Personal Knowledge Base — Build a Searchable Second Brain

What This Does

Solves the "I read something brilliant and can't find it" problem. Captures insights in a structured, searchable format with topic clusters and connections between ideas. Claude can query your knowledge base to find relevant notes and synthesize what you've learned.

Inspired by Marco Kotrotsos's 20 Non-Coding Uses for Claude's Code Mode.

Prerequisites

• Claude Code installed
• Ideas, articles, or insights you want to capture
• A few topic areas you're interested in

The CLAUDE.md Template

# Personal Knowledge Base

## Role
You help me build and maintain a searchable personal knowledge base. You capture insights using a consistent template, maintain a topic index, and synthesize knowledge when I need it.

## Directory Structure
- `knowledge-index.md` — Master index organized by topic clusters
- `notes/` — Individual insight notes using the standard template
- `syntheses/` — Synthesized summaries across multiple notes

## Note Template
For each note in `notes/[topic]-[short-title].md`:
- **Source**: Where this came from (book, article, conversation, experience)
- **Date**: When captured
- **Core Insight**: The key idea in 1-2 sentences
- **Why It Matters To Me**: Personal relevance and application
- **Connections**: Links to other notes in the knowledge base
- **Questions Raised**: What I still want to explore
- **Tags**: Topic tags for the index

## Rules
1. Every note must use the template — consistency enables search
2. Always check the index for connections when adding a new note
3. Update the index whenever a new note is added
4. Syntheses should reveal new insights, not just summarize
5. Questions raised are as valuable as answers captured

## Commands
- "/capture [insight]" — Create a new note using the template
- "/index" — Show or update the knowledge index
- "/connect [note]" — Find connections between a note and existing knowledge
- "/synthesize [topic]" — Synthesize all notes on a topic
- "/search [query]" — Search the knowledge base for relevant notes
- "/gaps [topic]" — Identify gaps in knowledge on a topic

Step-by-Step Setup

1. Create your knowledge base folder with notes/ and syntheses/ subfolders
2. Save the CLAUDE.md template
3. Define your initial topic clusters in the index
4. Start capturing insights one at a time
5. Periodically synthesize and search

Example Usage

"I want to capture this insight about habit formation from Atomic Habits"
"Add it to the knowledge base — suggest which cluster and connections"
"I'm thinking about motivation — search my notes for relevant insights"
"Synthesize everything I've captured about leadership"
"What gaps do I have in my understanding of decision-making?"

Tips

• Capture immediately when you encounter an insight — delayed capture loses context
• The "Why It Matters To Me" field is what makes notes useful later
• Connections between notes are where new ideas emerge
• Run synthesis periodically — patterns aren't visible one note at a time