← Back to Argo

Set up your vault

Argo is open source, and a vault is an empty folder that becomes a private git repo of plain markdown with the engine inside it. You do not have to read the install steps: hand your agent the setup-vault skill, answer four questions, and it runs them, checking each before the next.

.mdOr read the steps yourself →

The four questions

The skill asks all four in one go, then works from your answers. Nothing runs before that.

Where should the vault live?An absolute path to a new or empty folder. An existing markdown folder moves in once the vault is up.
Which operating system is this?macOS, Debian or Ubuntu, or something else. It picks the install commands.
Semantic search now, later, or never?Keyword search needs no keys. Semantic search needs an embedding provider.
Which agent harness comes next?Claude Code, Hermes, another tool, or none yet. Only decides which page you land on after.

What it runs

  • Checks the prerequisites (git, Python 3.9+, Node 22+, PostgreSQL 15+ and pgvector), installing only what is missing.
  • Creates the vault: git init, the engine as a submodule at .secondbrain/, then secondbrain-vault init.
  • Runs the app, and puts the launcher on your PATH.
  • Adds your notes and builds the search index with secondbrain scan.
  • Turns on semantic search, if you asked for it.
  • Points the vault at a private remote and makes the first push.

What it deliberately leaves alone

It stops once the vault runs and search works. It connects no agent harness, turns on no module, and sets up no server, and it says so when it is done. Those are the next pages, and you read them when you want them.

Where to go next

  • Set up your vault in the docs: the same path by hand, with a check after each step.
  • The skill on GitHub, and for an agent, the raw file at /setup-vault/skill.md.
  • The engine: the app, the vault template, the hooks and the shared skills. MIT licensed.