How I Set Up My AI-Powered Second Brain in Obsidian (ChatGPT, Search, Assistant, Plugins, Tools)

One Sentence Summary

This video shows embedding ChatGPT inside Obsidian as an AI assistant, linking notes and discovering related ideas across your vault.

Main Points

• Embed a ChatGPT window into Obsidian via Custom Frames plugin.
• Switch to GPT-4 with ChatGPT Plus.
• Use for summarizing notes by headers, creating new notes from summaries.
• Copy function works only in the embedded browser; paste manually.
• Smart Connections plugin uses your API key to generate embeddings.
• Notes split into blocks by headers; embeddings power similarity.
• Embeddings live in a hidden file; privacy caveat: data sent to OpenAI.
• Query related ideas across your vault using natural language.
• Save and reuse specific search queries and chat histories.
• Customize exclusions and grouping by file to refine connections.

Takeaways

• Structure your notes with clear headers to maximize meaningful embeddings.
• Be mindful of privacy and data sharing when sending content to OpenAI.
• Test with a small vault before scaling to a full personal knowledge system.
• Persist valuable queries with embedded code blocks for quick reuse.
• Balance cost and value by using vault-specific AI queries to reduce external data use.