How I Use Obsidian + Claude Cowork to Run My Life — Transcript

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1. 0:00This is my AIOS, Obsidian, Claude, and
2. 0:03all the pieces that you need to bring
3. 0:05them together. By the end of this video,
4. 0:06you'll know how I use this system, the
5. 0:08actual AI-enhanced skills I use, and how
6. 0:11you can set up your own system that's
7. 0:13both future-proof and works with any AI
8. 0:15tool instead of locking you in to
9. 0:17Claude, Codex, Gemini, or Frank. Hi, I'm
10. 0:20Nick Milo, and yes, I'm a real person,
11. 0:22and I help you create an idea verse, a
12. 0:24home for capturing and using your best
13. 0:27thinking. My AI operating system, it has
14. 0:29three layers. The first one is my idea
15. 0:31verse, which is my own thoughts. Second,
16. 0:33the core maps and manuals that allow my
17. 0:35AI or any external AI to consistently
18. 0:38and safely interact with my ideas, and
19. 0:41so that we can communicate back and
20. 0:42forth. And the third layer is whatever
21. 0:44external AI tools or applications I'm
22. 0:47plugging into. And in this case, it'll
23. 0:48be Claude Co-work. The best part is if
24. 0:50Claude goes away tomorrow, I could
25. 0:52instantly swap it out with Codex, with
26. 0:54an open-source model, with whatever I
27. 0:56need. I have all my files, skills, and
28. 0:58AI core documents built to go with me.
29. 1:00Ready to use in whatever AI ecosystem or
30. 1:03environment I want to connect it to in
31. 1:05the future. And that means we've got to
32. 1:07start with your idea verse in Obsidian.
33. 1:11Obsidian is, at its core, just a folder
34. 1:13of notes sitting on your computer. The
35. 1:15main folder is called your vault, and
36. 1:17that's basically it. Inside that folder,
37. 1:20your notes are individual text files
38. 1:21written in a format called Markdown. You
39. 1:24can open those files in Obsidian, and
40. 1:25they look beautiful, but you can also
41. 1:27open them up in any other app that reads
42. 1:29Markdown. So, that could be TextEdit, it
43. 1:31could be VS Code, iA Writer, and even AI
44. 1:34tools like Claude Co-work. So, even if
45. 1:37Obsidian disappears tomorrow, as long as
46. 1:39there are computers, you'll have a way
47. 1:40to open your notes. And this is
48. 1:42essential. Within Obsidian, my primary
49. 1:44folders are Atlas, Calendar, and
50. 1:46Efforts, or ACE for short. Atlas is for
51. 1:48your knowledge, your ideas, your
52. 1:50reference material, the things that you
53. 1:52want to think about and be able to build
54. 1:54and develop over for
55. 1:55Calendar's for your time base notes,
56. 1:58daily notes, journals, meetings,
57. 1:59anything anchored to specific moments.
58. 2:02And efforts are for the things that
59. 2:03you're working on, your projects, your
60. 2:05your big big efforts, your tasks, works,
61. 2:07anything productivity oriented. One of
62. 2:10the things that made Obsidian so unique
63. 2:12in the early days was the ability to
64. 2:14link notes to each other. All you have
65. 2:16to do here is type double bracket twice
66. 2:18and then start typing the note title or
67. 2:20a keyword and you'll see that there are
68. 2:22all these possible connections you can
69. 2:24create. And as you make those
70. 2:26connections, you can watch your graph
71. 2:27view grow. Individual notes, they become
72. 2:30these dots and then links become lines
73. 2:32and suddenly you can see the surprising
74. 2:34amount of relationships between these
75. 2:35links and dots, between our ideas that
76. 2:38you never would have noticed otherwise.
77. 2:40Each time you revisit a linked note
78. 2:42connecting to another note, you're
79. 2:44strengthening the connection between
80. 2:45them, both in the app, but also in your
81. 2:48own mind. And this way, this system that
82. 2:51we're creating, it gets better the more
83. 2:53that you use [music] it. If you want the
84. 2:54full details on how to set up the basics
85. 2:56or what to do if you want to go more
86. 2:57advanced, check out the description link
87. 2:59below. It covers all the Obsidian basics
88. 3:01so you're not lost as we go deeper. In
89. 3:03this way, Obsidian organizes the heart
90. 3:06of my AI operating system, which has to
91. 3:09be my own thoughts. Now, we're going to
92. 3:11jump from the innermost layer to the
93. 3:13outermost, the AI toolkit that will
94. 3:16connect to your ideaverse. So for this,
95. 3:18we'll be using Claude Co-work.
