Building a personal wiki an AI reads first

If you write notes only to be easy for a person, an AI reads them badly. Write them for the AI instead, and both can read them.

The difference is one thing.

A person can skim a long document and stop where they need to. An AI knows only what you handed it all at once. It cannot skim and stop.

So you split them up.

• A small bundle you always hand over — a few pages: who I am, what I am doing now
• Loose single notes that come along by link only when needed — everything else

And at the top of each note you put a box saying what kind of note it is. That is the only place a machine can find out.

What you need

Tool	What it is for
Obsidian	the notes app. The files stay on your own computer
Claude	the AI that reads and writes the notes
git	saves things so you can undo
iCloud	seeing the same notes on a phone or tablet

Folders go by 'kind', not by 'topic'

You do not make folders for topics like work, study or reading. One note often belongs to several topics at once.

You make folders for the kind of note instead.

Folder	What goes in
Core	the few pages always handed to the AI
Identity	things about me
Work	projects I am doing
History	things that happened
People	people I know
Environment	organisations and places
Thinking	principles and views
Assets	what I own
Knowledge	things I read and wrote up
Inbox	notes not sorted yet

Topics cut across the folders using tags and guide notes instead of folders.

What goes at the top of a note

Every note gets this information at the top — kind, other names, tags, date made, date changed, status.

Status has three steps. Seed → growing → settled. Every time you change a note, you update the "date changed".

The body is written in Korean; tags and folder names are in English.

The four pages you always hand over

Note	Role
Index	the map of everything
Me	"the one page you paste into any AI"
Now	what I am focused on lately (changed often)
Principles	the core principles

The AI reads these four first, then reads only the notes related to the question. It does not read everything. That is the whole point.

How to write and keep them

1. One idea per note. Split it when it gets long.
2. Link. A new note gets links to the existing notes it relates to.
3. Write fast, move later. An urgent note goes in the Inbox folder, then moves where it belongs once it settles.
4. Update the date every time you change it.

You write the AI its reading rules

You put a file called CLAUDE.md at the top of the notes and write the rules in it.

• When asked "about me", treat these notes as the first source
• Read the four core pages first before answering
• Notes marked private do not go into anything that leaves

Things to watch out for

• Turning on the AI connection means the whole set of notes is visible. Private notes included.
• iCloud is sync, not backup. What you delete gets deleted everywhere too. Getting it back needs the git copy.
• The git copy does not go on the internet. That is what keeps the private notes from leaving.

The order, start to finish

• Install the notes app, make the notes folder
• Make the folders by kind, and the templates
• Write the four core pages — Index / Me / Now / Principles
• Set up the topic tags and guide notes
• Install the automatic-list plugin
• Write the file with the AI's reading rules
• Connect the AI
• Sync with your other devices
• git backup (not on the internet)
• Check the private rules