Second Brain Vault 🧠

A personal knowledge base and system for capturing, organizing, and synthesizing knowledge.

Synced with: Extended thinking passes (on-idle or nightly)
Backed by: Git for version control and history
Indexed in: MEMORY.md for fast access

Structure

• 00-inbox/ — Raw captures, ideas, quick notes
• 01-daily/ — Daily reflections and work logs
• 02-projects/ — Project-specific knowledge (gravl, job-portal, finedine)
• 03-learnings/ — Books, lessons, insights, skills
• 04-architecture/ — System design decisions (ADRs)
• 05-code-snippets/ — Reusable code, commands, patterns
• 06-references/ — Links, resources, standards
• 07-templates/ — Note templates for consistency
• 08-connections/ — Relationship maps, team info
• _files/ — Images, PDFs, diagrams

How It Works

1. Capture: Ideas go into 00-inbox/
2. Organize: Distributed into 02-projects/, 03-learnings/, etc.
3. Synthesize: Extended thinking pass (/dream)
4. Index: Important insights → MEMORY.md
5. Access: Fast lookup via indexed memory

Dream Sync

When: On-idle or nightly
What: Extended thinking pass over vault
Output: Updated MEMORY.md + daily memory file
Goal: Extract patterns, connections, actionable insights

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Created 2026-04-26

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Quick Start (Setup)

1. Clone the repo

cd /workspace
git clone http://localhost:3002/clawd/second-brain.git
cd second-brain

2. Start the vault server (headless)

The vault server provides a REST API for reading and writing notes without needing Obsidian Desktop.

# Start the vault server
OBSIDIAN_API_KEY=c3b35c9ff948d127ba46acad226ad3ab4b5992da0a53b4ffc1aae6d4c8cbb771 \
VAULT_PATH=/workspace/second-brain \
node vault-server.js &

The server runs on port 27123.

3. Start the MCP bridge (optional)

For connecting to Bumblebee or other MCP clients:

./start-mcp.sh

4. Enable systemd auto-start (optional)

sudo cp vault-server.service /etc/systemd/system/
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now vault-server

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Daily Usage

Capture a note

# Quick capture to inbox
echo "- $(date +%Y-%m-%d): Idea about X" >> 00-inbox/capture.md

Read or write via API

# Read a note
curl -s \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer c3b35c9ff948d127ba46acad226ad3ab4b5992da0a53b4ffc1aae6d4c8cbb771" \
  "http://localhost:27123/vault/read?path=02-projects/gravl/status.md"

# List all notes
curl -s \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer c3b35c9ff948d127ba46acad226ad3ab4b5992da0a53b4ffc1aae6d4c8cbb771" \
  "http://localhost:27123/vault/list"

Run dream sync manually

./dream-sync.sh

Or wait for the nightly cron job at 23:00.

Git sync

# Pull changes from other devices
git pull origin master

# Commit and push
git add .
git commit -m "Update notes"
git push origin master

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Vault Server API

Base URL: http://localhost:27123
Auth: Bearer token (OBSIDIAN_API_KEY)

Endpoint	Method	Description
/vault/read	GET	Read a note by path query param
/vault/list	GET	List all notes in the vault
/vault/search	GET	Search notes by q query param

Example:

curl -s \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <API_KEY>" \
  "http://localhost:27123/vault/search?q=gravl"

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Architecture

/workspace/second-brain/ (vault files)
        ↓
vault-server.js (Node.js REST API on port 27123)
Reads vault directly from disk
        ↓
obsidian-mcp-server (MCP Protocol bridge)
Provides tools for reading/writing vault
        ↓
Bumblebee (can read/write vault headless!)

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Tips

• Capture fast, organize later. Dump everything into 00-inbox/ first.
• Use templates. Copy from 07-templates/ for consistent structure.
• Link notes. Use [[note-name]] or [text](path/to/note.md) for connections.
• Tag for discovery. Add #tag anywhere for searchability.
• Review weekly. Move inbox items to proper folders during cleanup.

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Troubleshooting

Problem	Fix
Vault server won't start	Check port 27123 is free: lsof -i :27123
Auth failed	Verify OBSIDIAN_API_KEY matches
MCP not connecting	Ensure vault-server is running first
Git conflicts	Pull before push: git pull origin master

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Created 2026-04-26 Updated 2026-04-29