96. 3:21To use Co-work, download the Claude
97. 3:23desktop app and then sign in with your
98. 3:25Claude account. Inside the desktop app,
99. 3:27you'll see a toggle bar that lets you
100. 3:29switch between three modes. Co-work is
101. 3:31the one in the middle. It works when you
102. 3:33select a folder on your computer, you
103. 3:34click allow and then just like that,
104. 3:36Co-work can see everything in the folder
105. 3:39that you've linked. You don't have to
106. 3:40keep uploading documents or
107. 3:41re-explaining context. Claude can now
108. 3:44read files, make modifications, move
109. 3:46things around, rename them, and even
110. 3:48create new files on your behalf. Now,
111. 3:51let's talk about what we're actually
112. 3:52going to give Claude access to. Here's
113. 3:54how my Obsidian is currently set up. And
114. 3:56again, just files and folders on my
115. 3:59computer. You can see on a Mac, I have
116. 4:01my Macintosh hard drive, users, and then
117. 4:03the Nick folder. I just simply then go
118. 4:05to knowledge, and then I open that up,
119. 4:07and these are the different Obsidian
120. 4:10folders that are vaults that I can open
121. 4:11up independently. Where I spend 99% of
122. 4:14my time is in this Ideaverse folder. I
123. 4:16also spend time in some other vaults as
124. 4:18well. So, what I do is I go into Claude,
125. 4:21click on co-work if I'm not there
126. 4:22already, point Claude to the right
127. 4:24folder. For me, I'm just going to simply
128. 4:26point it at this knowledge folder. You
129. 4:28can see I've pointed it at other things
130. 4:30in the past, but my knowledge folder
131. 4:31contains my main vault, which for me is
132. 4:34simply called Ideaverse. Now, why am I
133. 4:36using Claude specifically? There are a
134. 4:38few reasons for now. The first is that
135. 4:40Claude says that they don't train on
136. 4:41your data. That is a non-negotiable for
137. 4:44me, especially when I'm pointing it at
138. 4:46my personal notes, my journals, and
139. 4:48years of private thinking. They've also
140. 4:49been transparent that data lives on
141. 4:51their servers for a rolling 30-day
142. 4:53window, which feels like a reasonable
143. 4:56trade-off for having access to frontier
144. 4:58AI models. The other reason I'm using
145. 5:00Claude is that it's one of the least
146. 5:02restrictive frontier apps out there.
147. 5:04Other tools are actively trying to
148. 5:06entrench you. They want you to build
149. 5:07your habits, your workflows, your
150. 5:09dependencies inside their ecosystem so
151. 5:12that you can't leave. Now, Claude is
152. 5:14better about this than most, and this
153. 5:16might always change in the future. So,
154. 5:17let's just have that little caveat. You
155. 5:18might be wondering which models do I use
156. 5:20in co-work? Well, the best general
157. 5:22approach, and to allow you to use Pro
158. 5:24more often, try to use the Sonnet model
159. 5:27first. That's the middle model. It's
160. 5:29less intensive, but it's good for most
161. 5:31tasks. When something is meatier, a
162. 5:33complex synthesis, a deep research task,
163. 5:35something where the quality really
164. 5:36matters, that's when I'll switch to
165. 5:38Opus. It uses tokens faster, but it does
166. 5:41the best job possible right now. The
167. 5:42lowest model is called Haiku. I rarely
168. 5:44use that one unless I'm using the
169. 5:46Obsidian web clipper, and then I'll just
170. 5:48have it download and summarize articles
171. 5:49on my behalf. But, it's really only for
172. 5:51those types of very simple, lightweight
173. 5:53tasks. Otherwise, I end up
174. 5:54double-checking its work, and then
175. 5:56what's the purpose? The real goal is
176. 5:58that you want to own your ideas and
177. 6:00thinking, and your AI workflows, and
178. 6:02then you just want to rent the actual AI
179. 6:05tool itself. ChatGPT, that was the
180. 6:07default not long ago, and today it's
181. 6:09Claude. Okay, great. Do we really think
182. 6:12it's going to be one of those two in two
183. 6:13years? It might be, but it might just as
184. 6:16well be something else. And as long as
185. 6:18your files can travel with you, your AI
186. 6:20can just be a layer that you swap out,
187. 6:22eventually to a local model, I hope,
188. 6:24which is where I think all this is going
189. 6:25eventually, probably powered by Apple's
190. 6:27silicon on device. But, what do I know?
