Build Your Own

by Tim Noakesmith

How to build your own AI chief of staff using Obsidian, Claude Code, and a handful of free tools. No coding experience required — just fork, configure, and start talking.

I'm not a developer. I'm an executive coach. Everything you see here was built through conversation with Claude — describing what I wanted in plain English and letting it write the code.

What is Pepper Potts?

A personal operating system built on top of Obsidian (a free note-taking app) and Claude Code (Anthropic's AI coding assistant). It turns your notes into a living system that helps you organize your life, run your business, and stay on top of everything.

Think of it like hiring a chief of staff who lives inside your computer. Every morning it reviews your day. Every evening it reflects on what happened. It processes your emails, tracks your projects, and connects the dots across everything you're working on.

The whole thing is open source. You own all your data. Nothing is locked in a proprietary platform.

How it works

BrainObsidian — all your notes, projects, and knowledge live in a simple folder of markdown files on your computer

ConductorClaude Code — you talk to it in your terminal and it reads, creates, and connects your notes

SyncGit — your vault is backed up to GitHub, version-controlled, accessible from any device

PipesPepper Potts — a small backend that catches emails and webhooks and pushes them into your vault

MethodPARA — Projects, Areas, Resources, Archive. Everything has a clear home based on actionability

What you'll need

ObsidianFree note-taking app

Free

Claude CodeAI assistant that runs in your terminal

Subscription

GitHubFor syncing and backing up your vault

Free

Optional: Vercel (free tier) and Postmark (free tier) for the email-to-vault pipeline.

Setup guide

Fork the repository

Go to the Pepper Potts GitHub repo and click Fork. This gives you your own copy of the entire system — folder structure, commands, configuration, everything.

Clone your fork to your computer. This folder becomes your Obsidian vault.

git clone https://github.com/YOUR-USERNAME/pepper-potts.git my-vault

Open it in Obsidian

Download Obsidian if you haven't already. Open it, choose “Open folder as vault”, and select the folder you just cloned.

You'll see the PARA folder structure already set up — Inbox, Projects, Areas, Resources, Archive. Everything is ready to go.

5 more steps below

Get the full setup guide

The remaining steps cover Claude Code setup, personalizing your CLAUDE.md, creating your first commands, and connecting email. Free — just drop your details.

No spam. Just the guide and occasional updates on the project.

Install and run Claude Code

Follow the Claude Code installation guide. Once installed, open your terminal, navigate to your vault folder, and run:

claude

Claude will automatically read the CLAUDE.md file in your vault. This is the brain — it tells Claude how your system works, what the folders mean, and how you like to operate.

Personalize your CLAUDE.md

The CLAUDE.md that came with the fork is a starter template. Open it and make it yours. Tell Claude:

What you do for work
What projects you're focused on
How you like to organize your time
Any tools or services you use (calendar, email, etc.)

The more context you give, the better Claude works. You can also just tell Claude to update it: “Add a section about my coaching business to the CLAUDE.md”.

Let Claude make it yours

The folder structure is already there from the fork. Now tell Claude to personalize it:

Read my CLAUDE.md and set up the vault for me — create a profile note, add templates, set up my daily note, and configure anything that needs my context.

Claude will read your instructions, fill in the gaps, and connect everything based on what you told it in step 4. This is the magic — you describe your life, Claude wires the system.

Try your first command

The fork comes with pre-built commands in .claude/commands/. Try the daily kickoff:

/daily-kickoff

Claude will walk you through a morning check-in — how you're feeling, what's on your plate, what your focus is for the day. It takes about five minutes and sets the tone for everything that follows.

Other commands to try: /daily-reflection, /thinking-partner, /weekly-review.

Set up email forwarding (optional)

This is the Pepper Potts backend — a tiny server that catches emails and turns them into vault notes.

Deploy your fork to Vercel (one click — import from GitHub)
Add your environment variables in Vercel (GitHub token, repo name, secret key)
Sign up for Postmark, create a server, and set the inbound webhook URL to your-app.vercel.app/api/email?token=YOUR_SECRET
Forward any email to your Postmark address and it appears in your vault

Connect Google Calendar (optional)

Add your calendar to the system using an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server. This lets Claude read your schedule, create events, and check availability.

Install the Google Calendar MCP:

claude mcp add google-calendar -- npx -y @cocal/google-calendar-mcp

On first run, it will open a browser window to authenticate with your Google account. You'll need to create OAuth credentials in the Google Cloud Console first — enable the Calendar API, create an OAuth 2.0 client, and save the credentials to ~/.gmail-mcp/gcp-oauth.keys.json.

Once connected, Claude can do things like “What's on my calendar today?”, “Block 2–3pm for deep work”, or “When's my next free hour?”

Note: it may not work perfectly out of the box. If you hit auth issues, restart Claude Code and re-run the MCP setup. The server initializes when Claude Code starts.

Stuck on something?

If anything in this guide doesn't make sense — a term, a step, a concept — just ask Claude. That's the whole point. Open your terminal, type claude, and ask it in plain English.

Claude Code is patient, thorough, and doesn't judge. It built this entire website. It can walk you through any step. You don't need to understand everything upfront — just start, and ask as you go.

Common questions

Do I need to know how to code?

No. Claude Code writes the code for you. You describe what you want in plain English, and it builds it. I built this entire system through conversation.

Is this free?

Mostly. Obsidian is free. GitHub is free. Vercel and Postmark have free tiers. The only cost is a Claude subscription (for Claude Code).

Can I use this on my phone?

The vault syncs via Git, so you can read notes on mobile using Obsidian's mobile app. Running commands requires a terminal (laptop/desktop), though phone-based workflows are on the roadmap.

What if I already have an Obsidian vault?

Perfect — just add the CLAUDE.md file, the .claude/commands/ folder, and start building commands. No need to restructure what you already have.

Is my data private?

Yes. Your vault is a folder on your computer, backed up to a private GitHub repo you control. The email webhook runs on your own Vercel deployment. Nothing goes through third-party services you don't control.