If you use Obsidian, there’s a good chance you spend more time setting it up than actually using it.
I’ve heard this from so many people I’ve introduced to Obsidian, and I was the same.
That’s why I started combining it with Claude and it completely changed how I use my vault. Claude remembers my context every session, handles the setup work, and leaves me free to just think.
In this article I’m going to show you five practical ways I use Claude inside my Obsidian vault. Each one moves you away from configuring and towards actually creating.
One of them connects Claude directly to the other apps you already use, Canva and Google Drive, without ever leaving Obsidian. That one surprised me the most, and I think it’ll surprise you too.
Let’s get into it.
Workflow
Before I show you the five ways, let me explain the setup I use.
I have two Obsidian vaults. One is my personal vault. Five years of my own ideas, research, and notes that I want to keep separate. The other is where I work with Claude. I use this second vault for my day-to-day work and Claude handles the heavy lifting inside it.
I keep them separate because I didn’t want Claude anywhere near my personal notes. That boundary matters to me.
With that, let’s get started.
Feature 1 — Personal Assistant Setup (Claude.md)
Before I set this up, I was repeating myself every single session. Explaining my projects, my goals, my writing style, all of it, every time I opened Claude. It was one of those small frustrations that adds up fast.
The fix is a single file called Claude.md. You create it in the root folder of your vault. This is where you tell Claude who you are, what you’re working on, and how you want it to help you. Claude reads it at the start of every session so you never have to repeat yourself again.
On screen here you can see I’ve opened my vault and I’m creating a new file called Claude.md in the root folder. Inside it I’m writing a short description of my projects and what I want Claude to help me with. You only set this up once and then update it as your work changes.
Once that’s set up, there are three ways this immediately helps someone who is short on time.
The first is that Claude remembers your context every single session. You don’t have to explain who you are or what you’re working on every time you open it. For someone juggling work and life, that alone saves a surprising amount of time.
The second is that you can set your writing style, so anything Claude helps you write sounds like you and not like it came from a machine.
And the third is that you can point it to specific folders in your vault, so when you ask for help with a project it already knows where everything lives.
Next let’s have a look at the feature I use the most.
Feature 2 — Daily Note Co-Pilot
If you’ve tried to keep a daily note habit and it just never stuck, I recommend using Claude to fill in your daily notes.
I used to forget updating the daily note entirely. Now the difference is that I open it with Claude alongside me and we work through it together. It takes about five minutes and then I actually know what I’m doing with my day.
On screen here you can see today’s daily note. This is a template with a few sections: Focus, Done, and Notes.
When I use Claude I ask it to create a new daily note and list out the things I need to do based on my projects and what I did in the last session. I did have problems getting it to set the right date so now I just tell it the date. At the end of a session I can ask Claude to update the note with the things I did today.
There are three ways this is useful for someone with a busy schedule.
The first is planning. You tell Claude what you’ve got on and it helps you cut through the noise of a crowded to-do list.
The second is end of session review. Instead of trying to remember what you did, you just tell Claude roughly what happened and it writes it up properly so you have a real record.
And the third is when you’re feeling overwhelmed you can ask Claude to create a plan to help you meet your goals.
This is perfect for me as I am someone who engages with my vault infrequently during the week and the daily note keeps me updated.
But what about actually creating notes.
Feature 3 — Messy Notes to Clean Notes
The third way I use Claude is to turn rough, messy notes into clean structured ones, and this one saves me more time than I expected.
When I’m researching or an idea hits me, I just type whatever I can as fast as I can. It ends up being bullet points, no structure, and just a brain dump. Now I ask Claude to rewrite it using a template I’ve set up in my vault. It comes back as a proper note with clear headings that fits alongside everything else.
On screen I’m going to paste in some rough notes from a recent brainstorm. You can see it’s pretty chaotic. Now I’ll ask Claude to rewrite it as a structured Obsidian note with clear headings and bullet points.
There are three ways you can use this straight away.
The first is cleaning up meeting notes. Paste in whatever you captured on the day and get back a proper summary you can file and find later.
The second is sorting out voice-to-text notes. If you use your phone to dictate ideas, you know how messy those transcripts can be. Claude cleans them up in seconds.
The third is saving articles or pages you want to keep. Paste in the text and ask Claude to summarise it as a note in your vault’s style so it actually fits alongside everything else.
The next one is the feature that surprised me the most, and I didn’t see it coming.
Feature 4 — Connectors
The fourth way took me by surprise because I didn’t realise how much time I was losing moving between apps.
Every time I finished a note in Obsidian I would then have to open Canva to design something for it, or jump to Google Drive to turn it into a document I could share. It didn’t sound like much but it broke my flow every single time.
Claude has connectors that let you stay inside your vault and reach directly into other tools. On screen you can see me selecting the Canva connector. I paste in a note about this video and ask Claude to generate a thumbnail concept based on it. Without leaving Obsidian, I get a design brief I can take straight into Canva and build in minutes.
I use the Google Drive connector when I need to turn a note into a document to share with someone. A plan, a summary, a brief. Instead of copying and reformatting everything manually, I ask Claude to do it and the document lands in my Drive.
There are three ways this saves real time.
The first is that you stop losing your train of thought switching between apps.
The second is that your Obsidian notes become the single source of everything you create, designs, documents, posts, rather than just a place to store ideas.
And the third is that the output already fits your style because Claude knows your context from your Claude.md file.
Feature 5 — Generate Ideas
The fifth way is one I use without even thinking about it now. Using Claude to generate ideas directly inside my vault.
Before I had this set up, coming up with ideas felt like staring at a blank page. I’d open a new note, write a topic at the top, and just sit there. It was the part of my workflow that cost me the most time for the least output.
Now I just ask Claude. And because it already knows my projects, my audience, and my style from the Claude.md file we set up in Feature 1, the ideas it comes back with are actually relevant to me. Not generic suggestions you could find anywhere.
On screen you can see a real example. I asked Claude to suggest five YouTube video ideas for my channel. Here is exactly what it came back with. You can see it has given me a title, a one-line description, and the hook angle for each one. This video, the one you are watching right now, was one of those suggestions. I picked it, built the outline, and recorded it. That is how fast it can move from idea to content.
There are three ways I use this in practice.
The first is monthly planning. I ask Claude for a full month of ideas in one go, pick the ones that feel right, and drop them into my content planner.
The second is when I am stuck on an angle. I give Claude a topic and ask it for three different ways I could frame it for my audience.
And the third is repurposing. I point Claude at something I have already written or recorded and ask it what else I could make from it. A single note has turned into three videos that way.
Closing Wrap
So those are the five ways I use Claude with Obsidian. Setting up your personal assistant with Claude.md. Using Claude as a daily note co-pilot. Turning messy notes into clean structured ones. Connecting Claude to the other tools you already use. And generating ideas that are actually relevant to your work and your audience.
Every one of them comes back to the same idea: stop configuring Obsidian, start using it. Let Claude handle the memory and the setup so you can focus on the thinking.