█████╗ ██████╗ ███████╗ ██╔══██╗██╔══██╗██╔════╝ ███████║██████╔╝███████╗ ██╔══██║██╔══██╗╚════██║ ██║ ██║██║ ██║███████║ ╚═╝ ╚═╝╚═╝ ╚═╝╚══════╝ ██████╗ ██████╗ ███╗ ██╗████████╗███████╗██╗ ██╗████████╗ █████╗ ██╔════╝██╔═══██╗████╗ ██║╚══██╔══╝██╔════╝╚██╗██╔╝╚══██╔══╝██╔══██╗ ██║ ██║ ██║██╔██╗ ██║ ██║ █████╗ ╚███╔╝ ██║ ███████║ ██║ ██║ ██║██║╚██╗██║ ██║ ██╔══╝ ██╔██╗ ██║ ██╔══██║ ╚██████╗╚██████╔╝██║ ╚████║ ██║ ███████╗██╔╝ ██╗ ██║ ██║ ██║ ╚═════╝ ╚═════╝ ╚═╝ ╚═══╝ ╚═╝ ╚══════╝╚═╝ ╚═╝ ╚═╝ ╚═╝ ╚═╝
If you keep notes in Obsidian and work with Claude Code — sooner or later the question arises: how do you make these two worlds talk to each other? How do you get context from notes into the agent, and insights from sessions back into the vault?
I tried several approaches: from manual copy-paste to complex configs. And finally found Ars Contexta — a Claude Code plugin that solves this task more elegantly than anything I've seen.
Ars Contexta is a Claude Code plugin that generates a personalized knowledge management system through conversation. Not a template, not a ready-made framework — but a derivative of how specifically you think and work.
The name references historical mnemonic systems: Ars Combinatoria and Ars Memoria. The project philosophy: this is not storage, it's a tool for thinking. And now an LLM can traverse it.
Every generated system is built on three invariant spaces:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Ars Contexta Vault │ ├─────────────┬─────────────────┬─────────────────┤ │ self/ │ notes/ │ ops/ │ │ │ │ │ │ identity │ knowledge │ sessions │ │ methods │ graph │ queues │ │ goals │ MOCs │ state │ │ │ wiki links │ │ │ ~tens │ ~10-50/week │ fluctuating │ └─────────────┴─────────────────┴─────────────────┘
Names adapt to your domain: e.g., "reflections/" instead of "notes/".
Extending the Cornell Note-Taking method. Each phase runs as a separate subagent with a clean context window:
Record → Reduce → Reflect → Reweave → Verify → Rethink
│ │ │ │ │ │
inbox extract connect update check challenge
capture insights notes old graph assumptions
+ MOC notes health
Key detail: each phase spawns a fresh subagent. LLM attention degrades as context fills — splitting into phases keeps every operation in the "smart zone."
I used to manage notes in VS Code — opening the vault as a project, using search, editing markdown files. It worked, but the context between notes and code remained disconnected.
Then I configured Cowork from Claude Code for this task — essentially creating an agentic mode where Claude could read and write notes in the vault. It was better: the agent could see context, suggest connections. But the configuration was fragile, and every new vault needed fresh setup.
Then I found Ars Contexta — and that was the moment everything clicked. The plugin doesn't just give you tools — it generates an entire cognitive architecture tailored to you. Note context and connectivity improved dramatically. Notes stopped being a dump of thoughts and became a working system.
VS Code (manual) → Cowork (agentic) → Ars Contexta (cognitive)
✗ no links ~ fragile ✓ full system
✗ no context ~ per-vault setup ✓ derived for you
✗ just files ~ custom config ✓ 249 research claims
This is an important practical point I learned the hard way:
Best to run from the home directory (~) or directly from your vault folder:
cd ~/path/to/Obsidian/vault claude
Or create an alias in ~/.zshrc:
# ~/.zshrc alias kb='cd ~/path/to/Obsidian/vault && claude'
Now kb in any terminal opens Claude Code straight in the vault. All /reduce, /reflect, /reweave and other commands will work with the right files.
After setup, you get an arsenal of commands:
One thing that hooked me: every architectural decision is backed by specific research. Not "we decided so" but "here's why."
The methodology/ directory contains 249 interconnected research claims spanning:
Example: MOC file hierarchy derives from context-switching cost research (Leroy, 2009).
My path went like this: VS Code for manual editing → Cowork from Claude Code as an agentic mode → Ars Contexta as a full cognitive architecture. Each step removed barriers between thinking and recording.
If you keep notes in Obsidian and work with Claude Code — give it a try. Setup takes 20 minutes, and you feel the difference from the first /reflect session.