Fifteen employees. Half the operations handed to AI. Time to build? One afternoon. Fraser Cottrell, CEO of ad creative agency Fraggell, posted about it on X — and it's been making waves.
What is this?
Here's how most people use AI. Open a chat, paste in context, get an answer, close the tab. Next conversation? Start from scratch. "Our company does this, our process is that, this client's situation is..." — the same onboarding, every single time.
Fraser nailed it: "This isn't an AI employee. It's a search engine with a personality."
So he took a different approach. He turned Obsidian (a free note app) into his company's brain, connected Claude to that brain via MCP (Model Context Protocol), and linked Claude Cowork to actual work tools — Slack, Gmail, Calendar, Drive.
The result? He forgot a client shipping decision made three weeks ago. Claude remembered it. "I didn't remember. My system did."
The backbone of this system is three tools. Obsidian stores knowledge, MCP connects AI to tools, and Claude Cowork executes. Let's break each one down.
1. Obsidian = The Company Brain
Obsidian is a free note app. It saves markdown files to a local folder — no subscription, no lock-in, files stay on your machine. Claude reads markdown natively, which makes it ideal for AI integration.
Fraser created a Memory file — think of it as "the onboarding doc for an employee who never forgets." Who am I, what the company does, org structure, processes, tools, communication style — everything in one file.
Then he added Client Roster (client status + point person), Action Tracker (open tasks + deadlines), Framework Library (sales/production frameworks), and Template Library. Files link to each other and connect to a Home page, forming a knowledge graph of the entire company.
The Business Version of CLAUDE.md
If CLAUDE.md is "the onboarding doc for your codebase" in Claude Code, the Memory file is "the onboarding doc for your business." Same principle, applied by a non-developer to business operations.
2. MCP = The Glue
Obsidian alone is a well-organized filing cabinet — structured but passive. MCP (Model Context Protocol) connects AI to that cabinet.
The Obsidian MCP server is open source with 1.4k+ GitHub stars. Add one line to your Claude Desktop config file, and Claude can read your vault, create new notes, edit existing ones, and search everything. No copy-pasting.
3. Claude Cowork = The Execution Engine
Claude Cowork is an agent that runs inside the Claude Desktop app. It brings Claude Code's agent architecture from the terminal to the desktop. The February 2026 update added 12+ MCP connectors including Google Calendar, Drive, Gmail, and Slack.
Each connector has granular permissions. Email search allowed but sending blocked. Slack reading OK but message sending requires confirmation. Three levels: Allow (auto) / Ask (confirm) / Deny (block).
What changes?
The core idea in one sentence: "Every meeting makes your AI smarter, automatically."
Fraser uses Fathom to record and transcribe meetings. Zapier automatically drops new transcripts into a Google Drive folder. Zero manual work. Then Claude Cowork accesses Drive via its MCP connector, reads the transcripts, and processes them.
What does "process" mean? Read transcript → extract meeting summary → extract decisions → identify action items (assignee + deadline) → write to the corresponding files in the Obsidian vault.
| Traditional AI Use | Obsidian + Cowork + MCP | |
|---|---|---|
| Context | Explain from scratch every time | Auto-loaded from vault |
| Post-meeting | Manual notes + sharing | Transcript → auto-sorted/recorded |
| Status checks | Dig through Slack manually | "Give me a status update" |
| Memory | Session ends = reset | Vault grows daily, compounds |
| Cost | SaaS subscriptions, hundreds/month | Obsidian free + Claude Pro ~$20/mo |
| Setup time | Weeks to months | One afternoon |
Real-world examples are impressive. "Check Slack and give me client status" → full status report in minutes. Who's on track, who's stuck, where feedback is delayed.
"What's on this week?" → Calendar merged with vault context. Which client you're meeting, what you discussed last time, which action items are still open.
"It's not a chatbot. It's a chief of staff."
— Fraser Cottrell, Fraggell CEO
And there's a compounding effect. Every transcribed and processed meeting adds context to the vault. Every session summary gets recorded, decisions logged, actions tracked. The vault grows daily, so Claude knows more with each new session.
Week 1: basic info. Week 4: clients, team dynamics, processes, results from 20 prior conversations. Week 8: it starts catching things you missed. Your AI employee onboards itself, every single day.
How to get started
- Create a company vault in Obsidian
Download free from obsidian.md. Create a vault and build a Memory file with your company intro, org structure, processes, and communication style. Put the vault inside Google Drive so Cowork can access it directly. - Connect the Obsidian MCP server
Add the MCP server to your Claude Desktop config. On macOS:~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json. On Windows:%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json. If you see a tool icon (hammer) in the chat, you're connected. - Add one custom instruction
In Cowork User Preferences, add: "Before answering any question, always search the Obsidian vault for relevant notes and incorporate what you find into your response." This single sentence is the glue that makes the whole system work. - Set up meeting transcript automation
Use Fathom (or Otter.ai, Fireflies, etc.) for auto-recording/transcription, and connect Zapier to auto-save transcripts to Google Drive. Claude reads Drive transcripts via MCP and organizes them into your vault. - Connect work tools via Cowork connectors
In Claude Desktop > Settings > Connectors, link Slack, Gmail, Calendar, etc. Set each connector's permissions to Allow/Ask/Deny. Once everything's connected, test with "Give me today's briefing."
Good to know: Limits and caveats
Cowork is still in research preview. Memory persists within a project but doesn't carry across independent sessions. Scheduled tasks won't run if your computer is off. And since you're granting read/write access to your vault, start with a test vault and always keep backups.
