Build an LLM wiki in Obsidian with Claude Code

Keeping sources apart from the wiki lets Claude rewrite pages without touching your originals.

1. 1Open Obsidian and create a new vault, for example one called Research wiki.
2. 2Add two folders: raw for your sources and wiki for the pages Claude writes.
3. 3Drop any PDFs or notes you already have into raw.

You should see an empty wiki folder and your files inside raw.

This is the LLM wiki pattern Andrej Karpathy shared in April 2026: raw sources, a wiki the AI keeps, and a rules file.

Web Clipper saves a page as clean Markdown, which is easier for Claude to read than a web page.

1. 1Install Web Clipper from obsidian.md/clipper and open an article you want to keep.
2. 2Click the Obsidian icon in the toolbar, or press Cmd+Shift+O on a Mac (Ctrl+Shift+O on Windows).
3. 3At the bottom, pick your vault in Vault and type raw in Folder. Then click Add to Obsidian.

You should see the article as a new Markdown note inside raw.

Claude Code reads CLAUDE.md at the start of every session, so the same rules apply every time.

1. 1In the vault's top folder, create a note named CLAUDE. Obsidian saves it as CLAUDE.md.
2. 2Paste the rules below and fill in your topic.

# Research wiki rules

Topic: [YOUR TOPIC]

- `raw/` holds my sources. Read them and never edit them.
- `wiki/` is yours. Write one short page per concept, person, tool or claim.
- Link related pages with [[wikilinks]]. Cite the raw file behind every fact.
- Keep `wiki/index.md`: every page with a one-line summary, grouped by theme.
- Add a dated line to `wiki/log.md` for every ingest, question and lint pass.
- When sources disagree, say so on the page. Don't pick a side silently.

You should see CLAUDE.md at the top of the vault, next to the raw and wiki folders.

The first pass turns your sources into linked pages, plus the index Claude uses to find them later.

1. 1Open a terminal in the vault folder and run claude. Or open the Code tab in the Claude desktop app and pick the vault as the project folder.
2. 2Paste the prompt below and approve Claude's file edits as they come.
3. 3Watch the pages appear in Obsidian's file list as Claude writes them.

Read every file in raw/ and build the wiki in wiki/, following CLAUDE.md. Write index.md first, then one page per idea, with links between related pages. At the end, list any source you couldn't read.

You should see new pages in wiki, an index.md with one line per page, and a first entry in log.md.

10 to 20 sources on one topic make a good first batch. Add more later, a few at a time.

The index lets Claude find the right pages without a search database, and good answers become new pages.

1. 1In Obsidian, click Open graph view in the ribbon to see how pages link.
2. 2Under Filters, turn on Orphans to spot pages with no links yet.
3. 3Back in Claude Code, ask a question with the prompt below.

Using wiki/index.md, answer this: [YOUR QUESTION]. Cite the wiki pages you used. If the answer adds something new, save it as a wiki page and link it from the index.

You should see an answer that links to wiki pages, and a new page if it added something.

A wiki drifts as sources pile up, so a regular check catches contradictions and dead ends.

1. 1Add new sources to raw as you find them, then ask Claude to ingest only those files.
2. 2Once a month, run the prompt below and approve the fixes you agree with.

Lint the wiki. Find contradictions, stale claims, orphan pages, missing links and topics that deserve their own page. List fixes by priority and wait for my OK before you change anything.

You should see a ranked list of fixes, and a lint entry in log.md once Claude applies them.