Using Obsidian as the project brain alongside OpenClaw — documentation, memory backup, and project management from anywhere.
Woodhouse lives in OpenClaw, but the project brain lives in Obsidian. The combination turned out to be more powerful than I expected.
Obsidian is a local Markdown note-taking app with a graph view and powerful linking between notes. Every project gets a folder. Documentation, decisions, article drafts, change logs — all in one place, nicely structured, and available on every device through sync.
OpenClaw reads from the workspace directory on the Shuttle PC. I set up a sync manifest so Obsidian files mirror across to the workspace — meaning Woodhouse can read project documentation directly from Obsidian without me having to paste things into the chat. I just say “read the Spearhead docs” and he finds them.
The combination also solves the memory problem. AI assistants start fresh each session. Obsidian holds the project knowledge that would be too large for the AI's context window — detailed architecture notes, full change logs, article drafts. The AI reads what it needs, when it needs it.
Managing the whole thing from Telegram means I can update documentation and brief Woodhouse on projects from my phone, wherever I am. That mobility turned out to matter more than I expected.