191. 6:30Now, when you're ready to go extra deep
192. 6:31to set up Claude Co-work well for a
193. 6:33system like this one, check out the
194. 6:35details in the description below. So,
195. 6:36now here's the thing. If you point
196. 6:38Co-work at Obsidian and let it do its
197. 6:40thing,
198. 6:41that might be a horrible idea. My
199. 6:43Obsidian vault is around 17,000 notes.
200. 6:46Doesn't matter how many notes you have,
201. 6:47but when you get to that amount, you
202. 6:49point AI at something like that, and it
203. 6:51has no feasible way to navigate, which
204. 6:54is exactly why we need to set up a
205. 6:55translation layer, the middle layer of
206. 6:57the AI operating system, and this is
207. 7:00where our maps and manuals live.
208. 7:05All right. So, what we're going to do is
209. 7:06we're going to go into Obsidian and
210. 7:08create a folder called AIOS. This is a
211. 7:11separate area from your idea verse that
212. 7:13lives inside your main idea verse
213. 7:15folder. And that distinction is really
214. 7:17important, and here's why. If I'm
215. 7:19generating AI content, I want to always
216. 7:21be able to quickly isolate it, clear it
217. 7:23out when necessary, and that way always
218. 7:25keep my thoughts and ideas in my idea
219. 7:27verse very clean and clear. Inside this
220. 7:30folder, we're going to create a few of
221. 7:32our main maps. But, the first and most
222. 7:34important is the me.md file. Think of
223. 7:37me.md as your portable identity for AI.
224. 7:41If you use Claude co-work before, you
225. 7:43might know about Claude MD. It's
226. 7:45essentially a master file that Claude
227. 7:48reads every time you start a new
228. 7:49session. But, that's Claude specific.
229. 7:52So, if you switch to a different AI tool
230. 7:54next month, that file doesn't
231. 7:56automatically go with you. And it's
232. 7:58definitely not tailored to an agnostic
233. 8:00AI world. Instead, you create your me.md
234. 8:04file, which is here a plain markdown
235. 8:06file, and it tells any AI, in this case,
236. 8:10"Here's who I am. Here's how I think.
237. 8:12Here's how I want you to work with me."
238. 8:14And here's how it works in practice. At
239. 8:15the root level of the folder that I
240. 8:17point Claude to, so for me it's my
241. 8:19knowledge folder, that's where I put my
242. 8:21Claude MD file. All it says is go
243. 8:23immediately to me.md. That's it. When
244. 8:26Claude starts a session and it reads
245. 8:28that one-line instruction, it goes to
246. 8:30me.md, and now it knows me. I don't want
247. 8:33anything else in that Claude file
248. 8:34because that locks me into that Claude
249. 8:37ecosystem. There's a lot more that we're
250. 8:39covering about this in the description.
251. 8:41If you'd like a full guide on how to set
252. 8:43up your own me.md file. You may have
253. 8:45noticed that I have a Claude.md file
254. 8:48in my Ideaverse itself. So, if we go
255. 8:50back to the finder, if I twirl down
256. 8:52Ideaverse here, we can see Claude exists
257. 8:55here as well. And that's mainly for you,
258. 8:57just to reduce confusion. If you only
259. 9:00have one vault that you're pointing AI
260. 9:03towards, you'll want your Claude file
261. 9:05right here. It just so happens that I
262. 9:07Mine's a little bit more complex. I'm
263. 9:09doing a few more things than the average
264. 9:11person when it comes to all this sort of
265. 9:12knowledge management and AI
266. 9:14permissioning. So, that's why I have
267. 9:17this new knowledge folder, and then my
268. 9:19Claude.md file is there. So, this is the
269. 9:22one that my Claude is reading. But, if
270. 9:24you only have a single Obsidian vault
271. 9:25that you're using, you'll want to make
272. 9:27sure that your Claude file exists right
273. 9:29here,
274. 9:30just so Claude knows to immediately go
275. 9:32to me.md. Next up, the vault map. The
276. 9:35vault map answers a specific question,
277. 9:38how should AI move through your notes?
