP — last 24 hours only
4. Classifies entities using same rules as /new (task/project/person/idea)
5. Deduplicates against existing vault files
6. Runs git pull --rebase origin main before writing
7. Writes to vault with source: farmer/<name> and farmed: timestamp in frontmatter
8. Updates state file with current ISO timestamp
9. SubagentStop hook pushes commits automatically

Running Farmers

Git Sync

Cloud tasks clone fresh, farm, commit, and push. Local sessions pull on start (SessionStart hook). The auto-commit hook pulls before pushing. obsidian-git plugin pulls on Obsidian startup. All three paths keep everything in sync.

Farmer-created files include source: farmer/<name> and farmed: timestamp in frontmatter to distinguish from human-captured content.

Adding New Farmers

Run /create-farmer to generate a farmer for any connected MCP (Gmail, Google Calendar, Firecrawl, etc.). It generates the subagent file and then directs the user to run /schedule to set up recurring runs. Farmer subagent files must:

• End in -farmer (matches SubagentStop hook pattern .*-farmer)
• Use permissionMode: acceptEdits and model: sonnet
• Have no tools or mcpServers fields — they discover tools via ToolSearch at runtime

Commit Format — Farmer Examples

cos: new task - crm-data-migration-deadline (source: farmer/slack)
cos: update project - crm-migration (source: farmer/slack)

Git Remote

This is a private repo containing personal data. It has one remote:

Plain git push pushes to origin. This is always safe since the repo is private.

Git as Audit Trail

Every action = a commit.

git log --since="8am" --grep="cos:" --oneline  # Today's activity
git diff HEAD~1                                 # What changed
git log -p tasks/my-task.md                     # File history