Turn voice notes into structured Obsidian notes
How I use Hermes with Obsidian as a local-first memory system, including my setup, real daily workflows, experiments, tools, and lessons learned. Task: How I use Hermes with Obsidian as a local-first memory system, including my setup, real daily workflows, experiments, tools, and lessons learned. 🧱 I’m Mete, a product designer and builder with 10+ years of experience at companies like Netflix and Peloton. I build real products with AI to see how far the tools can go, then share what works, what breaks, and where craft still matters. I write for people who sweat the details and refuse to settle for good enough. If that sounds like you, you’re in the right place. This article started on a dog walk. As I was walking my dog, I was dropping messy voice notes with ideas into a Telegram chat with my agent named Satori. By the time I sat down to write, Hermes had turned that pile into an Obsidian thought note: raw transcripts in the scratchpad, a cleaned-up shape of the argument in the agent section, related context linked, and an agent draft for me to react to. I didn’t outsource my thinking - I wrote the article myself. But this system compressed the distance between messy thought and shaped material. I spent more time outside with my dog and less time hunching over my laptop. I’m happy. My dog is happy. My agent is happy because he served his purpose. I wanted to write a proper article on the current state of my set-up as I’ve gotten lots of questions from friends and people online about this system. And the most common question I get is - what do I actually use it for? So here I’ll focus on the use cases and my underlying thinking for building this system. Hence, this isn’t purely a setup guide for Hermes (the open-source agent framework) or Obsidian (the note-taking app) - but I’ll link to some good guides & describe my full setup at the end of this article if you want to take the plunge. I’m also not here to convince you that this is some incredible system that you must absolutely get into. In fact, it’s pretty messy and I think most people don’t need this, in its current shape. But I think there’s something here - I already find lots of value and it’s a harbinger of things to come in consumer tech. UPDATE 07/28/26: I just published a follow-up to this article covering the evolution of this setup with templates and more use-cases! So WTF is Hermes & Obsidian? Do these terms sound like alien swear words to you? Then this is a good place to start. Hermes is a lightweight open-source agent framework - basically a way to give Claude (or any model) its own computer, its own tools, and a memory of how you like things done. You may have heard about OpenClaw - Hermes is basically the same but more streamlined and with a few bells & whistles like self-improvement and better memory. Either would work for the setup I’m describing. Obsidian is a note-taking app where every note is just a plain text file sitting on your computer instead of in someone else’s cloud. The main folder where all your Obsidian notes live is called a vault. This local-first architecture has a key advantage I will discuss more towards the end. Think of it like your own executive assistant who has access to a computer (in my case, a Mac Mini) who you can text (through Telegram - a messaging app that works well for bots) with any request and they’ll figure out how to do it for you. Use Cases Below is a sample of some of the use cases that actually stuck - stuff I reach for naturally and use every day, because the workflow is that much better than the alternatives. I added a small section at the end for more experimental use cases I’ve been exploring as well. I have a dozen new ideas every day - fun personal projects or bigger product bets. In the past, I’d go to Craft (another note-taking app), find my “Business Ideas” note, scroll all the way to the bottom and type out a brief one-sentence idea description. It worked, but it was a messy system. The note is close to 500 bullet points and 6,700 words. It’s a mess to wade through. Most ideas went there to die. With Hermes, I now open Telegram and send it a rambling voice note describing my idea in as much detail as I can think of. What my agent then does: Transcribes my idea Transcribes my idea Creates a note in my Obsidian vault under metedata-ventures/new-business-ideas Creates a note in my Obsidian vault under metedata-ventures/new-business-ideas Adds proper metadata & tags. Adds proper metadata & tags. Adds my voice transcript verbatim as well as a trimmed & organized version. Adds my voice transcript verbatim as well as a trimmed & organized version.; tools: Hermes Agent. Human role: The original post does not say how a person stayed involved.; limitations: This setup is for early adopters willing to manage security risks and technical maintenance. Anthropic no longer allows using their subscription to power third-party agents, requiring alternative model access. The system relies on local-first architecture (Obsidian) and specific hardware (Mac Mini), introducing integration complexity and potential privacy concerns if not properly hardened..
Tools
Published on Agent Work Atlas:
Overview
How I use Hermes with Obsidian as a local-first memory system, including my setup, real daily workflows, experiments, tools, and lessons learned.
