Every new chat, you re-explain the mandate, the buyers, the history — then it forgets. A second brain remembers all of it for you, and gets sharper every week. Obsidian + Claude, set up in an afternoon — free guide and a ready-made starter vault below.
No email gate. No sign-up. Built by Russell at SearchLoop.
An Obsidian vault is just a folder of plain text files on your laptop. Obsidian adds two things on top: a graph that shows how your notes connect, and [[links]] between them.
Claude — in the desktop app or Claude Code — reads that same folder and writes new notes back into it. No database. No vector search. No IT ticket. If you can keep notes in folders, you can run this.
The split is simple: Obsidian is the notebook — it shows your notes and how they link. Claude is the operator — it reads the notebook and writes new pages into it. The vault is just the folder they share.
Most "AI note" setups are just storage. This one improves itself, because the loop closes every time you use it.
Claude reads your vault for context — your criteria, the mandate, the people, what you decided last time. It starts every task already knowing your world.
It does the job: summarise a 120-page IM, prep a buyer call, rank buyers for a process, draft the intro to a fund.
It files what it learned as new, linked notes — and updates the index. Nothing evaporates into a lost chat window.
The next session starts smarter than this one. That loop is the whole game.
This isn't a metaphor: Claude Code loads your standing brief every session and keeps its own running memory by default — it's documented.
Mandates, the reading, and your relationships aren't three tools — they're one connected graph, and they compound together.
The client, the buyer map, the process stage, the open questions. Every touch adds to the picture instead of restarting it. Your live engagements become institutional memory, not a spreadsheet you dread.
Drop in an IM, a teaser, or a buyer's thesis; Claude writes the synthesis into the vault and links it to the mandate. Months later you can still ask it what that buyer was hunting.
Funds, strategics, founders, referral sources — a quiet graph of who's hunting what, what you last said, and the next touch. The buyer for your mandate is one link away.
The buyer links to the mandate, the mandate links to the IM, the IM links to your criteria. Open the graph and you see a living brain.
The starter vault, drawn from its own pages. Yours grows every time you use it.
Pick the one that fits you. Both read and write the very same folder of notes — they're just different front doors.
You'll need: Obsidian (free) · the Claude desktop app or Claude Code · Mac or Windows. Keep the vault in its own folder — never point Claude at your whole Documents or Desktop.
CLAUDE.md of rules, a START-HERE guide, and example pages already linked together). In Obsidian, choose Open folder as vault and pick the unzipped folder — the graph lights up.Now connect Claude — your operator. Pick the door that fits you:
The Claude desktop app, point-and-click.
reading/ and link it to a mandate.A terminal. This is how the pros run it.
claude from inside the vault folder.One difference worth knowing: Claude Code reads CLAUDE.md automatically every session. Cowork doesn't read it by name — you give it the same context once through Cowork's Instructions.
Two things stay separate: your notes live on your machine, but the text Claude needs to answer is sent to Anthropic to process it — same as any AI tool — and retention depends on your plan and settings. So don't load live client data or NDA'd documents until your firm has signed off; do your first runs on a public or redacted deal. The vault's CLAUDE.md spells this out too.
It's not an empty template. It's a small, fictional M&A advisory firm you can poke at — a live sell-side mandate wired to its buyer map, the buyer you're taking it to, the founder-seller, your mandate criteria, and a buyer-fit model. Open the graph and you can see how it connects from day one. Then make it yours.
Download the starter vault (.zip)reading/.This second brain is one piece. SearchLoop builds the full origination workflow for private equity funds and advisors — sourcing, enrichment, scoring, outreach, CRM. We take on a small number each quarter, so every build gets our full attention. If that's you, apply for early access.
Apply for early accessLimited spots each quarter · Russell Taylor, SearchLoop