The vault every AI reads first
A new AI tool starts out knowing what the old one knew. The vault is a folder of plain text notes that holds who I am, how each brand sounds, where every project stands and my standing rules. Claude, Codex and anything else reads it before doing any work, and writes back to it. The vault is the permanent layer. The AI tools are interchangeable.
- Why
- Every tool has its own private memory, and that locks you in. I wanted everything automatically pushed and synced, in files I own. A normal personal wiki answers "who am I." This one answers "how should any AI work with me, right now."
How I built it
- I made a folder of plain text notes and opened it in Obsidian.
- I added one front-door file that tells any AI: read the rules folder first, the task list last.
- I put the rules in one folder (who I am, how I like to work, how each brand sounds) and everything else in ordinary pages.
- I set three levels of permission: rules need my approval in chat, the task list and knowledge pages can be written freely but must be reported.
- I put it in a private GitHub repository and scheduled a script to save and upload on a timer.
- I pointed each AI tool's own memory back at the vault and kept that memory nearly empty.
- To copy it you need
- Claude, or the AI of your choice, as long as it can read files, plus Obsidian and a private GitHub repository. The gotcha: upload permission has to be set up on every machine, and it is the step everyone forgets.
Try it yourself
Copy this prompt and paste it into ChatGPT or Claude to try it yourself.
I want to copy the vault from Frances Tang's What Are We Building profile. She keeps a folder of plain text notes that every AI tool reads before it does any work: who she is, how she likes to work, how her brands sound, and where each project stands. One front-door file tells the AI to read the rules first and the task list last. Rules need her approval to change; everything else the AI can update as long as it reports what it changed. Her gotcha: tools kept saving things to their own private memory until she told each one to point back to the vault. Help me build a starter version with three files: about me, how I like to work, and my current projects. Start by interviewing me for the first one. Ask me for anything you need.
Tools I used for this project
