A practical skill that walks you through building a living, searchable, AI-powered knowledge base from your ChatGPT/Claude history, research, and daily inputs — then talking to it from your laptop or phone.
Maintained by Yo-Da Lai · Gold Coast, Australia
Works with Claude Code and Hermes Agent.
On 3 April 2026, Andrej Karpathy published a gist on building a personal wiki with a folder of markdown + an LLM. The idea spread fast for a reason: RAG re-discovers knowledge every time. A wiki compounds it.
This skill packages that pattern — plus an AI-history organiser process popularised by Alex Freedman and slash-command workflows shared by Greg Isenberg — into one guided setup.
Original packaging was released by Charlie Hills (MIT). This is Yo-Da Lai’s maintained fork: clearer installs, Hermes + Claude Code paths, a sturdier wiki scaffold, and a share page you can send people to.
Share page (send people here): https://ezauto399.github.io/ai-second-brain/
GitHub repo: https://github.com/EzAuto399/ai-second-brain
Personal site / work with me: https://yodalai.xyz
git clone https://github.com/EzAuto399/ai-second-brain.git ~/.claude/skills/ai-second-brainIf that folder already exists, back it up first:
mv ~/.claude/skills/ai-second-brain ~/.claude/skills/ai-second-brain.backupOpen Claude Code anywhere and say:
Set up my AI second brain.
Update later:
cd ~/.claude/skills/ai-second-brain && git pull# Personal profile example — adjust the skills path if your Hermes profile differs
git clone https://github.com/EzAuto399/ai-second-brain.git \
~/.hermes/profiles/personal/skills/research/ai-second-brainThen in Hermes:
Load the ai-second-brain skill and set up my AI second brain.
If Hermes already has the built-in llm-wiki skill, this skill still helps for the full guided path (exports → vault → channels → slash commands). Use both: this skill for setup, llm-wiki for ongoing wiki ops.
/skills
You should see ai-second-brain. If not, the clone path is wrong — re-run Option A.
flowchart LR
A[ChatGPT / Claude<br/>exports] --> B[Step 1<br/>AI Brain]
C[PDFs, notes,<br/>transcripts] --> D[Step 2<br/>Living Wiki]
E[Gmail, calendar,<br/>meetings] --> F[Step 3<br/>Heartbeat]
B --> G[Tagged, linked<br/>Obsidian vault]
D --> G
F --> G
G --> H[Talk to it from<br/>laptop or phone]
Three stages — do all three, or pick one:
- AI Brain — turn ChatGPT + Claude history into tagged, linked markdown in Obsidian.
- Living Wiki —
raw/sources in, structured wiki pages out (Karpathy-style, with a durable schema). - Heartbeat — optional connectors + messaging channels + slash commands (
/today,/ideas,/create).
Every step the agent can do, it does. Every step only you can do (exports, macOS permissions, browser logins) pauses until you confirm.
- Claude Code or Hermes Agent
- Obsidian (free)
- ~30 minutes of attention, plus 1–3 days waiting if you request a ChatGPT data export
The skill should activate on things like:
- “Set up my AI second brain”
- “Build the Karpathy wiki”
- “Organise my ChatGPT conversations in Obsidian”
- “I exported my ChatGPT data, what now?”
- “Help me set up iMessage / Telegram channels for my wiki”
- “Create the /today, /ideas and /create slash commands”
Already done part of it? Say: “skip step 1, I’ve already done it”.
Does this send my data anywhere?
No. Everything lives in folders on your machine. The only network calls are the ones your agent already makes to its model provider. Your conversations, wiki, and raw sources stay local.
Will it read my email automatically?
Only when you ask, and only for the threads relevant to the request. You control connectors and can revoke access anytime.
Claude Code or Hermes?
Both work. Claude Code is the path most newsletter-style walkthroughs assume. Hermes is great if you already run a multi-skill local agent (and may already include llm-wiki).
Can I uninstall the skill?
Yes:
rm -rf ~/.claude/skills/ai-second-brain
# or Hermes path:
rm -rf ~/.hermes/profiles/personal/skills/research/ai-second-brainThat removes the skill only. Your Obsidian vault / wiki data stays.
Does it work on Windows?
Steps 1–2 yes. Native iMessage channels are Mac-only — use Telegram/Discord/gateway options instead.
What if I don’t want messaging channels?
Skip that sub-step. You still get a living wiki on your laptop.
Business / team version?
A personal second brain is the right start. If you want a governed company brain + AI staff for a real business (approvals, channels, memory), that’s what I build for clients at yodalai.xyz (ClawConnect by Yoda Lai — AI staff platform).
Underlying ideas are not mine. This skill exists so setup takes minutes, not a weekend.
- Andrej Karpathy — original gist for the living markdown wiki pattern (
raw/, wiki compile loop, LLM as maintainer). - Alex Freedman (@alex2learn) — AI Brain export-and-organise process adapted in Step 1.
- Greg Isenberg — slash-command-on-vault workflow that Step 3c is based on.
- Charlie Hills — original MIT packaging that this maintained fork builds on.
I (Yo-Da Lai) maintain this fork: dual-agent install, sturdier wiki scaffold, channel options, and the public share page.
Yo-Da Lai — forward-deployed AI engineer on the Gold Coast, Australia.
I help non-technical business owners automate real work with AI systems that stay under human approval.
- Site: yodalai.xyz
- Instagram: @yodalai.dev
- Free 15‑min build review: yodalai.xyz (book from the site)
If this skill helped, send someone the repo link — or the Pages URL once it’s live on this repository.
MIT. Fork it, modify it, rebrand it — keep the credits to Karpathy, Alex, Greg, and the original packaging notice.