WorkDesk turns an Obsidian vault into an agent-guided working surface: transcripts become notes and action items, and everything links back to its source. Two tiers, both on this page. Starter is the small one you can adopt alone in an evening. WorkDesk OS is the full six-zone system. Install whichever you were sent here for.
The small tier. Drop a meeting transcript in a folder and Claude turns it into a meeting note, people notes, and your action items. No accounts, no API keys. Four steps, about ten minutes. Quit Obsidian before step 2 if it's already open. Code on GitHub.
Skip anything you already have.
claude, and sign in when it asks.Make sure Obsidian is closed. Open the Terminal app, paste this in, then press return. It builds a fresh vault at ~/WorkDesk/ and won't touch any Obsidian vaults you already have.
$ curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/BenaliHQ/workdesk-starter/main/init.sh | bash
Open Obsidian, switch to the new WorkDesk vault (vault switcher, bottom-left corner), then add the plugin through BRAT:
BenaliHQ/workdesk-operating-system
Back in Terminal, open the vault with Claude Code:
$ cd ~/WorkDesk && claude
Then type this and press return:
That's it. From here on: drop transcripts in intake/, check gtd/inbox/ for your action items, and use /daily for a short morning read on where things stand.
The full five-zone system with skills, signals, and integrations. Three steps, about ten minutes, no admin password or Homebrew. You still need Obsidian and Claude Code installed first (step 1 above).
Open the Terminal app and paste this in, then press return. It builds a fresh vault at ~/Workdesk-OS/ and won't touch any Obsidian vaults you already have.
$ curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/BenaliHQ/workdesk-configuration/main/init.sh | bash
Open Obsidian, switch to the new Workdesk-OS vault (vault switcher, bottom-left corner), then add the plugin through BRAT:
BenaliHQ/workdesk-operating-system
Back in Terminal, open the vault with Claude Code:
$ cd ~/Workdesk-OS && claude
Then type these two, one at a time — press return after each and follow along:
That's it. You'll land in a fresh WorkDesk with the full surface, ready for your own work.
Get to know the six zones, then follow the workflows for planning your day, running a project and processing a meeting. The full guide includes a searchable skill directory and folder reference.
Each installer creates a brand-new vault (~/WorkDesk/ for Starter, ~/Workdesk-OS/ for OS). Anything you already keep in Obsidian stays exactly as it is.
Plain Markdown files in a folder on your Mac. No accounts to create, no API keys to paste, nothing sent anywhere except through Claude Code. The vault keeps working without us.
The install is macOS-native. It doesn't ask for your password, install Homebrew, or need developer tools.
Put WORKDESK_DRYRUN=1 in front of the Starter install command, or WORKDESK_INIT_DRYRUN=1 in front of the OS one, to preview exactly what it will do. No files written.
If anything looks off during setup, email khalil@benali.com and you'll be un-stuck in a minute. Nothing here is fragile.