Second Brain for KISK

A study system for Obsidian, built for studying at KISK, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University (it can be adapted to any field). Course materials in one place, notes and mind maps made by AI, Word assignments in the MUNI ARTS style, and deadline planning – all controlled by buttons right in Obsidian.

An unofficial student project, not a product of Masaryk University. In Obsidian the plugin is called Second Brain for KISK; folder names stay in Czech in every language.

Features

• 🏠 Home (00 Domov) – a dashboard with buttons, upcoming deadlines (with a day countdown), the queue of unprocessed materials and your courses.
• 📥 AI processing of materials – turns PDFs, slides, documents and images into notes (summary, structured notes, a Mermaid mind map, Question::Answer flashcards) and linked concepts – via Claude Code, another AI, or all by hand.
• 💸 Token saver – text is extracted from materials locally (without AI), duplicates and repeated footers are dropped, each file is processed only once. On real materials it uses ~10× fewer tokens than reading the originals.
• 📝 Word assignments – a new assignment from a form in a MUNI ARTS–style template (header with course, name and UČO, title page), or conversion of finished work into the template (text, images, links, numbering, footnotes).
• 💾 Automatic backup – after every change to OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud, an external drive or anywhere; keeps the chosen number of versions and deletes old ones only after a successful new backup.
• ✅ One-click submission – the assignment disappears from deadlines and gets ticked off in the plan.
• 🎓 Exam preparation and 🗓 weekly overview generated by AI from your notes.
• 🧭 Works with Neuro Roadmap (a planner by Matteo Rossi – Gantt, Horizon, calendar): the plugin teaches it the system's properties and checks after each of its updates that everything still works.
• 📚 Your courses – enter as many as you have during installation, add more or remove them later in Obsidian (removing moves the folder to the macOS Trash after confirmation). Home, deadlines, the Word assignment form, the plan and the left sidebar all follow them.
• ✍️ Useful without AI too – new note for a material (pre-filled from a template), weekly overview, exam preparation (summaries, concepts and flashcards of a course in one note), flashcard review, deadline reminders, deadlines to your calendar (.ics), citations in ISO 690, archiving courses at the end of the semester and reading-time estimates in the queue – all local, nothing is sent anywhere.
• 🔄 Updates in one click – Obsidian checks once a day whether a new version is out and offers What's new, Download and install and Not now. The plugin downloads and verifies the package, then you just click Install (or Cancel installation). Notes, materials, courses and settings stay; a backup is made first and the update can be undone.
• 🌐 Four languages – interface, Home, guide, note templates and installer in Czech, Slovak, English and Ukrainian; switch the language any time in settings. The language of Word documents is chosen separately (once, in advance), and AI writes notes in the interface language.
• 🛡 Security – detection of unauthorised code changes, protection against hidden instructions in materials (prompt injection), zip bombs and forged documents, strict AI permissions.

Detailed user guide: the 01 Návod note (installed in your chosen language; the Czech version is trezor/01 Návod.md).

🤖 With AI, with another AI, or no AI at all

You choose during installation and can change it any time in Obsidian (Settings → Second Brain for KISK):

Home, queue, deadlines, Word assignments, Neuro Roadmap and checks work in every mode.

🧩 Install from Obsidian

1. In Obsidian: Settings → Community plugins → Browse, search for Second Brain for KISK, click Install and Enable.
2. A setup guide opens: language, Word document language, name, UČO, your courses and AI mode. It checks that Python 3 is installed (if not, it shows where to get it).
3. Click 🧠 Set up – Home, the guide, templates, courses and scripts are created in your vault. Nothing that already exists is overwritten.

The directory version is updated by Obsidian (Settings → Community plugins → Check for updates). After an update the plugin offers to refresh the files in your vault – they are backed up first and notes you have edited stay. The installer below does the same and additionally offers one-click updates from GitHub.

⚡ Installation in a few clicks

1. Download: the green Code → Download ZIP button (or the latest release under Releases) and unzip it with a double-click.
2. Run the installer: in the folder, double-click Instalovat.command.
   • The first time, macOS warns that the file can't be verified (the installer isn't signed by Apple – see SECURITY.md). Click Done, open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down and next to “Instalovat.command” click Open Anyway → confirm with your password/Touch ID.
   • Don't want to click through settings? Open Terminal, type bash (with a space), drag Instalovat.command into the window and press Enter.
3. Answer a few questions: language, new or existing vault, where to save it, name, UČO, your courses, language of Word documents, AI, (optionally) logo.
   • Missing Python or Obsidian? The installer opens the download page and after installing you click Done – continue.
   • If you stop the installation, next time it offers Continue from step … – you don't fill anything in again.
4. In Obsidian: Open folder as vault → choose the new vault (the path is on the clipboard) → Trust author and enable plugins → open 00 Domov → 🩺 Run system check.

Done. 🎉 The installer downloads nothing, sends nothing, needs no admin password and overwrites nothing that exists. Before installing it verifies the checksums of all files. What exactly it does is written at its beginning (open it in TextEdit).