278. 9:41You can think of it as your vault's
279. 9:42master table of contents and manual. It
280. 9:45lets AI navigate to the right note or
281. 9:47collection of notes and create notes on
282. 9:49your behalf without having to scan your
283. 9:52entire knowledge base. Because if you
284. 9:54point an AI at 17,000 interconnected
285. 9:58notes with no map, it's going to pretend
286. 10:01that it's reviewed all of your notes
287. 10:02when it's actually just kind of like
288. 10:04cherry-picked and sampled and barely
289. 10:05touched any of them. And the results
290. 10:07that you get won't be accurate. They
291. 10:09won't be precise because it doesn't know
292. 10:12where to go and it doesn't know how to
293. 10:14get relevancy fast. But give it a map
294. 10:17and it can figure out which files are
295. 10:19actually relevant. It can isolate those,
296. 10:22load them into its context, skip the
297. 10:24rest. The third key map is the skill
298. 10:27map. The skill map gives very clear
299. 10:29instructions about what skills exist for
300. 10:31your AI, what they do, and exactly when
301. 10:34AI should use them. And this is where I
302. 10:36want to be really direct about
303. 10:37something. Keep your skills here, in
304. 10:40your own system, in your own notes, and
305. 10:42not in Claude's or any other AI tools.
306. 10:45It might be a little bit more convenient
307. 10:47when you initially create the skill, but
308. 10:48then you're trapped every day, week,
309. 10:50month, and year afterwards. Whenever you
310. 10:53create a skill, just have your AI tool
311. 10:55of choice, put it right here in your
312. 10:57skills subfolder. To be clear, I do use
313. 11:00Claude and AI tools to actually create
314. 11:02the skills and review the skills after
315. 11:04they are made. That's what AI should be
316. 11:07doing on your behalf, but the skills are
317. 11:09stored separately from Claude and
318. 11:11documented inside the skill map here.
319. 11:14These maps are the translation layer
320. 11:16between Claude on the outside or
321. 11:18whatever that AI tool is and Obsidian
322. 11:21and our idea versus notes in the middle.
323. 11:23Without you having this translation
324. 11:25layer in the middle, I cannot guarantee
325. 11:27that you won't find yourself trapped by
326. 11:29the tech lords. Let's avoid that. Now,
327. 11:31let's take this translation layer even
328. 11:33further.
329. 11:36Once you have your translation layer set
330. 11:38up, it's time to point Claude CoWork at
331. 11:40your IdeaVerse. Let me do that now by
332. 11:42pointing it to my knowledge folder in
333. 11:45which the IdeaVerse is underneath. And
334. 11:47now it's going to have access to my
335. 11:49me.md file, my vault map, and my skill
336. 11:51map, the big three files that make this
337. 11:54whole thing work. Now, I have found that
338. 11:56the most reliable way to make sure that
339. 11:58everything is loading correctly is to
340. 11:59also fire off a prompt at the start of
341. 12:02every new session.
342. 12:03Here it is on screen now, and you can
343. 12:05see, "First, please read the me.md
344. 12:08file." I'm letting it know exactly where
345. 12:10it is by saying IdeaVerse, it's in the
346. 12:12IdeaVerse folder. "Then review the vault
347. 12:14map and skill map for relevant context.
348. 12:17Confirm you've read, then await
349. 12:20instruction." That's it. Now, this isn't
350. 12:22100% necessary, but these frontier AI
351. 12:25models right now, the best models out
352. 12:27there, they are brilliant, but all
353. 12:29models suffer from amnesia. And even if
354. 12:32you think it knows what you know and has
355. 12:34the context that you want it to have, it
356. 12:36might not. Cuz if I start a new task,
357. 12:38it's not a guarantee that all that
358. 12:40context will be loaded up. If you can
359. 12:42program a hot key, you can save yourself
360. 12:44a lot of time. Set up a quick shortcut
361. 12:46and text replacements on Mac or with an
362. 12:49app like TextExpander, which I'm
363. 12:50currently using, or whatever works best
364. 12:52on Windows and Linux, so that you can
365. 12:54just with a couple keystrokes paste this
366. 12:56whenever you need it. So, for me, I use
367. 12:58SSK
368. 12:59and boom.
