How to Use AI to Study More Efficiently

Background & Motivation

The rapid advancement of AI is reshaping how humans learn, work, and create. Alongside the excitement, there is a growing mainstream narrative suggesting that AI will replace programmers and knowledge workers entirely.

However, as Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, has pointed out, the future is not one without programmers—but one where programmers evolve into readers, editors, and system designers rather than pure code writers.

In other words, the role is shifting:

From writers → to reviewers and editors of intelligence.

I strongly agree with this perspective. To adapt to this new ecosystem, it’s no longer optional to understand AI tools deeply—it’s essential. As a participant and witness to one of the most significant technological shifts of the 21st century, I believe we should actively learn how to leverage these tools rather than resist them.

In this post, I’ll share a practical workflow for using Claude Code together with Obsidian to turn online resources—especially videos—into structured, connected, and high-quality study notes.

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Step 1: Install Claude Code and Subscribe to a Paid Plan

First, install Claude Code by following the official documentation:

👉 https://code.claude.com/docs/en/overview

A paid plan is required to unlock the full capability of Claude Code, especially for longer reasoning tasks and skill usage.

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Step 2: Access Claude Code

Once installed, you have two main ways to use Claude Code:

• Terminal access Simply type:

  claude
  

• VS Code extension If you prefer working inside an IDE, the VS Code integration provides a smoother experience.

Either approach works equally well.

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Step 3: Improve Study Efficiency with Claude Skills (Obsidian Integration)

To maximize productivity, we’ll use Claude Skills—extensible capabilities that allow Claude Code to interact with tools and workflows.

The first and most useful skill for studying is Obsidian integration.

Why Obsidian?

Obsidian is a powerful knowledge-management tool, and I prefer it for several reasons:

1. Markdown-native Claude (and ChatGPT) naturally generate Markdown, making note transfer seamless.
2. Visual knowledge mapping Obsidian Canvas allows concepts to be connected and visualized.
3. Tags and backlinks Knowledge relationships become explicit and searchable.
4. Strong plugin ecosystem Highly customizable for different learning styles.

The Obsidian skills maintained by the Obsidian founder are available here: 👉 https://github.com/kepano/obsidian-skills

Recommended: Install via Claude Marketplace

The simplest method is using the Claude Code marketplace:

claude
/plugin marketplace add kepano/obsidian-skills
/plugin install obsidian@obsidian-skills

Restart Claude Code, then type:

/skills

You should see Obsidian listed among the available skills.

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Step 3.5: Alternative Skill Installation (Manual)

You can also install skills manually:

1. Locate your .claude directory (often in your home directory, but it can be project-specific)
2. Create a skills/ folder inside .claude
3. Place the skill files inside that folder

When you run /skills:

• Manually added skills appear under User Skills
• Marketplace-installed skills appear under Plugin Skills

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Step 3 (Advanced): “Self-Learning” Skill Installation

This is the most unconventional—but fascinating—method.

You can directly provide Claude Code with:

• a GitHub repository URL

  https://github.com/kepano/obsidian-skills
  

• or a cloned repository

  git clone https://github.com/kepano/obsidian-skills.git
  

Then prompt Claude with something like:

“Learn this repository as a skill.”

After granting access, Claude Code will analyze the codebase and effectively teach itself how to use it.

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Step 4: Teaching Claude to Read YouTube Videos

Next, we enable Claude to process video content.

Search GitHub for YouTube transcript APIs. A widely used option is:

👉 https://github.com/jdepoix/youtube-transcript-api

Provide the repository link to Claude Code and prompt:

“Learn this repository as a skill.”

After a few minutes, Claude will automatically generate:

• SKILL.md
• Supporting scripts and bindings

At this point, Claude Code gains the ability to extract transcripts from YouTube videos.

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Step 5: Automated Learning from Video Playlists

Now everything comes together.

Claude Code can:

• Watch video playlists
• Extract transcripts
• Generate structured notes
• Organize content in Obsidian
• Visualize relationships using Obsidian Canvas

Try prompting something like:

“Learn from this playlist. Watch all videos, extract key concepts, generate concise notes, and draw a knowledge graph in Obsidian Canvas.”

The result is a personal AI study assistant that transforms passive content consumption into an active, structured learning process.

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Conclusion

The most exciting realization from this workflow is this:

Any existing codebase can be transformed into a Claude skill.

With a standardized interface (skills, MCP, plugins), Claude Code can:

• Understand unfamiliar tools
• Repurpose them for new use cases
• Extend its own capabilities dynamically

This fundamentally changes how we interact with software—not just as users, but as orchestrators of intelligence.

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What’s Next?

Next blog: MCP & Skills — How Anthropic Is Shaping the Future of AI Tooling

If you try this workflow, I’d love to hear your experience.

Happy learning 🚀