NoteBrain Assistant
Semantic search over an Obsidian vault via the NoteBrain CLI and local ChromaDB
Test report
- Verdict
- Works with setup
- Score
- Tested
- Aug 5, 2026
- Environment
- Claude Code 2.x (agent harness)
⚠ This skill is no longer available upstream. Our re-check on Aug 10, 2026 couldn't find it any more (repo unreachable/deleted). The test below is what we measured on Aug 5, 2026 and we're leaving it up as a record — but there is nothing left to install, so we've removed the command.
Built the Go binary, ingested an 8-note test vault and ran both paths for real: unguided search plus two full-note fetches pulled 18.8 KB of mostly filler into context, while the skill's lean flags answered the same question in 5.1 KB. Its compound-query rule mattered more than the token saving — a plain single query returned three chunks of one note and buried the note holding the actual answer at rank 4, while the skill's split query surfaced it inside the top 3. Needs the notebrain binary built with CGO (no tested macOS release) and a vault ingested before it does anything.
Scored on four weighted criteria — install, triggering, output vs. baseline, docs. How scoring works
- Installs cleanly 5/5
- Triggers reliably 5/5
- Output vs. baseline 8/10
- Docs & honesty 5/5
What NoteBrain Assistant does
Drives the NoteBrain CLI so Claude can answer questions from an Obsidian vault indexed into a local ChromaDB store, using semantic search, wikilink backlinks, graph traversal and hidden-connection discovery. Triggers when you ask what your notes say about a topic, which notes relate to another, or ask it to search your knowledge base. Enforces lean retrieval flags instead of dumping whole notes into context.
How to install NoteBrain Assistant
Nothing to install: the source repository no longer has this skill. If the author brings it back, our daily re-check will pick it up and the command will reappear here.
Commands — how to trigger NoteBrain Assistant
-
/notebrain-assistantSemantic search over an Obsidian vault via the NoteBrain CLI and local ChromaDB
It also activates on plain-language prompts like these:
-
What do my notes say about connection pooling and migrations? -
Which notes relate to my Kafka note but aren't linked to it? -
Search my Obsidian vault for anything about rate limiting
Frequently asked questions
- Is the NoteBrain Assistant skill free?
- Yes. The skill itself is free from nmdra/notebrain-cli. SkillProof publishes the install command and an independent test verdict at no cost.
- Does NoteBrain Assistant work with Claude Code?
- We tested it with Claude Code 2.x (agent harness) on Aug 5, 2026. Verdict: Works with setup. Built the Go binary, ingested an 8-note test vault and ran both paths for real: unguided search plus two full-note fetches pulled 18.8 KB of mostly filler into context, while the skill's lean flags answered the same question in 5.1 KB. Its compound-query rule mattered more than the token saving — a plain single query returned three chunks of one note and buried the note holding the actual answer at rank 4, while the skill's split query surfaced it inside the top 3. Needs the notebrain binary built with CGO (no tested macOS release) and a vault ingested before it does anything.
- What is the NoteBrain Assistant SkillProof Score?
- 9.2/10 — installs cleanly 5/5, triggers reliably 5/5, output vs. baseline 8/10, docs & honesty 5/5.
- How do I install NoteBrain Assistant?
- Copy the install command from this page, run it in your terminal, and restart Claude Code. Skills live in ~/.claude/skills/ (global) or .claude/skills/ inside a project.
- Can I use NoteBrain Assistant with Cursor, Copilot, Gemini CLI, Codex or other AI tools?
- The SKILL.md format is native to Claude (Claude Code, Desktop, claude.ai). The instructions inside adapt to other assistants: Cursor rules, GitHub Copilot instructions, Windsurf rules, Custom GPTs, AGENTS.md for OpenAI Codex, and GEMINI.md for Google Gemini CLI — our conversion guides cover each, and the free converter on the tools page does the wrapping for you.