I started using Obsidian a few years ago. I was completely mad about it, fell down countless rabbit holes and had never quite experienced anything like it.
But, then I started customising. And was spending more time tweaking than creating. I looked for simpler options like Nota. I had my vault, I just needed a mechanism to access it.
Recently, I noticed lots of posts and videos about an Obsidian/Claude combo and investigated. Back to Obsidian I went. In many ways, I'd never left. The beauty of text/Markdown files is that they are app agnostic.
I subscribed to Claude and linked it up to Obsidian. I set up a range of daily automations. My favourite is a daily note update - it pulls in data from notes in my Capture folder, Voicenotes, and Telegram posts. At 20:00, Claude adds content to my daily note, archives anything that's not really going anywhere, links up notes, creates a permanent note from what I've been contemplating that might have legs, and adds a summary.
I've researched Bases, too, and worked out a whole host of cool stuff I can do with them. My favourite is also in my daily note. A Base that lists anything created or captured that day.
Obsidian is working better for me this time because:
- Claude is doing all the customisation. I'm not spending hours installing plugins and setting them up, then playing around with my vault getting things to work.
- Bases are my new best friend. I have a Book Base where I can add books I'm reading/have read, and Obsidian creates a database for me.
- The mobile iOS app is working much better. Last time I was using Obsidian, the mobile app just wouldn't load properly and I ended up using other tools like iA Writer.
Related: The Claude Rabbit Hole · New Tech Blows My Mind · AI is Like an eBike · Kortex or Eden · Revisiting Tana