# Stop explaining your business to AI.

> Two free Claude skills turn your answers into an Obsidian vault Claude reads before it replies, and keep it true when things change. MIT, by email.

- Canonical page: https://inspectedbymarko.com/skills/second-brain/
- Site: Inspected by Marko (https://inspectedbymarko.com/)
- Last updated: 28 October 2026

Answer its questions once, for one to two hours. Two free Claude skills turn your answers into a vault Claude reads before it replies, and keep it true when things change.

- [Get both skills](https://inspectedbymarko.com/skills/second-brain/#free-skills)

(Handwritten: “no terminal. no coding. just your answers.”)

## At a glance

- **What:** two free Claude skills, from video 02: the Obsidian vault interviewer (asks the questions) and the Obsidian second brain builder (builds the vault, keeps it true).
- **Works in:** Claude Code, in the Claude desktop app. No terminal.
- **Needs:** Obsidian, free. Python 3.8 or later for the vault script.
- **Cost:** Obsidian is free and keeps your notes as plain files on your own computer. Claude Pro includes Claude Code. The skills and git cost nothing. Claude Pro: $20 / month, prices checked 19 Oct 2026.
- **Time:** 1 to 2 hours. Once. Then a minute after every change.
- **License:** Copy, change and share, under the MIT License.
- **Get them:** free, by email: https://inspectedbymarko.com/skills/second-brain/#free-skills

### Business reorg · Questions, Oct 2026

My own question sheet, Oct 2026. Answers stay private.

**Before a single file moved, Claude asked me everything.** Asked: 95 · Answered: 93 · Open: 2. Stamped: Answered, 93 of 95.

- Q1: Research and AI files: may I move them as whole folders?
- Q2: Links that point at renamed or retired notes.
- Q6: Clashing file names: a link can open the wrong venture’s file.
- Q12: Naming: short unique names, subject first.

Questions 15 to 95, redacted. (Handwritten: “money, people, clients: kept off this page”)

## Out of the box, Claude doesn’t know your business.

So you get generic answers, or you paste the same paragraph about your business into every chat. A vault fixes that: your business written down as plain notes Claude reads before it answers.

### Without a vault (Claude · New chat)

- **You:** We’re a 10-person design agency. We design brands and websites for dental clinics. Website projects start at $5,000 and take six weeks. We write short and warm, never salesy. Our last three clients were… Now write a proposal for a new dental clinic. (Handwritten: “every single chat”)
- **Claude:** Here’s a proposal you can adapt: \[Your agency\] is a full-service creative studio that helps businesses stand out with bold, modern design… (Handwritten: “generic. it knows nothing about you.”)

### With the vault (Claude · Project: my-vault)

- **Read first:** `Clients.md`, `Pricing.md`, `Voice.md`
- **You:** Write a proposal for a new client, a dental clinic, from our past projects and prices.
- **Claude:** Same scope as our last two clinics: a brand refresh and a six-page site in six weeks, from $5,000. Written your way: short, warm, no sales talk. From `[[Clients]]` · `[[Pricing]]` · `[[Voice]]`

(Handwritten: “it read 3 notes before it answered. not the whole vault.”)

Demo business: a made-up 10-person design agency, the one I build live in video 02.

### What mine did this year

Receipts from my own records:

| Receipt | Date | Figure | What happened | Source |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Receipt 01 · Pitch deck | Sep 2026 | 1 day | My first pitch deck, built from my vault while I course-corrected. An investor said yes. | The deck. The investor stays unnamed. |
| Receipt 02 · Applications | 2026 | Every one | Every job application Claude wrote from my vault got me an interview. | My application records. Companies stay unnamed. |
| Receipt 03 · Interview prep | 2026 | 1,000+ | Questions prepared for an 11-stage hiring process. Claude built a vault folder that taught me SQL and security. | My prep folder. The company stays unnamed. |

## It reads the map first.

My vault is about 21,471 notes, over 144 million tokens. Claude holds about 1 million at once, and it doesn’t need that much. It reads the index, then opens only the two or three notes the question needs.

The page draws it on paper. **A3 · One question, 21,471 notes** (Marker on paper · Demo vault):

1. **You ask:** Why did we stop doing fixed-price projects?
2. Claude reads `00 Index.md` first: what lives where, one line per note. (Handwritten: “the map. it reads this one first.”)
3. My vault · About 21,471 notes. The vault drawn as 2,200 small squares. Three of them, the notes Claude opens, are marked in blue. (Handwritten: “then opens 3 notes. 2,197 stay closed”)
4. **Claude answers:** Fixed price kept eating the margin on revisions, so we moved to a day rate. `[[Pricing - Decisions]]` · `[[Clients - Lessons]]` · `[[Proposals - Rules]]` (Handwritten: “every line links the note it came from”)

|  | Size |
| --- | --- |
| My vault | Over 144,200,000 tokens |
| What Claude can hold at once | About 1,000,000 |
| What one answer reads | The map and 3 notes (Handwritten: “this is all it reads to answer you”) |

Vault size from my own vault, Oct 2026. Load only what is needed: Anthropic, “[Effective context engineering for AI agents](https://www.anthropic.com/engineering/effective-context-engineering-for-ai-agents)”, 29 Sep 2025.

## My second brain once believed a contract I never won.

On 6 August an engagement went in as “won”: interviews passed, a start date estimated, nothing signed. AI wrote it into every note downstream as fact. I wasn’t selected. The correction on 18 August had to reach ten files.