🔄 Updating to a new version

1. Obsidian shows 🆕 A new version of Second Brain is available – 📋 What's new opens the list of changes (CHANGELOG), Not now asks again the next time Obsidian starts.
2. ⬇️ Download and install – the plugin downloads the package from this repository's Releases and verifies it: the ZIP checksum published with the release, the checksums of all files (SHA256SUMS.txt) and the version number. Until then nothing in the vault changes and Cancel installation stops everything.
3. ✅ Install – a backup of the vault is made, the system's code is replaced and the plugin reloads.

Notes, materials, courses, settings and your course CSS stay. System notes you have edited (Home, guide, templates, AI rules) are kept and the new version is saved next to them with “(new version)”. If anything fails during installation, all changes are reverted automatically. For emergencies there is ↩️ Undo the last update in Settings → Second Brain for KISK → Updates for 7 days; then the temporary update backup (hidden .druhy-mozek-zaloha folder) moves to the Trash. Clicking Install confirms 🛡 only for files identical to the verified package. Updating manually works too: download the ZIP, run Instalovat.command → Update an existing vault. The check can be turned off in Settings → Second Brain for KISK → Updates.

Requirements

Manual installation (without the installer)

1. Download the repository: Code → Download ZIP and unzip it.
2. Copy the contents of the trezor/ folder into your Obsidian vault (or open the folder directly: Obsidian → Open folder as vault). The .obsidian and .claude folders are hidden – show them in Finder with Cmd+Shift+. (period).
3. Personal details: in _Systém/ rename nastaveni.priklad.json to nastaveni.json and fill in your name and UČO (jazyk and jazyk_word: cs, sk, en or uk). Then pick the language in Obsidian under Settings → Second Brain for KISK – the plugin rewrites the system notes (Home, guide, templates) into that language.
4. Logo (optional): save your faculty's logo as _Systém/Word/logo-muni-arts.png (PNG, transparent background). The MU logo isn't in the repository because it's a trademark. Without it the header is text only.
5. Create the template and queue – in Terminal, in the vault folder:

   python3 _Systém/Word/vytvor_sablonu.py
   python3 _Systém/priprav.py
   

6. Enable the plugin: Obsidian → Settings → Community plugins → Turn on and enable Second Brain for KISK. Settings → Appearance → CSS snippets → enable druhy-mozek.
7. Courses: in Obsidian use 📚 Add course (code + name) for each of your courses; the example course can be removed in Settings → Second Brain for KISK → Courses.
8. Open 🏠 00 Domov and click 🩺 Run system check – everything should show ✅. On the first AI button allow Obsidian to control Terminal (System Settings → Privacy & Security → Automation).

Security and privacy

How to verify the installation (checksums, automated tests) and what the installer doesn't do: SECURITY.md.

• Nothing is sent anywhere except to the AI you chose, and only when you use AI buttons (in no-AI mode nothing at all). Once a day the plugin only asks GitHub for the latest version number – this can be turned off.
• Without asking, AI may only edit notes and run two system scripts. Deleting, downloading, sudo, ssh and reading keys (~/.ssh, Keychain, .env, plugin data) are forbidden; changes to settings and scripts and web access need confirmation.
• Content of materials is data, not instructions for AI – it won't follow hidden instructions in documents and will warn you about them.
• The plugin keeps fingerprints of scripts and rules; it refuses to run them after an unconfirmed change and alerts you.
• .gitignore prevents uploading personal data (nastaveni.json), study materials, generated files and plugin data.

Disclosures

Required by the Obsidian plugin directory:

• Network use: the GitHub version asks api.github.com once a day for the latest version number and downloads an update only after you click Download and install. The directory version makes no requests of its own (Obsidian updates it). Buttons with AI start the AI tool you chose (e.g. Claude Code) in Terminal – it sends the material to that provider. Reporting a bug only opens your e-mail app or GitHub with a pre-filled report.
• Files outside the vault: automatic backup copies the vault to the folder you choose (OneDrive, Google Drive, iCloud…); updates use a temporary folder; AI buttons open Terminal. The plugin runs the bundled Python scripts in the vault with your Python 3.
• No telemetry, ads, accounts or payments.

🐞 Found a bug or have an idea?

• Right in Obsidian: 🐞 Report a bug or idea (🧠 icon, Cmd+P or Settings → Second Brain for KISK). It pre-fills technical details without personal data (version, language, AI mode, check result, recent errors – no name, UČO, paths or note content). You see and can edit everything; nothing is sent by itself. Send it by e-mail or on GitHub.
• On GitHub: Issues → New issue – forms for bugs and ideas.
• Security problems privately: report a vulnerability or e-mail [email protected] with the subject [SECURITY].

Acknowledgements

• Neuro Roadmap – Matteo Rossi (@phenex80). The task planner this system works with. Not part of this repository, has its own licence (PolyForm Noncommercial 1.0.0), and its interface is English only.
• The Word template design is based on student work in the MUNI ARTS style.
• Made with the help of Claude Code.

Licence

PolyForm Noncommercial 1.0.0 – free for personal, study, teaching and other non-commercial use, including modifying and sharing. Commercial use only with the author's permission.

© 2026 Jakub Josef Sova (@shadowsh1t)