Build Your Own Agentic OS: The 4-Level Framework
An agentic OS's real power lies not in flashy dashboards but in four foundational levels: skills and loop engineering (the backbone), memory and state management (the brain), custom UI (the interface), and distribution (sharing with teams). Master the first two levels—codifying your workflows and creating a structured knowledge base—and you unlock 90% of the value, applicable to any Claude Code project.
Why Agentic OS Matters: The Hidden Value
The Real Power Is Under the Hood
Most people fixate on the visual interface of an agentic OS—buttons, dashboards, metrics—but the actual value comes from invisible fundamentals: loop engineering, skill architecture, state management, and a structured second brain. The UI is just the wrapper; the architecture underneath is what transforms a tool into a customized weapon.
Skills Are the Most Powerful Feature
Skills allow you to tell Claude to produce a specific output in a specific way for a specific task. Rather than manually repeating the same prompts, you codify workflows into reusable, consistent skills that can be triggered on demand or automated.
Level 1: Skill Architecture & Loop Engineering
The Four Subphases of Level 1
Building the backbone requires: (1) workflow audit—discovering what tasks you repeat; (2) skill creation—codifying those tasks; (3) automation—scheduling skills to run without manual input; (4) loop engineering—adding self-improvement mechanisms that learn from past runs.
Workflow Audit: Three Methods
Discover what skills you need by: (1) manually documenting tasks as you do them; (2) asking Claude to review your last 5-20 sessions and extract repeated patterns; (3) having Claude interview you about your day-to-day work and pull out automatable tasks.
From Manual to Automated: The Progression
Most people stay in a manual loop: open Claude, ask it to do something, get a result. Instead, audit your workflows to find repeated tasks, turn them into skills, then automate those skills on a schedule. This transforms inconsistent manual work into consistent, codified processes.
Organize Skills by Domain
Break your work into domains (e.g., research, content, sales, community) and list the specific tasks within each. For content, this might be outlines, hooks, repurposing, carousels—each should become a skill. Most people don't have a robust skill library; building one is the easiest way to supercharge Claude Code.
Turning Skills Into Automations
Once a skill is created and validated, ask Claude to turn it into an automation. In Claude Desktop, go to Routines, name it, set the instruction to run the skill, and pick a schedule. This removes manual execution entirely.
Level 2: Memory & State Management
The Purpose of a Knowledge Base
A structured vault (Obsidian, database, or coherent file system) serves as Claude's map and second brain. When you ask Claude a question about files in the vault, a clear structure lets it find the answer quickly and cheaply. Without structure, Claude wastes tokens searching through chaos.
Obsidian Basics: Vault Setup
Download Obsidian (free), designate a folder on your computer as the vault, and open Claude Code inside that folder via terminal. Claude Code is now connected to all files and subfolders in the vault and can reference them in conversations.
The Carpathy Obsidian RAG Structure
Organize your vault into three main subfolders: /raw (unstructured data like articles and research), /wiki (structured data turned into Wikipedia-style articles), and /outputs (deliverables like slide decks). Each folder has an index.md file that acts as a table of contents, helping Claude navigate efficiently.
Why Index.md Files Matter
At every folder level, an index.md file tells Claude what it's looking at and where to go next. This creates a clear map. As your vault grows to thousands of documents, these index files prevent Claude from getting lost and wasting tokens searching.
Create a Claude.md Convention File
Document your vault's structure and navigation patterns in a claude.md file at the root. Include your folder hierarchy, naming conventions, and the path Claude should follow to find things. This is your custom instruction set for how Claude should interact with your vault.
Structure Flexibility and Customization
You don't have to use Carpathy's exact structure. The key is that your structure makes sense for your data and your work. Ask Claude to review your vault and suggest a structure, or design one yourself. The power comes from having a coherent map, not from following a template.
Logging Outputs for Loop Engineering
All skill and automation outputs should be logged in your vault in a way that supports loop engineering. This lets Claude see what past runs produced, identify patterns, and improve future iterations. The vault becomes both memory and a learning system.
90% of AIOS Value Comes From Levels 1 & 2
If you master skills, automations, loop engineering, and a well-structured vault, you have 90% of an agentic OS's power. You can do all this in the terminal or desktop app without any fancy UI. The remaining 10% is just visual polish.
