The second brain
- 01File-based memory: basic structure and disciplines7 min
Claude Code's memory lives in a folder of markdown files, one fact per file classified by a type field with four values, and a note that carries a single idea linked to at least one other stays findable within seconds rather than after a full reread.
- 02Obsidian: wikilinks, content maps and memory types8 min
The link written between double brackets weaves a network rather than a stack of folders, the content map that gathers them is a community practice and not a feature of the software, and a note of type user in Claude Code's automatic memory stays filed under its project by default, unless explicitly configured otherwise: the memories genuinely shared across all projects are the personal instructions file, user-level rules and the organisation-managed policy.
- 03Querying a graph rather than rereading everything9 min
A knowledge graph built once answers a question by walking explicit links, which costs noticeably fewer tokens than a full reread of the source files, a gap illustrated by a public example that carries its own caveat, and the same principle applies to an old session transcript, queried by levels before being reopened in full.
- 04Dream and continuous learning: nightly consolidation7 min
A nightly memory consolidation is a personal automation built on top of a scheduled task, not a native Claude feature: it digests notes in four phases, orientation, collection, consolidation through merging and archiving, verification, and only a task that runs on the machine or in an open session can read a folder of notes stored locally.
- 05A perishable figure in an always loaded file7 min
A measured, expired fact cited as current is worse than no figure at all, because it keeps the appearance of authority while switching off the reflex to verify: the test fits in one question, would a change tomorrow be flagged to anyone, and if the answer is no, the figure has no business sitting in a file loaded on every conversation.
- 06A shared vault has no concurrent editing6 min
A local file notes application locks nothing on a shared network drive: a public report documents a settings folder that gets overwritten between users on this kind of mount, and the same mechanism makes plausible, without the source itself documenting it, the silent loss of a note edit.
- 07The assistant's journal mostly talks about the assistant8 min
A review of a large memory corpus kept by an agent shows that most entries document the agent's own mistakes, written by it, about itself, with almost no explicit instruction from the person it is supposedly profiling: it is like judging a pilot by the aircraft's maintenance log.