# session-brain

Builds an interactive topic graph over Claude Code session history without touching your vault. Useful for clustering past sessions and spotting active or dormant work topics.

- skill · `type=skill` · Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, OpenCode · 316 installs · ★ 3621
- Author: Ar9av
- License: MIT · policy=mirror · the beginning of the file is at the end of this page
- Source: https://github.com/Ar9av/obsidian-wiki/tree/HEAD/.skills/session-brain/SKILL.md
- Updated: 2026-10-21
- HTML: https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/session-brain

## What it does

The skill maps topics across Claude Code session history using local clustering. It outputs files into a sidecar directory at `~/.claude/session-brain/`. Your notes vault remains completely untouched. Deterministic Python inside the `obsidian-wiki` CLI performs the clustering, edge calculations, and HTML export.

The skill strictly requires the `obsidian-wiki` CLI to function. A cold build takes roughly 3 seconds across 1000 sessions, while incremental runs re-read only modified transcripts. The agent names clusters in a single step using top terms and exemplars, without loading full conversation logs. Cluster names survive rebuilds because they are stored by vocabulary rather than shifting cluster IDs.

The resulting browser graph displays topic momentum, dormant areas, and bridge sessions linking separate topics. Roughly 40% of an older cache may exist only as prompt entries in `history.jsonl`. The tool plots these history-only entries as hollow rings.

## Requirements
- Works with: Obsidian

## Install

### Claude Code (native platform)

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add Ar9av/obsidian-wiki --skill session-brain -a claude-code
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `~/.claude/skills/session-brain/SKILL.md` — Copy the whole skill folder; for one project use .claude/skills/session-brain/

### Codex

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add Ar9av/obsidian-wiki --skill session-brain -a codex
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.agents/skills/session-brain/SKILL.md` — For all projects use ~/.agents/skills/

### Cursor

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add Ar9av/obsidian-wiki --skill session-brain -a cursor
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.cursor/skills/session-brain/SKILL.md` — Cursor also reads .agents/skills/ and .claude/skills/

### GitHub Copilot

1. **GitHub CLI**
```bash
gh skill install Ar9av/obsidian-wiki session-brain
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.github/skills/session-brain/SKILL.md`

### Gemini CLI

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add Ar9av/obsidian-wiki --skill session-brain -a gemini-cli
```

2. **Platform CLI**
```bash
gemini skills install https://github.com/Ar9av/obsidian-wiki --path .skills/session-brain
```

### Windsurf (Devin Desktop)

**Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.devin/skills/session-brain/SKILL.md` — The legacy .windsurf/skills/ path still works

### OpenCode

**Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add Ar9av/obsidian-wiki --skill session-brain -a opencode
```

### Claude.ai

**Claude.ai**
- Zip the folder and upload it in Settings → Capabilities → Skills

Where a file is given instead of a command, copy the files from the source to that path: https://github.com/Ar9av/obsidian-wiki/tree/HEAD/.skills/session-brain/SKILL.md

## When to use it
- cluster agent session history locally without vault writes
- spot dormant topics and recent activity spikes
- view an interactive session graph in the browser via `graph.html`
- identify bridge sessions connecting separate work topics

## Example prompts
- Build the session graph and summarize the biggest topics
- Rebuild the session graph with --full and open the browser visualization
- Check unnamed session clusters and assign names based on top terms

## Source text · SKILL.md · MIT

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BEGIN THIRD-PARTY FILE 47ad9e4b7449ef16
````text
---
name: session-brain
description: >
  Build or refresh a browser-viewable topic graph over Claude session history using local clustering. Use for mapping or clustering sessions, recent or stale topic analysis, or rebuilding/showing the session graph. Unlike wiki-history-ingest, it indexes raw sessions and never writes to the vault.
---

# Session Brain

Builds a searchable topic graph over your agent session history. The output is a **sidecar**
at `~/.claude/session-brain/` — the vault is never touched.

All the heavy lifting is deterministic Python in the `obsidian-wiki` CLI. Your only job is to
name the clusters, which takes exactly one turn and requires reading no transcripts.

## When to use which skill

| Goal | Skill |
|---|---|
| Build or refresh the graph; survey topics | `session-brain` (this one) |
| Find and load a specific past session | `session-search` |
| Distil sessions into permanent vault pages | `wiki-history-ingest` / `claude-history-ingest` |

## Step 1: Build

```bash
obsidian-wiki sessions-build --json
```

Roughly 3 seconds cold on ~1000 sessions, well under a second incrementally — it re-reads only
transcripts whose size or mtime changed. Useful flags:

| Flag | When |
|---|---|
| `--full` | Ignore all caches and re-read everything |
| `--mutual` | Tighter, smaller clusters (mutual-kNN edges only) |
| `--half-life N` | Change the recency half-life (default 90 days) |
| `--min-sim 0.15` | Fewer, stronger edges — use if the graph is too dense to read |
| `--skip name` | Exclude a project. Match is substring-based; pass the bare name, because cache dirs start with `-` and argparse reads that as a flag |

Report the headline numbers: total sessions, how many have transcripts vs. are history-only,
edges, and cluster count.

## Step 2: Name the unnamed clusters

```bash
obsidian-wiki sessions-clusters --unnamed --json
```

Each cluster comes with `top_terms` and `exemplars` (its three highest-degree sessions, whose
titles are already in `graph.json`). **That is all you need.** Do not open transcripts to name a
cluster — the whole design goal is that naming costs one turn regardless of corpus size.

Write a 3–5 word `name` and a one-sentence `summary` per cluster, then:

```bash
obsidian-wiki sessions-name --from - <<'EOF'
[{"id": 3, "name": "warden telemetry pipeline", "summary": "Building and debugging the redacted telemetry chain."}]
EOF
```

Names are stored in `names.json` keyed by the cluster's dominant vocabulary, not its id — so they
survive rebuilds even though cluster ids are positional and shift as the corpus grows. On repeat
runs `--unnamed` is usually empty and this step is free.

If a cluster's terms are genuinely incoherent, name it honestly (`"mixed — short sessions"`)
````
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