Last updated: 2026-09-24
When you first start with Obsidian, you don't know what to do. There seem to be a lot of features to learn, and it's hard to tell where to begin. Even once you learn a feature, you aren't sure how to use it in your actual notes. You suspect you'd need to know how to code to use it properly. Links are supposed to be great, but it's confusing what to connect and how.
Looking at a vault that already has some structure can help you get a feel for it. I built this starter vault by mixing what I think you need to get up to speed quickly with Obsidian and the know-how I've picked up along the way.
- Researching Obsidian piece by piece can easily eat up 2 to 3 days. With this vault, you can poke around and get a feel for it within 3 hours.
- It includes notes I actually wrote (more than 50).
- It includes Claude Code commands and skills.
- It's a vault continually updated by the author of 『Second Brain with Obsidian and Claude Code』.
What's in the Vault
PARA + Zettelkasten
The folder structure supports both PARA and Zettelkasten. It also has example notes for Zettelkasten. I recommend it if you've read a Zettelkasten book and want real examples.
Plugins and Themes
Plugins and themes I consider useful are already set up.
Mini Course
There's a mini course. It collects the know-how I've gathered while using Obsidian, the features that I think are really great.
Templates
There are some useful templates: mind map, travel plan, investment note, movie list, multi-column, Cornell note, and wiki note templates.
Claude Code Integration
It includes 10 slash commands and 2 agent skills you can use with Claude Code.
| Slash command | Description |
|---|---|
/summarize |
Summarizes the note and adds it as a callout |
/visualize |
Visualizes the note's content as a Mermaid diagram |
/tidy |
Fixes typos and tidies up structure |
/concepts |
Extracts key concepts and links them to existing notes |
/permanent |
Writes an idea up as an atomic permanent note |
/atomic |
Checks a note for atomicity → splits and links it if it contains several concepts |
/daydream |
Finds isolated notes and suggests links |
/ideas-for-writing |
Recommends writing topics from subjects with enough accumulated notes |
/link |
Finds existing notes related to the current note and links them |
/dashboard |
Builds the content into a single HTML dashboard and opens it |
| Agent skill | Description |
|---|---|
/youtube |
Cleans up YouTube subtitles and creates a reference note |
/book |
Fetches a book's table of contents and creates a reference note |
For skills that need external tools (yt-dlp, networkx, playwright), you can ask Claude Code to install them all at once.
Newsletter Collection
The newsletters I serialized on Maily are included in the references/newsletters folder.
Read the README First
- Download the ZIP file and extract it.
- Open the extracted folder as a vault in Obsidian.
- Read the README and get started.
The Price Will Keep Rising
This isn't a line meant to push sales with FOMO. It's because I plan to keep updating this vault. So as the quality improves, I plan to raise the price accordingly. Once you buy it, you can keep downloading the updated content. For the vault's latest update date, see the top of this page.
Who It's For
- People who have started with Obsidian but are overwhelmed by information and need a well-built example vault
- People interested in the second brain and Zettelkasten who need real examples
- People who want to get more out of Obsidian with AI
FAQ
Can Obsidian beginners use it?
Yes. That said, I recommend getting somewhat familiar with how Obsidian works first. This vault focuses on vault setup rather than explaining Obsidian's features.
I already use an Obsidian vault. Can I merge this into it?
You can recreate it yourself by following the Starter Kit vault as a model, or copy the .obsidian folder for the Obsidian settings. If you overwrite, be careful: your existing settings will be overwritten.
I didn't buy 『Second Brain with Obsidian and Claude Code』. Do I have to read it?
It covers Obsidian's features and how to integrate it with Claude Code, so I recommend reading it once, even if you have to borrow it from a library. That said, if you're already somewhat familiar with Obsidian and Claude Code, you don't need the book and can just use the vault as a reference.