Your AI brain does not need a complex vault on day one.
It needs a small structure that makes context easy to find, safe to share with an assistant, and separate from runtime state.
The goal of this lesson is to create a starter Obsidian area that can support real operator work without becoming a dumping ground.
Outcome for this lesson
By the end, you will have:
- a brain index;
- folders for scratchpads, projects, workflows, decisions, templates, and reviews;
- starter notes for idea capture and weekly review;
- a clear boundary between brain context and runtime state.
The starter structure
Create this in your vault:
Keep it boring. The assistant should be able to infer where something belongs without reading a private manual.
Brain Index.md
Create AI Brain/Brain Index.md:
Add the first templates
Create these files under AI Brain/Templates/.
Thread Scratchpad
You can also use the public Thread Scratchpad Template.
Idea Capture
You can also use the public Idea Capture Template.
Weekly Operator Review
What belongs in Obsidian
Use Obsidian for durable meaning:
- what a project is;
- what has been decided;
- what the assistant should avoid;
- what a workflow is supposed to do;
- what a thread currently means;
- what changed during a review.
Do not use it as an unfiltered dump of every log line, every chat message, or every generated draft.
What does not belong in Obsidian
Keep these out of the vault:
- API keys;
- passwords;
- OAuth tokens;
- browser session files;
- private cookies;
- raw credential exports;
- noisy runtime logs;
- unreviewed scraped personal data.
The brain is for durable context. The runtime is for live execution state.
Naming rules
Use names that age well:
Avoid names that require memory to decode:
Lesson checkpoint
You are done when your vault has the starter folder structure, a Brain Index, and at least three templates:
- thread scratchpad;
- idea capture;
- weekly operator review.
The next lesson turns the thread scratchpad into the primary way your assistant recovers state after context loss.