ai-journal-maker

Automatically collect AI conversation logs and generate organized daily journals in Obsidian — No API key required!

📖 Overview

ai-journal-maker automatically collects your AI conversation logs from Claude Code (or Cursor) and transforms them into well-organized daily development journals in Obsidian. No API key needed — it uses your existing Claude Code CLI to generate intelligent summaries of your conversations.

✨ Key Highlights

• 🎯 Zero Setup - No API keys, no configuration hassle
• 🤖 Uses Your Claude Code - Leverages the CLI you already have installed
• 📝 AI-Powered Summaries - Extracts goals, Q&A, achievements, and learnings
• 🗂️ Smart Organization - Automatically groups by date and project
• 📊 Obsidian Ready - Beautiful markdown journals with frontmatter
• ⚡ One Command - ai-journal generate and you're done

How It Works

You work with Claude Code all day
         ↓
Run: ai-journal generate
         ↓
Claude CLI summarizes your conversations
         ↓
Beautiful journal appears in Obsidian

📦 Installation

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+ installed
• Claude Code CLI installed (you're probably already using it!)
• Obsidian for viewing journals (optional but recommended)

Install

npm install -g ai-journal-maker

Or with pnpm:

pnpm add -g ai-journal-maker

🚀 Quick Start

1. Initialize (One-time setup)

ai-journal init

Interactive setup will ask:

1. Obsidian vault path (e.g., C:/Users/You/Documents/Obsidian Vault)
2. Which AI providers to track (Select Claude Code)
3. Summary engine (Select "Claude Code CLI" — no API key needed!)

That's it! No API keys, no complex configuration.

2. Generate Your Daily Journal

ai-journal generate

What happens:

• ✅ Collects all Claude Code conversations from today
• ✅ Groups them by project (based on working directory)
• ✅ Uses Claude CLI to generate intelligent summaries
• ✅ Saves beautiful markdown files to Obsidian

Options:

# Generate for specific date
ai-journal generate --date 2026-03-13

# Watch mode (auto-generate on new logs)
ai-journal generate --watch

3. View in Obsidian

Open Obsidian and navigate to:

daily/2026-03-13/index.md              # Daily overview
daily/2026-03-13/my-project.md         # Project details

📋 Generated Journal Format

Each project gets a detailed journal:

---
project: ai-journal-maker
date: 2026-03-13
provider: claude
questions: 267
entries: 350
---

# Ai Journal Maker | 2026-03-13

## 📋 오늘의 업무

**목표**: Implement Claude Code CLI summarizer

### 질문 & 해결

- **Q**: How to use subprocess to call Claude CLI?
  → **A**: Use spawn with stdin for long prompts

### 🎯 주요 성과

- Added ClaudeCodeSummarizer with subprocess
- No API key required anymore
- Windows support with shell: true

### 💡 배운 점

- Claude CLI accepts stdin for prompts
- Windows needs shell option for .cmd files

### 다음 할 일

- [ ] Test with real conversation logs
- [ ] Add error handling for CLI failures

## 💬 Conversation Log

[Detailed Q&A entries with timestamps...]

⚙️ Configuration

Config file: ai-journal-maker.config.json (auto-created by init)

Default configuration (no API key!):

{
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "providers": {
    "claude": { "enabled": true },
    "cursor": { "enabled": false }
  },
  "outputs": {
    "obsidian": {
      "enabled": true,
      "vaultPath": "C:/Users/You/Documents/Obsidian Vault",
      "dailyFolder": "daily"
    }
  },
  "processing": {
    "summaryProvider": "claude-code", // Uses your Claude Code CLI!
    "apiKeys": {}, // Empty - no API keys needed!
    "filterRules": {
      "minLength": 10,
      "excludePatterns": []
    }
  }
}

To modify settings:

ai-journal config

🤖 Summary Providers

Claude Code CLI ⭐ (Default & Recommended)

Why it's the best option:

• ✅ No API key required
• ✅ Uses your existing Claude Code installation
• ✅ Most accurate summaries
• ✅ Zero additional cost
• ✅ Works offline (if Claude Code works offline)

How it works:

# Behind the scenes
echo "Summarize this conversation..." | claude --print

Alternative Providers (Optional)

Only use these if you don't have Claude Code CLI:

Claude API

• Requires API key from https://console.anthropic.com
• Costs money per request
• Good for non-Claude Code users

OpenAI API

• Requires API key from https://platform.openai.com
• GPT-4o based summaries
• Good alternative to Claude

Rule-based

• No AI, just keyword extraction
• Free and works anywhere
• Basic summaries only

📁 Folder Structure

Obsidian Vault/
└── daily/
    └── 2026-03-13/
        ├── index.md                    # Daily overview
        ├── ai-journal-maker.md         # Project 1
        └── another-project.md          # Project 2

Each folder is organized by date, with separate files for each project you worked on.

🎯 Real-World Example

Morning: Work on ai-journal-maker using Claude Code

You: "Add Claude Code CLI summarizer"
Claude: "I'll implement that using subprocess..."
[You code together all morning]

Evening: Generate journal

ai-journal generate

Result: Obsidian journal with:

• Goal: "Implement Claude Code CLI summarizer"
• Q&A: All your questions and solutions
• Achievements: "Added ClaudeCodeSummarizer, no API key needed"
• Learnings: "Subprocess stdin handling, Windows compatibility"

💡 Pro Tips

1. Run daily - Add to your end-of-day routine
2. Review weekly - Great for standups and sprint reviews
3. Track learnings - Build your personal knowledge base
4. Multiple projects - Automatically separates different codebases

❓ FAQ

Q: Do I need a Claude API key? A: No! It uses your Claude Code CLI installation.

Q: Does this work offline? A: Partially. Log collection works offline, but Claude CLI needs internet for summaries.

Q: Can I use this without Obsidian? A: Yes, the markdown files work in any editor. Obsidian just makes them prettier.

Q: What if Claude CLI is not installed? A: It will fall back to rule-based summaries (keyword extraction).

Q: Does this support Cursor? A: Coming soon! Currently supports Claude Code only.

🛠️ Development

# Clone
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/ai-journal-maker.git
cd ai-journal-maker

# Install
pnpm install

# Develop
pnpm dev

# Build
pnpm build

# Test
pnpm test

🗺️ Roadmap

• [x] Claude Code CLI support
• [x] No API key required
• [x] Obsidian output
• [x] Interactive setup
• [x] AI-powered summaries
• [ ] Cursor support
• [ ] GitHub Copilot support
• [ ] Notion output
• [ ] Custom templates
• [ ] Multi-language support

🤝 Contributing

Contributions welcome! Please submit a Pull Request.

📄 License

MIT © [email protected]

🙏 Acknowledgments

• Built with Commander.js
• Interactive prompts by @inquirer/prompts
• Powered by your existing Claude Code CLI 🎉

Made with ❤️ for developers who want to effortlessly track their AI-assisted development journey

No API keys. No hassle. Just install and run. 🚀