second-brain · nicholasspisak — Claude Code skill: what it does, how to install
Scaffolds a personal note repository in Obsidian designed around an LLM wiki architecture. A five-step wizard configures vault paths, agent rules, and optional CLI utilities.
npx skills add NicholasSpisak/second-brain --skill second-brain -a claude-codeWhat second-brain does
The wizard walks through five setup prompts: folder naming, directory path, subject matter, target assistants, and helper command-line utilities. By default, the vault is placed under ~/Documents/second-brain. Bash access is required. Setup executes scripts/onboarding.sh, generating the folder tree along with initial files wiki/index.md and wiki/log.md.
Depending on the selected environment, the helper writes rules into CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md, second-brain.mdc, or GEMINI.md. It can also install npm packages such as @steipete/summarize and agent-browser. A working Node environment is necessary for those CLI packages.
This setup assumes the agent actively parses raw incoming files. Without Obsidian and its browser web clipper, feeding source documents into the raw/ directory becomes tedious manual work.
What it helps with
- scaffold a structured directory tree for an Obsidian vault
- generate assistant configuration files for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, or Gemini CLI
- initialize the vault index and setup activity log
- install optional CLI utilities for local searching and summarization
Example prompts for the agent
- Set up a new second brain vault in Obsidian
- Run onboard to configure my personal knowledge base
- Initialize an LLM wiki vault with configs for Claude Code and Cursor
How to install second-brain
1Skills CLI (Vercel)
npx skills add NicholasSpisak/second-brain --skill second-brain -a claude-code2Manually: put the files in place
~/.claude/skills/second-brain/SKILL.mdCopy the whole skill folder; for one project use .claude/skills/second-brain/
1Skills CLI (Vercel)
npx skills add NicholasSpisak/second-brain --skill second-brain -a codex2Manually: put the files in place
.agents/skills/second-brain/SKILL.mdFor all projects use ~/.agents/skills/
1Skills CLI (Vercel)
npx skills add NicholasSpisak/second-brain --skill second-brain -a cursor2Manually: put the files in place
.cursor/skills/second-brain/SKILL.mdCursor also reads .agents/skills/ and .claude/skills/
1GitHub CLI
gh skill install NicholasSpisak/second-brain second-brain2Manually: put the files in place
.github/skills/second-brain/SKILL.md1Skills CLI (Vercel)
npx skills add NicholasSpisak/second-brain --skill second-brain -a gemini-cli2Platform CLI
gemini skills install https://github.com/NicholasSpisak/second-brain --path skills/second-brainManually: put the files in place
.devin/skills/second-brain/SKILL.mdThe legacy .windsurf/skills/ path still works
Skills CLI (Vercel)
npx skills add NicholasSpisak/second-brain --skill second-brain -a opencodeClaude.ai
Zip the folder and upload it in Settings → Capabilities → Skills
Step by step, with commands for each platform: How to install skills in Claude Code: five ways
Questions about second-brain
How to install second-brain in Claude Code?
Run npx skills add NicholasSpisak/second-brain --skill second-brain -a claude-code in your terminal. This places the skill file at ~/.claude/skills/second-brain/SKILL.md.
What does second-brain do?
It guides you through an onboarding wizard to scaffold an Obsidian knowledge base. The skill creates folder structures, initializes index and log files, and writes configuration files for your AI assistants.
Which CLI utilities can the onboarding wizard install?
The wizard can install @steipete/summarize for content summaries, @tobilu/qmd for local wiki queries, and agent-browser for web navigation. All these npm packages are optional.
Similar skills
All skills for Notes, tasks and projects →second-brain by other authors comes first.
