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Agent skill

Recall

by Abilityai in Abilityai/cornelius

Retrieve relevant knowledge from Obsidian vault using 3-layer semantic search based on conversation context

MITAuto-check: notesKnowledge Management

Install Recall

skills CLI
$ npx skills add Abilityai/cornelius --skill recall -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install Abilityai/cornelius recall --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/Abilityai/cornelius.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/.claude/skills/recall .claude/skills/recall && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
recall
GitHub stars
109
Token cost
~858 tokens
SKILL.md length
267 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
56
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Retrieve relevant knowledge from Obsidian vault using 3-layer semantic search based on conversation context

  • Works in 3 steps: First Layer - Initial Search → Second Layer - Direct Associations → Third Layer - Extended Network
  • Knowledge Management work in your project
  • SKILL.md covers Local Brain Search, Search Query, Instructions and Output Format, plus 3 more sections
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Recall is an agent skill from Abilityai/cornelius. Retrieve relevant knowledge from Obsidian vault using 3-layer semantic search based on conversation context

Its SKILL.md is about 860 tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

It sits in Knowledge Management. It works with Obsidian. The repository describes itself as: AI-powered second brain template for Claude Code + Obsidian. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • Knowledge Management work in your project

Example prompts

  • “/recall”

Requirements

  • Pre-approved tools (allowed-tools): Read, Bash, Grep

Workflow steps

3 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

  1. First Layer - Initial Search
  2. Second Layer - Direct Associations
  3. Third Layer - Extended Network

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit fd5e9a4. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves these tools, so the agent can use them without asking each time:

    • Read
    • Bash
    • Grep

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md (its code samples are bash and markdown).

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Recall loads about 858 tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 29 tokens; SKILL.md has 267 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~29
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~858

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check: notes

The automated check noted patterns worth knowing about, such as sudo or a known installer.

  • NotePre-approves every shell command (allowed-tools: Bash)SKILL.md
    allowed-tools: Read, Bash, Grep

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from Abilityai/cornelius at commit fd5e9a4, republished under its MIT licence (© Abilityai). 267 words, ~858 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/recall/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
recall
description
Retrieve relevant knowledge from Obsidian vault using 3-layer semantic search based on conversation context
allowed-tools
Read, Bash, Grep
argument-hint
<search query or topic>

Semantic Knowledge Retrieval

You are tasked with retrieving relevant knowledge from the Obsidian vault using multi-layer semantic search.

Use Local Brain Search for all semantic search operations. Spreading activation mode recommended for synthesis queries.

Scripts:

bash
# Static search (fast, exact matches)
resources/local-brain-search/run_search.sh "query" --limit 10 --json

# Spreading activation search (follows graph connections)
resources/local-brain-search/run_search.sh "query" --mode spreading --limit 10 --json

# Find connections
resources/local-brain-search/run_connections.sh "Note Name" --json

# Find hubs
resources/local-brain-search/run_connections.sh --hubs --json

Search Query

$ARGUMENTS

Instructions

  1. First Layer - Initial Search:

    • Use spreading activation for better context:
      bash
      resources/local-brain-search/run_search.sh "$ARGUMENTS" --mode spreading --limit 5 --json
    • Use Read tool to read the full content of the top 2 results

  2. Second Layer - Direct Associations:

    • For the top result from layer 1, get connections:
      bash
      resources/local-brain-search/run_connections.sh "Top Result Note" --json
    • Use Read tool to read the full content of the top 2 connected notes

  3. Third Layer - Extended Network:

    • For additional context, check hub notes and bridges:
      bash
      resources/local-brain-search/run_connections.sh --hubs --json
    • This reveals deeper conceptual connections

Output Format

Present the findings in this structured format:

markdown
# Knowledge Recall: [Query Topic]

## Layer 1: Direct Matches
[List notes found with similarity/activation scores and key excerpts]

## Layer 2: First-Degree Associations
[List connected notes with their relationships and excerpts]

## Layer 3: Extended Network
[Show hub notes and bridge connections]

## Key Insights
[Synthesize the main themes and connections discovered]

## Relevant Content
[Include the most pertinent excerpts from the retrieved notes]

Important Notes

  • Use --mode spreading for synthesis and connection-finding queries
  • Use static mode for exact factual lookups
  • Focus on quality over quantity
  • Highlight unexpected connections
  • Provide enough context for the user to understand the relevance
  • If search returns no results, try broader terms or related concepts
  • Learning active: Searches are tracked and rankings improve over time based on usage

