What is the name of the Claude skills with obsidian convo?**The main one is "obsidian-skills" (by Obsidian's creator, kepano).**This is a popular, official-style collection of **Claude skills** (Agent Skills) designed specifically for use with Obsidian vaults alongside Claude Code (or similar agents like Codex CLI). You drop them into your.claude/skills folder (or install via marketplace/npx), and they let Claude expertly handle Obsidian-specific tasks like:
- Editing Obsidian Flavored Markdown (.md files with wikilinks, callouts, embeds, properties, etc.).
- Working with Obsidian Bases (.base files).
- Creating/editing JSON Canvas (.canvas files).
- Using the Obsidian CLI for vault management, plugins, etc.
- Tools like Defuddle for clean web-to-markdown extraction.
Other notable related skills
- Deep Recon (/deep-recon): An experimental multi-agent skill for broader research across your vault + the web.
- Various custom/user-created ones for conversation ingestion, task management, thinking tools, etc., often built on top of or alongside obsidian-skills.
Why it fits the market in 2026
The AI note-taking / second-brain / journaling space is crowded but still growing fast—lots of “best of 2026” roundups highlight demand for tools that turn raw input into intelligent, connected memories. Your concept stands out by being:- Markdown-first and portable (local.md files in iCloud or a folder, just like Obsidian—not proprietary blobs).
- Capture-first for mobile life (one-tap screenshots → OCR text → clean Markdown note + AI tagging/summary added to the memory layer).
- Diary + memories core (AI learns from everything: auto-daily summaries, mood trends, connection graphs, queryable “what did I learn about X last month?”).
- Mem.ai → Excellent AI thought partner that auto-organizes notes, chats with your knowledge base, and has a strong iOS app. Supports voice/ideas/meetings and now Claude integration. But notes aren’t pure local Markdown files.
- Reflect Notes → Very close: minimalist iOS app with daily notes (diary feel), Markdown, backlinks, AI chat for insights, voice memos. Strong privacy focus. Pricing is ~$10/month (billed annually) with a 14-day trial—exactly your model.
- TakeNote → Apple-native Markdown app with local AI summaries, folders/tags, very private. Lightweight and fast, but lighter on the “AI memories that learn” side.
Business model: 14-day trial + subscription = proven and smart
This is exactly how the successful players do it (Mem Pro ~$12–15/month, Reflect ~$10/month annual). It works beautifully for this category because:- Trial hooks users — 14 days is long enough to build a habit (add 20–30 notes/screenshots, see the AI start making connections) and feel the “it’s learning me” magic.
- Subscription justifies itself — Tier it like this:
- Free: Basic Markdown notes, screenshots → text, local storage, limited AI queries.
- Pro ($4.99–$9.99/month or $49–$89/year): Unlimited AI (with user API key), full memory graph, auto-insights, advanced search, templates, iCloud sync extras, export/backup.
- Revenue potential is realistic — Sticky daily-use apps (diary + capture) have good retention. Many users already pay for Reflect/Mem or Obsidian Sync + separate Claude usage.
- Free: Basic Markdown notes, screenshots → text, local storage, limited AI queries.
Realistic challenges (and how to win)
- Competition → High, but most aren’t pure Markdown + screenshot-first + user-key LLM. Market it as “Obsidian skills, but native on your iPhone with zero desktop required.”
- Tech → Feasible today: SwiftUI + SwiftData for local MD, Apple Vision for OCR on screenshots, embed a vector DB (e.g., via CoreML or simple local store) for memories, let users input their own API keys. Start simple (RAG over notes) and add agent-like “skills” later (auto journal prompts, weekly reviews).
- Privacy & costs — Huge selling point: never store their notes or force your own API billing. Users love this (see TakeNote/Reflect emphasis on privacy).
- App Store & retention — Focus on delightful mobile UX (widgets for quick capture, Live Activities for streak reminders, Shortcuts integration). Diary apps thrive on streaks and insights.
Why this stack works great for your idea
- Unified language & models: You can share Swift types, logic, and even some business rules (e.g., Markdown parsing, note models, memory/RAG structures) between the iOS app and backend. Many full-stack Swift developers highlight this as a huge productivity win.
- SwiftUI strengths: Perfect for a beautiful, native iOS capture experience—quick note entry, screenshot handling (via Share Sheet + Vision framework for OCR), Markdown editing/preview, widgets, Live Activities for streaks, and smooth animations. In 2026, SwiftUI is fully production-ready for complex apps.