Workflow
How I use Hermes with Obsidian as a local-first memory system, including my setup, real daily workflows, experiments, tools, and lessons learned. 🧱 I’m Mete, a product designer and builder with 10+ years of experience at companies like Netflix and Peloton. I build real products with AI to see how far the tools can go, then share what works, what breaks, and where craft still matters. I write for people who sweat the details and refuse to settle for good enough. If that sounds like you, you’re in the right place. This article started on a dog walk. As I was walking my dog, I was dropping messy voice notes with ideas into a Telegram chat with my agent named Satori. By the time I sat down to write, Hermes had turned that pile into an Obsidian thought note: raw transcripts in the scratchpad, a cleaned-up shape of the argument in the agent section, related context linked, and an agent draft for me to react to. I didn’t outsource my thinking - I wrote the article myself. But this system compressed the distance between messy thought and shaped material. I spent more time outside with my dog and less time hunching over my laptop. I’m happy. My dog is happy. My agent is happy because he served his purpose. I wanted to write a proper article on the current state of my set-up as I’ve gotten lots of questions from friends and people online about this system. And the most common question I get is - what do I actually use it for? So here I’ll focus on the use cases and my underlying thinking for building this system. Hence, this isn’t purely a setup guide for Hermes (the open-source agent framework) or Obsidian (the note-taking app) - but I’ll link to some good guides & describe my full setup at the end of this article if you want to take the plunge. I’m also not here to convince you that this is some incredible system that you must absolutely get into. In fact, it’s pretty messy and I think most people don’t need this, in its current shape. But I think there’s something here - I already find lots of value and it’s a harbinger of things to come in consumer tech. UPDATE 07/28/26: I just published a follow-up to this article covering the evolution of this setup with templates and more use-cases! So WTF is Hermes & Obsidian? Do these terms sound like alien swear words to you? Then this is a good place to start. Hermes is a lightweight open-source agent framework - basically a way to give Claude (or any model) its own computer, its own tools, and a memory of how you like things done. You may have heard about OpenClaw - Hermes is basically the same but more streamlined and with a few bells & whistles like self-improvement and better memory. Either would work for the setup I’m describing. Obsidian is a note-taking app where every note is just a plain text file sitting on your computer instead of in someone else’s cloud. The main folder where all your Obsidian notes live is called a vault. This local-first architecture has a key advantage I will discuss more towards the end. Think of it like your own executive assistant who has access to a computer (in my case, a Mac Mini) who you can text (through Telegram - a messaging app that works well for bots) with any request and they’ll figure out how to do it for you. Use Cases Below is a sample of some of the use cases that actually stuck - stuff I reach for naturally and use every day, because the workflow is that much better than the alternatives. I added a small section at the end for more experimental use cases I’ve been exploring as well. I have a dozen new ideas every day - fun personal projects or bigger product bets. In the past, I’d go to Craft (another note-taking app), find my “Business Ideas” note, scroll all the way to the bottom and type out a brief one-sentence idea description. It worked, but it was a messy system. The note is close to 500 bullet points and 6,700 words. It’s a mess to wade through. Most ideas went there to die. With Hermes, I now open Telegram and send it a rambling voice note describing my idea in as much detail as I can think of. What my agent then does: Transcribes my idea Transcribes my idea Creates a note in my Obsidian vault under metedata-ventures/new-business-ideas Creates a note in my Obsidian vault under metedata-ventures/new-business-ideas Adds proper metadata & tags. Adds proper metadata & tags. Adds my voice transcript verbatim as well as a trimmed & organized version. Adds my voice transcript verbatim as well as a trimmed & organized version.
Reported result
The author reports that the system successfully transformed voice notes into structured Obsidian notes, allowing them to spend more time away from the laptop. For a specific experiment involving LinkedIn comment suggestions, the agent achieved approximately 80% accuracy on the first try. The author notes that while the system is valuable, it remains messy and may not be necessary for most people in its current state.
Human role
The original post does not say how a person stayed involved.
Limitations
This setup is for early adopters willing to manage security risks and technical maintenance. Anthropic no longer allows using their subscription to power third-party agents, requiring alternative model access. The system relies on local-first architecture (Obsidian) and specific hardware (Mac Mini), introducing integration complexity and potential privacy concerns if not properly hardened.
Try it
Act as my personal knowledge management assistant. I will send you voice notes or text ideas via Telegram. Your task is to: 1) Transcribe the audio accurately. 2) Create a new note in my Obsidian vault under the folder 'metedata-ventures/new-business-ideas'. 3) Add appropriate metadata and tags based on the content. 4) Include both the verbatim transcript and a cleaned-up, structured version of the idea. 5) Research and enrich the idea with competitive context and MVP scope suggestions. Before finalizing, show me the draft for approval. Do not publish or send any external messages without my explicit confirmation. If the transcription is unclear, ask for clarification. Ensure all files are saved locally in the specified Obsidian vault path.
Source reports are not independently verified. Publication date is the catalog publication date, not the original article date.