State Dependencies

SourceLocationReadWriteDescription
Brain notesBrain/**/*.mdXSearch permanent notes, sources, MOCs
Local Brain Search indexresources/local-brain-search/XVector index for semantic search
Memory configresources/local-brain-search/memory_config.pyXTunable memory parameters

Completion Checklist

  • Layer 1 search executed (spreading mode for synthesis queries)
  • Layer 2 connections retrieved for top result
  • Layer 3 hub notes checked for context
  • Key insights synthesized from findings
  • Relevant excerpts included in output

© Abilityai, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in .claude/skills/recall of Abilityai/cornelius.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit fd5e9a4

Compare with similar skills

Recall next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Recall compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Recall this skillAbilityai/cornelius109—~858Automated safety check: NotesMIT
Obsidian CLIAtmosphere/atmosphere3.8k13 repos~795Automated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Hermes History IngestAr9av/obsidian-wiki3.5k1 repos~2.2kAutomated safety check: NotesMIT
Obsidian Canvas BoardsAgriciDaniel/claude-obsidian15k—~1.4kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
LLM Wikilewislulu/llm-wiki-skill655—~3.7kAutomated safety check: PassNone
Youtube FetcherJimmySadek/youtube-fetcher-to-markdown485—~1.8kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

Similar skills

  • Obsidian CLI

    Atmosphere/atmosphere

    Interact with Obsidian vaults using the Obsidian CLI to read, create, search, and manage notes, tasks, properties, and more.

    3.8k GitHub starsUsed in 13 repos~795 tokens
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  • Hermes History Ingest

    Ar9av/obsidian-wiki

    Ingest Hermes agent history into Obsidian as distilled knowledge.

    3.5k GitHub starsUsed in 1 repo~2.2k tokens
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  • Obsidian Canvas Boards

    AgriciDaniel/claude-obsidian

    Creates, inspects and updates Obsidian JSON Canvas boards in a vault, with text, file, link, group and edge nodes, using safe recoverable edits.

    15k GitHub stars~1.4k tokensUpdated 27 days ago
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  • LLM Wiki

    lewislulu/llm-wiki-skill

    Build and maintain a Karpathy-style LLM knowledge base — a self-compiling Obsidian markdown wiki where an Agent ingests raw sources, compiles cross-linked concept/entity/summary pages, answers…

    655 GitHub stars~3.7k tokensUpdated 5 mo ago
    Knowledge ManagementAuto-check passed

  • Youtube Fetcher

    JimmySadek/youtube-fetcher-to-markdown

    Retrieve YouTube transcripts and subtitles, summarize or analyze what was said, or save an Obsidian-ready Markdown knowledge-base note with captions, creator metadata, chapters, language, and source…

    485 GitHub stars~1.8k tokensUpdated 1 mo ago
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  • Second Brain

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    Set up a new Obsidian knowledge base with the LLM Wiki pattern.

    735 GitHub stars~1.5k tokensUpdated 6 mo ago
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Works with

Categories

Questions about Recall

What does Recall do?

Retrieve relevant knowledge from Obsidian vault using 3-layer semantic search based on conversation context. Recall is an agent skill from Abilityai/cornelius.

When should I use Recall?

Recall fits situations like: knowledge Management work in your project.

How do I install Recall in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add Abilityai/cornelius --skill recall -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (.claude/skills/recall in Abilityai/cornelius) into .claude/skills/recall in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Recall in Codex?

Run `npx skills add Abilityai/cornelius --skill recall -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (.claude/skills/recall in Abilityai/cornelius) into .agents/skills/recall in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Recall in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add Abilityai/cornelius --skill recall -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/recall, .gemini/skills/recall, .github/skills/recall and .opencode/skills/recall in your project.

What does Recall need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Recall is instructions for the agent only. Its frontmatter pre-approves these tools: Read, Bash, Grep.

Does Recall access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Recall safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found notes only (pre-approves every shell command (allowed-tools: bash)), nothing it rates as a warning. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Recall use?

Recall is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Recall use?

About 858 tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 3.4k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Recall?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Recall: Obsidian CLI (Atmosphere/atmosphere, 3.8k stars), Hermes History Ingest (Ar9av/obsidian-wiki, 3.5k stars), Obsidian Canvas Boards (AgriciDaniel/claude-obsidian, 15k stars) and LLM Wiki (lewislulu/llm-wiki-skill, 655 stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Recall?

Abilityai (a GitHub organization) maintains it in Abilityai/cornelius, which has 109 GitHub stars. The repository holds 56 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on September 22, 2026.

Source: Abilityai/cornelius on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.