369. 13:01New chat, ready to go. It's going to
370. 13:02load that up, and then whatever I say
371. 13:04next, I know with confidence I'm going
372. 13:06to get accurate results back. So, here
373. 13:08are a few things that I can do with my
374. 13:10AI assistant. Every morning, a daily
375. 13:12brief is already waiting for me in
376. 13:15Obsidian. Inside this brief, there are a
377. 13:17few things that are incredibly helpful
378. 13:19for starting the morning. It gives me a
379. 13:21weather report, and this is especially
380. 13:23useful right now because I'm in New York
381. 13:25City, and I know, "Oh, I need to take an
382. 13:28umbrella with me before I head outside.
383. 13:30It's raining all day today." That was
384. 13:32really useful. It kept me dry. Big win
385. 13:35for the daily brief.
386. 13:36It also tells me what happened
387. 13:37yesterday, what I worked on, what I
388. 13:39moved forward, what's still open. It
389. 13:42surfaces any important emails or
390. 13:44logistics that I need to be aware of. It
391. 13:46reminds me of upcoming travel and
392. 13:48deadlines. It reminds me of the momentum
393. 13:51on my big project, the book. What was I
394. 13:53doing? What do I need to do? What's
395. 13:55happening in my intellectual life right
396. 13:57now? What might I be forgetting? And
397. 13:59what are the two or three things that I
398. 14:01actually need to do today? Throughout
399. 14:03the daily brief, I have open note
400. 14:05sections. These are places where I can
401. 14:07leave notes throughout the day to my AI.
402. 14:09That way I can be on the brief when I'm
403. 14:11on my phone, and then when I come back
404. 14:12to the computer here, all my notes are
405. 14:15there. I can put them in curly brackets,
406. 14:17and AI knows to look at the curly
407. 14:18brackets. Other times, I just indent in
408. 14:21the bullets, and I make my notes there.
409. 14:22AI knows to respond to those as well.
410. 14:25All from the daily brief. Now, this
411. 14:27brief, it's generated by one of the most
412. 14:29important skills in my AI operating
413. 14:31system, the daily brief skill. And it's
414. 14:34part of a broader system called the
415. 14:36daily trident system. This brief of mine
416. 14:38pulls from four different sources, my
417. 14:40Gmail, my calendar, my Teams ClickUp
418. 14:43account for managing tasks and projects
419. 14:45and just communications, and all the
420. 14:46notes in my ideaverse. And because I've
421. 14:49set it up as a recurring task inside of
422. 14:52Claude, it runs automatically every
423. 14:54morning at 6:00 a.m. So, by the time
424. 14:56that I'm in the kitchen,
425. 14:58it's already waiting for me when I open
426. 15:00my phone. Now, the key to make all this
427. 15:02work is the note you see on screen. It's
428. 15:04the skill map. And the way to organize
429. 15:07all these skills are to put them into
430. 15:09systems. All these systems that you see
431. 15:11on screen that I'm sharing now are ones
432. 15:13I actually use, that I've actually
433. 15:14built, and that we have included in the
434. 15:17Linking Your AI products. You can learn
435. 15:19more about that in the description, but
436. 15:20let's keep moving forward. So, as I
437. 15:22scroll through my skill map, we have
438. 15:23skills that are grouped by system. And
439. 15:26in that linking your AI product, we have
440. 15:28an auto builder system that actually
441. 15:30sets up these three core files for you.