- Vapor strengths: Mature, high-performance server-side Swift framework (still actively updated, with Vapor 4 stable and Vapor 5 on the horizon emphasizing async/concurrency). Great for building a clean REST/GraphQL API for:
- User accounts & subscriptions (RevenueCat or Stripe integration).
- Optional cloud sync (if users want multi-device or backups beyond iCloud).
- Secure proxying or orchestration for LLM calls (if you ever want to add optional server-side AI features without exposing keys).
- Analytics, backups, or advanced memory graph computation.
- User accounts & subscriptions (RevenueCat or Stripe integration).
- Local layer (iOS): SwiftData (or FileManager for raw.md files in iCloud/Documents) for the Markdown vault. This keeps notes fully user-owned and offline-capable. Use Apple’s on-device tools (Vision for screenshot OCR → structured MD, CoreML/Apple Intelligence for lightweight summaries) to reduce API calls.
- Backend (Vapor): Handle auth, subscription management, optional encrypted sync, and any heavy RAG/vector search that’s better centralized. Deploy on a cheap VPS (Hetzner, DigitalOcean) with PostgreSQL + Docker—many devs do exactly this.
- LLM integration: Let users input their own Claude/OpenAI keys in the app. Call APIs directly from the device (or route through Vapor for logging/anonymization if desired). This keeps your costs near-zero and privacy high.
Potential challenges & how to mitigate
- Ops overhead: Vapor means you manage a server (deployment, scaling, backups, security). Start simple—use Docker + a managed Postgres. It’s very doable for a side project or indie app, but expect more maintenance than Firebase/Supabase.
- Sync complexity: Pure local Markdown with iCloud works for many users. Only add Vapor sync if you want seamless multi-device or web access later.
- Time to MVP: Focus first on local capture + Markdown + basic on-device AI diary features. Add Vapor for accounts/subscriptions in phase 2.
- Alternatives if you want less backend work:
- Supabase or Firebase for quicker auth/DB/sync.
- Pure local + RevenueCat (no custom backend needed for subs).
- Supabase or Firebase for quicker auth/DB/sync.
- High-level architecture diagram or folder structure?
- Key libraries (e.g., for Markdown, vector search, subscriptions)?
- MVP feature prioritization?
- Deployment tips for Vapor?
Hummingbird vs Vapor Quick Comparison
- Hummingbird: Lightweight, minimal dependencies, excellent performance (often 2x requests/sec in benchmarks), built on modern structured concurrency. Ideal for smaller-to-medium backends, Lambdas, or when you want to avoid bloat. Modular—you only add what you need (e.g., auth, WebSockets, Fluent ORM if required). Growing community with good examples and extensions.
- Vapor: More batteries-included, larger ecosystem, easier for complex apps out of the box. Heavier footprint.
Full Local Experience: Will the Vault Get Too Large?
**Short answer: No major issues for realistic personal use.** A pure local Markdown vault on iOS is very scalable.- No hard limits — iOS apps are limited only by the device's available storage (e.g., 64GB–1TB+ phones). Markdown files are tiny (a dense daily note might be 5–50KB). Even with thousands of notes + screenshots (processed to text + embeddings), you'll stay under a few GB for years of heavy use.
- Real-world Obsidian-like vaults — Users routinely run 10,000–100,000+ notes locally with no problems. Performance depends more on search/indexing than raw size. Your app can use SwiftData or direct FileManager for.md files in the app's Documents/iCloud folder.
- Screenshots & media — Handle these smartly:
- OCR → clean Markdown text (store the text, not always the full image).
- Optional: Compress/resize images or let users choose attachments.
- This keeps the vault lean while preserving the diary/memories value.
- OCR → clean Markdown text (store the text, not always the full image).
- Performance slowdown — Very large vaults (tens of thousands of files) can slow full-text search or graph views. Solution: Smart indexing (only index recent/active notes), background processing, or optional cloud sync for heavy users.
- iCloud sync — Works great for local-first but has its own quotas. Offer it as optional; many users prefer pure local + manual backups.
- App size & backups — Keep the app binary small. Users can export their entire vault as a zip/folder anytime (huge selling point vs proprietary apps).
- Edge cases — Power users adding daily screenshots + long voice transcripts could grow faster. Add usage tips or a "vault health" view that suggests pruning/archiving old notes.