Search years of research files in an Obsidian vault
Claude Code, guided by a CLAUDE.md, searches research papers, scans and PDFs via Spotlight, extracts text, and files daily notes in dated folders.
Done withClaude Code
- What they did
- Mauricio Gomes runs Claude Code from his Obsidian vault, where a CLAUDE.md is loaded each session. It describes how the vault is organized and points to a folder of interest files. Claude searches notes and PDFs with macOS Spotlight (mdfind), extracts document text with textutil, and files daily notes into dated folders, creating them if needed. Research results go into a research folder.
- How it went
- It finds old scanned PDFs and papers, files notes correctly, and focuses research on his stated interests. The source gives no accuracy figures or failure cases; the screenshots are the evidence.
- Worth knowing
- He estimates about an hour of setup. It relies on macOS Spotlight indexing, so the search approach is Mac-specific.
Try it yourself with Claude Code
Search my research folder at [folder path], including PDFs and scanned documents, for everything related to [topic]. Extract the relevant passages with file names and page numbers, and write a summary note in a dated folder. Stop when the note lists sources for every claim, and do not move or edit my original files.
Source: mauriciogomes.com · Undated
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