442. 15:33And then we get to the daily trident
443. 15:34system. So, this is about managing your
444. 15:36day. And to make it work, we have two
445. 15:38skills, the daily brief and the daily
446. 15:40log. I just talked about the daily
447. 15:41brief, but the daily log skill is also
448. 15:43happening on a schedule throughout the
449. 15:45day. It's like an interstitial journaler
450. 15:47on your behalf. That's great for both
451. 15:49you to check in. So, like, what did I
452. 15:50accomplish today? It's even better for
453. 15:52AI to then bring that forward into the
454. 15:55next day's daily brief. Next up, the
455. 15:57Sherpa system. This one helps me map out
456. 16:00a new topic of interest so that I can
457. 16:01learn that topic way faster. The weekly
458. 16:04review system helps me review my week,
459. 16:05not as a replacement, but as an
460. 16:07additional lens. It's really helpful to
461. 16:10make sure that nothing is slipping
462. 16:11through the cracks. I don't look at that
463. 16:13until I've actually done my weekly
464. 16:14review. So, I make sure that I'm always
465. 16:16in control myself, that my thinking is
466. 16:18leading the way, that my hand stays on
467. 16:20the wheel. Oh, boy, the rock tumbler
468. 16:22system. This gets me fast feedback on my
469. 16:24work, not by telling me the answers or
470. 16:27telling me how I should write something,
471. 16:28but by asking open-ended questions. It's
472. 16:31built on the IDI framework, imagine,
473. 16:34discern, integrate, [music] and it's
474. 16:36also built on K. Anders Ericsson's fast
475. 16:39feedback principle of excellence. Yes,
476. 16:42there is a way that we can interact with
477. 16:44AI even on semi-creative matters without
478. 16:48losing control, without losing our
479. 16:50voice, without abdicating what makes us
480. 16:52unique. There are also a lot of
481. 16:54incorrect ways to do it. The chronicler
482. 16:56system, it does the thing that so many
483. 16:59of us wanted in the first place, to save
484. 17:01ideas and conversations before we lose
485. 17:03them and so that we can confidently
486. 17:05reference them in the future. You're
487. 17:07having a great conversation with AI, all
488. 17:08you need to say is, "Save this
489. 17:10verbatim." And it knows exactly what to
490. 17:12do. It's going to save that conversation
491. 17:14and it's going to place it in this
492. 17:15history subfolder. Boom, just like that.
493. 17:17You don't have to do a thing. Extra
494. 17:18credit points, if you want it to be
495. 17:20summarized, just run the summarizer
496. 17:21skill. So, then you'll have the
497. 17:23transcript on the bottom and then the
498. 17:24summary on top. What was the quick
499. 17:26summary? What are the takeaways? What
500. 17:27topics were covered? What are the next
501. 17:29steps? All of those things in a single
502. 17:31note. Fantastic for meetings. The
503. 17:33janitor system is the thing that most
504. 17:35people talking about AI
505. 17:37never care to mention. Actually
506. 17:40maintaining the system. Hey, anyone can
507. 17:42show you a few parlor tricks, but are
508. 17:44they actually doing that cool thing? Is
509. 17:46it really practical? Is it really
510. 17:48reliable?
511. 17:49Having a janitor system is how you
512. 17:51ensure that your AI operating system can
513. 17:53self-mend itself over time. And then the
514. 17:56last one that I'd like to show you today
515. 17:57is the courier system. This is how I
516. 17:59share notes and ideas from my personal
517. 18:01vault to my team simply by saying to my
518. 18:04AI assistant, "Share this with the
519. 18:06team." And it will sanitize it from any
520. 18:09personal information in that note. It
521. 18:11will include summaries of any notes that
522. 18:12are linked to but maybe not included in
523. 18:14the note itself. And it will put it
524. 18:16exactly in the right place for my team.
525. 18:19I love these and I I'm trying to give
526. 18:21you all the details I can. We have a
527. 18:22link below that will share even more
528. 18:24with these skills that I use and how you
529. 18:26can use them as well. Another big
530. 18:28question is, "How much Obsidian do you
531. 18:30need to know to set this up? Do you need
532. 18:32to use the Ace folder framework or have
533. 18:34a fully built out Ideaverse?" The answer
534. 18:36is no to both. You can start with
535. 18:37whatever notes you already have. The
536. 18:39easiest path is to get access to our
537. 18:41ultimate guide, which is in the
538. 18:43description below or available by
539. 18:45scanning the QR code here. We'll walk
540. 18:47you through the basics to the more
541. 18:48advanced stuff. How to set up your map
542. 18:50files, if you want to, how to set up Ace
543. 18:52and more. And it will catch you up on
544. 18:54all the Obsidian that you need to know.
545. 18:55Check that out because everything that
546. 18:57you need to build your own AIOS is right
547. 19:00below. We're really trying to set you up
548. 19:01for success. Or if you missed the last
549. 19:03few videos in the series, feel free to
550. 19:05catch up by watching them over here.