From an empty laptop to a vault that runs in about thirty minutes. No code. No vendor lock. Free tools. Mostly copy-paste.
I want to be transparent about what lands on your machine and what it can reach. Hundreds of operators have installed this exact stack. None have run into issues.
The AI that reads and writes files in one folder you choose. Nothing outside that folder is reachable. Not your photos, not your other documents, not your email. You point it at a single vault directory and that's its whole world.
A human-friendly viewer for your markdown vault. Optional. Same files Claude reads, just with a nicer interface so you can scroll through them like a notebook.
Standard developer tools Claude Code needs under the hood. Both are open source and used by millions of developers daily. Git also gives you free version history on your vault, so when AI does something you don't like, you roll it back in one click.
Go to claude.ai/code and follow the install for your OS (Mac, Windows, or Linux). It is a free download. Sign in with your Anthropic account.
Make a folder anywhere on your computer. ~/vault is a fine default. This is where every file the AI reads will live.
Unzip the Starter Pack into your vault folder. You now have MEMORY.md, Core, Agents, Clients, Rules, Workflows, and Infrastructure.
Open Claude Code. Point it at the vault folder. The AI can now read every file inside.
In the chat, type: read MEMORY.md before responding. That is the only setup command you ever need. From now on, every session starts from your context.
Spend ten minutes answering the questions in this file. The more honest, the better the AI sounds like you. Save it. Done.
You can add these any time. The vault works without them.
A nicer file viewer for the vault. Optional but most people end up using it for human reading.
Alternatives to Claude Code. The vault works with any AI tool that reads files.
Version control for your vault. When the AI does something dumb, you roll back. Recommended once you have real client data inside.