Level 3: Custom Visual Interface
Two Paths to a Custom UI
Wrap your skills and vault in a visual layer by building either a web app or an Obsidian plugin. Both sit on top of the same underlying Claude Code infrastructure, just with a custom interface instead of the terminal.
Web App Dashboard Approach
Create a custom web app that displays metrics relevant to your work (e.g., YouTube subscribers, latest video, calendar directives) and turns your skills into clickable buttons. Users see one dashboard instead of juggling the terminal, making it accessible to non-technical team members.
Obsidian Command Center Approach
Build an Obsidian plugin that displays the same metrics and buttons as a web app, but inside Obsidian itself. This keeps everything in one place if your team already uses Obsidian for note-taking.
How to Build a Custom UI with Claude
Take a screenshot of a design you like, list your existing skills and metrics, describe what you want to see, and ask Claude to build it. For a web app, Claude creates HTML/CSS/JS. For Obsidian, ask Claude to convert the web app into an Obsidian plugin.
Headless Claude Code Execution
When you click a button in the UI, it runs a headless version of Claude Code (using the claude-p command) invisibly in the background. No terminal pops up; the skill runs silently and returns results to the UI. This still pulls from your Claude subscription.
The Accessibility Multiplier
A non-technical person will often refuse to use the terminal or desktop app, but will happily click a button in a dashboard. By putting skills behind a visual interface, you make Claude's power accessible to people who would otherwise never use it.
Level 4: Distribution & Team Scaling
Turning Skills Into Team Buttons
Once you've built skills and a UI, you can share the entire system with team members or clients. They don't need to learn Claude Code; they just click buttons or speak voice commands. The complexity is hidden; the power is exposed.
Web App Distribution Is Simpler
A web-based UI can be zipped, pushed to GitHub, or shared as a folder. Team members clone it, point Claude Code to it, and it works. Obsidian plugins require more hands-on setup from you.
Obsidian Distribution Requires More Setup
Sharing an Obsidian command center with a team member isn't as straightforward as a GitHub repo. You'll need to set it up for them manually or provide detailed instructions. It's not difficult, just more involved than web app distribution.
Raising the Floor in Your Organization
By distributing an AIOS to your team, you're not training them on Claude Code; you're giving them a tool that makes them more productive. Non-technical people can now access AI power without learning to code or use the terminal.
The Dashboard Effect on Non-Technical Users
A visual dashboard changes how people perceive technical tools. Even if the underlying system is the same, a polished UI makes non-technical users feel confident and in control, whereas a terminal feels intimidating and foreign.
Putting It All Together
The Four-Level Stack
Level 1 (skills, automation, loop engineering) and Level 2 (memory, state, vault structure) are the foundation—90% of the value. Level 3 (custom UI) and Level 4 (distribution) are the polish. Build a strong foundation first; the UI comes later.
These Skills Apply Everywhere
The fundamentals of skill architecture, loop engineering, and state management aren't just for building an AIOS. They apply to any Claude Code project. Master these, and you'll work more effectively with Claude on anything.
Notable quotes
The value is everything under the hood. Everything you can't see. — Chase
This is 90% of the value of any sort of AIOS. — Chase
You live in a bubble that 99% of people just won't go there no matter what you do. — Chase
Action items
- Audit your daily and weekly workflows: list all repeated tasks you do with Claude Code (manually, via session review, or via interview).
- Convert your top 5-10 repeated tasks into skills using Claude Code's skill creator.
- Identify which skills can be automated and set them up as routines in Claude Desktop with a schedule.
- Create or designate a vault folder on your computer (Obsidian or a simple file structure) and organize it using the Carpathy RAG structure (/raw, /wiki, /outputs) or your own coherent system.
- Add index.md files at each folder level to help Claude navigate your vault efficiently.
- Create a claude.md file documenting your vault's structure and navigation patterns.
- Log all skill and automation outputs in your vault in a way that supports loop engineering (so Claude can learn from past runs).
- Once Levels 1 and 2 are solid, optionally build a custom web app or Obsidian plugin UI to wrap your skills and metrics (Level 3).
- Consider sharing your AIOS with a team member or client to test distribution (Level 4).