Second Brain · Obsidian + ClaudeLesson 3 of 3
Second Brain
Automatic installer: production-ready Obsidian MCP
6 min readBeginner
Downloads & resources
Grab this lesson's prompts and skills, ready to use.
Skill packs and prompts are provided in English so they work best with the AI tools. Use them as-is.
You've seen the system and the step-by-step setup. This lesson gives you the ultimate shortcut: one prompt that installs, configures, tests and optimizes the Obsidian ↔ Claude connection end to end — the way a senior DevOps engineer would — and leaves the system production-ready.
What it achieves: instead of following 12 tutorials, you paste ONE prompt and Claude runs all 12 phases on its own: inspects your machine, installs what's missing, connects the MCP, points it at your vault, runs real tests and hands you a final report. It only asks about what genuinely needs your decision (like which vault to use).
The 12 phases at a glance
| Phase | What it does on its own |
|---|---|
| 1-2 | Inspects your system and detects existing configs (repairs, never duplicates) |
| 3-4 | Installs missing dependencies and builds the MCP server, retrying until it compiles |
| 5-6 | Connects the MCP to Claude (safe merge, never overwrites other servers) and points it at your Obsidian vault |
| 7 | REAL tests of every capability: list, read, search, create, modify notes |
| 8 | Creates the professional vault structure (System, Projects, ADRs, Prompts, Skills, Templates…) |
| 9 | Turns Obsidian into long-term memory: reads context at session start, documents at session end |
| 10-11 | Optimizes (tokens, security, organization) and runs a full health check |
| 12 | Final report: what it installed, touched, fixed, and recommends |
⚠️ Before you run it
- First pass in safe mode: let Claude ask permission on every action (don't enable "no questions" mode) until you've seen it behave as expected. Trust is earned on the second run.
- The habit from the MCP lesson applies: if the prompt clones a community repository, ask Claude to review it before installing ("check this repo and make sure it's clean").
- Back up your vault if it already holds valuable notes — Phase 8 creates new folders, it doesn't delete, but a backup never hurts.
The full prompt
text
You are an expert Claude Code engineer, DevOps engineer, and MCP specialist.
Your mission is to completely install, configure, verify, and optimize the
Obsidian MCP server for my development environment. Do not simply tell me
what to do — perform every operation that Claude Code is capable of
performing automatically. Your objective is to leave the entire system
production-ready.
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PHASE 1 — Environment Inspection
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Automatically inspect my environment. Determine: Operating System, Shell,
Node.js version, npm version, pnpm, bun, git, Claude Code version, Claude
Desktop version (if installed). Locate: Obsidian installation, existing
Vaults, existing MCP configuration, existing Claude configuration.
Report everything.
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PHASE 2 — Detect Existing Configuration
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Search for: existing MCP servers, existing obsidian-vault server, existing
configuration files, duplicate configurations, broken configurations,
missing dependencies. If something already exists, do not recreate it —
repair it.
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PHASE 3 — Install Dependencies
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If dependencies are missing, install them automatically (Node, npm, required
packages, build tools — everything the MCP server needs). Never reinstall
packages that already exist.
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PHASE 4 — Build the MCP
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Clone or use the existing Obsidian MCP project. Run the proper installation
and build. Verify there are no build errors. If errors occur: diagnose, fix,
retry automatically. Repeat until successful.
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PHASE 5 — Configure Claude
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Locate the Claude configuration and add the MCP server automatically. Never
overwrite existing MCP servers — merge safely, preserve formatting, comments
and existing servers. Only add the missing configuration.
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PHASE 6 — Configure Obsidian
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Locate my Obsidian Vault. If multiple Vaults exist, ask which one should
become the permanent AI Knowledge Vault. Configure the MCP to point to that
Vault. Always use absolute paths, never relative paths.
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PHASE 7 — Connection Test
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Restart the MCP if necessary. Verify that Claude can: list notes, read
notes, search notes, create notes, modify notes, delete notes (only if
allowed), access folders, resolve links. Run real tests. Confirm every
capability.
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PHASE 8 — Automatic Knowledge System
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Create a professional Vault structure if it does not exist:
00-System · 01-Projects · 02-Architecture · 03-ADRs · 04-Meetings ·
05-Knowledge · 06-Prompts · 07-Skills · 08-Research · 09-Lessons Learned ·
10-Daily Notes · 11-Inbox · 12-Templates.
Create useful templates.
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PHASE 9 — Claude Integration
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Configure Claude to permanently use Obsidian as the project's long-term
memory. At the beginning of every session Claude should automatically read:
architecture, roadmap, current tasks, ADRs, coding standards, AI
instructions, previous session summary, technical debt, known issues —
BEFORE coding. At the end of every session automatically: update
documentation, ADRs, TODOs and roadmap; generate a session summary and
handoff notes; document lessons learned. Do not wait for me to ask.
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PHASE 10 — Optimization
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Inspect the entire configuration and improve: performance, reliability,
maintainability, security, scalability, token efficiency, folder
organization, naming conventions, searchability, knowledge retrieval,
internal links, tag structure, templates, documentation quality.
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PHASE 11 — Validation
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Run a complete health check and verify:
✓ MCP installed ✓ Claude connected ✓ Obsidian connected ✓ Read working
✓ Write working ✓ Search working ✓ Update working ✓ Templates working
✓ Vault structure working ✓ No broken configuration ✓ No duplicated
settings ✓ Production ready.
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PHASE 12 — Final Report
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Produce a detailed report: everything installed and configured, files
modified, configuration locations, problems found and fixed,
recommendations, performance and security improvements, future
enhancements. Finally, confirm whether the system is fully operational.
If any step cannot be completed automatically due to Claude Code
limitations, stop only for that specific action, explain why, and continue
automatically with everything else that is possible. Your goal is to
require the minimum possible interaction from me.
Think like a Senior DevOps Engineer, Staff Software Engineer, MCP
Specialist, and Knowledge Management Architect. Leave the environment
production-ready.
The 4 rules that make this work
1
The market pays for outputs, not processes
If you automate something and quality drops, don't automate it yet. Automate what keeps quality high and spend the saved time where your human judgment matters.
2
The value is in the personalization
We give you the structure; the power appears when the brain knows YOUR voice, YOUR goals, YOUR projects. Copying someone else's system without personalizing it produces someone else's results.
3
AI is a skill
Nobody has 10,000 hours in this yet — the field is wide open. The winners aren't the ones watching more videos: they're the ones logging more hours talking with the model. Close this lesson and go execute.
4
Have fun
Don't try to conquer the world with AI on day one. Pick a project that excites you, build it, see what happens. Curiosity sustains you longer than discipline.
10-minute practice: download the prompt (above), paste it into Claude Code in safe mode and let it run Phases 1-2 only (pure inspection — changes nothing). The report on your own environment is the best snapshot of where you stand.