### Correction · 18 Aug 2026 (fixed)

Ten dominoes falling in a row. The first one is marked “won”. `status:` ~~won~~ declined. Written as fact on 6 Aug: interviews passed, start date estimated, no signature.

**Ten files it had reached.** Names withheld: they hold money. Every one: name withheld, fixed.

### The rule now (since 2026)

**A contract that is not signed is not revenue.** (Handwritten: “written the day I fixed it”)

### What it taught me

- A status word needs evidence behind it.
- AI spreads one wrong fact fast. It spreads the fix just as fast, if the fact lives in one note.
- Hunt for contradictions on a schedule.

## One fact lives in one note.

By default, AI saves a new fact as a new copy and keeps the old one. Now you have two prices, and next week it grabs the old one. The skill replaces the fact in its one note, and git keeps the old version.

### What an AI found in mine

AI interview · 996 files, 26 Aug 2026: “Your vault contradicts itself in eight places.” “A superb record of your conclusions and a thin record of your episodes.” (Handwritten: “then it found a ninth”)

An AI interviewer read 996 files of my vault. That was the first thing it told me.

### What AI does by default

- `Pricing.md`: `website: from $4,000` (updated 3 Mar)
- `Price update.md`: `website: from $5,000` (added 14 Oct)

(Handwritten: “which one?”) You tell it the price went up. It writes a new note and keeps the old one. Two prices, and nothing says which is true.

### What the skill does

- `Pricing.md`: `website: from $5,000` (the one owner of every price)

```diff
$ git diff Pricing.md
- website: from $4,000
+ website: from $5,000
```

(Handwritten: “the old one is still here”) One note owns the price. Everything else links to it. Git keeps the old line, free, every version.

**Receipt · Claude Code docs** (checked 19 Oct 2026): “If two instructions contradict each other, Claude may pick one arbitrarily.” Source: [Claude Code docs, “Manage Claude’s memory”](https://code.claude.com/docs/en/memory).

**Receipt · Version history** (checked 19 Oct 2026): Git: free, every version. Obsidian sells version history with Sync, from $4 a month, kept 1 to 12 months. Git keeps every version for free. The skill sets it up. Source: [Obsidian Sync pricing page](https://obsidian.md/sync).

## Two hours, and a plan you may already pay for.

Obsidian is free and keeps your notes as plain files on your own computer. Claude Pro includes Claude Code. The skills and git cost nothing.

### Your second brain

Prices checked 19 Oct 2026.

|  | Cost | Note |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Obsidian | Free |  |
| Claude Pro | $20 / month | Claude Code included |
| The two skills | Free |  |
| Git, optional | Free |  |
| Your time | 1 to 2 hours | Once. Then a minute after every change. |
| **Total** | **$20 / month** |  |

Your notes stay plain files on your own computer.

### Run it in three steps

1. **Make an empty vault.** A new empty folder, opened in Obsidian as a vault.
2. **Add the two skills.** Open the Claude desktop app, Code tab, and pick that folder. One minute, steps in the email.
3. **Answer, then build.** Skill 1 interviews you. Answer like you’d brief a smart new hire; talking is fine. Skill 2 builds the vault from your answers.

(Handwritten: “don’t know an answer? it stays an open question. never a guess.”)

## Want your own vault? Take both skills.

Two skills and the questions that seed your vault, in one zip. Read every file before you run it. I would.

What is in `obsidian-vault-skills.zip`:

```text
obsidian-vault-skills.zip
├─ LICENSE                                MIT, word for word
├─ README.md                              unzip, then add both folders
├─ inspected-by-m-obsidian-interviewer/
│  ├─ SKILL.md                            asks the questions
│  ├─ README.md                           how to run it
│  ├─ LICENSE                             MIT
│  ├─ NOTICE.md                           credits
│  ├─ references/                         questions, waves, evidence
│  ├─ scripts/                            brief and gap checks
│  └─ assets/templates/                   answers, ledger, brief
└─ inspected-by-m-obsidian-builder/
   ├─ SKILL.md                            builds it, keeps it true
   ├─ README.md                           how to run it
   ├─ LICENSE                             MIT
   ├─ NOTICE.md                           credits and licenses
   ├─ references/                         guides, books, evidence
   ├─ scripts/vault.py                    dry run, undo log
   └─ assets/templates/                   starting files
```

- **Works in:** Claude Code, in the Claude desktop app. No terminal.
- **Needs:** Obsidian, free. Python 3.8 or later for the vault script.
- **Yours to:** Copy, change and share, under the MIT License.

**Get both skills.** The Obsidian vault interviewer (asks the questions) and the Obsidian second brain builder (builds the vault, keeps it true), free, by email: https://inspectedbymarko.com/skills/second-brain/#free-skills

Free to copy, change and share, under the MIT License. It comes with no warranty: read a skill before you run it. Box not ticked? You get the skills and nothing else, and your address is deleted after 30 days.

## Your notes are in order. Is your app?

Send one app or repository. You get a written report pack in five working days, at a price set before I start. I do 80 to 90% of the work with my AI skills. My team polishes and tests.

- **The inspection:** from $3,500 (USD · starting price). One app or repository · report pack in 5 working days. [See what the inspection covers](https://inspectedbymarko.com/work-with-me/#scope)
- **Builds:** Quoted on a call. MVP builds · rebuilds · fix sprints after an inspection. [Ask about a build](https://inspectedbymarko.com/call/?need=build#pick-a-time)
- [Request a 20-minute call](https://inspectedbymarko.com/call/): Free, 20 minutes, no code access. For apps with paying users. I read every request myself.

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