run-sb

name	run-sb
description	Build and run the sb CLI (Second Brain / Obsidian vault manager) against a disposable vault, or drive individual commands directly. Use when asked to run sb, test it, smoke-test it, verify a change to a command, or exercise the note/vault/daily/inbox pipeline end to end.

sb is a Node CLI (Commander.js), no server or GUI — there's no window to screenshot, only JSON on stdout. Drive it either via the smoke-test driver (.claude/skills/run-sb/driver.sh), which exercises the full pipeline against a disposable vault, or by invoking node dist/index.js <command> directly for a single command under test. All paths below are relative to the repo root.

Prerequisites

Node.js 20+ (verified with v24.17.0). jq is used by the driver script to parse JSON output — already present on most dev machines; install via your package manager if missing.

Setup

npm install

Build

npm run build

Compiles src/ to dist/index.js via tsc. Must be re-run after any source change — the driver and direct invocation both run compiled JS from dist/, not src/ (the npm run dev ts-node path also exists but the driver below uses the built output, matching what actually ships).

Run (agent path)

Use the driver for an end-to-end pipeline check:

.claude/skills/run-sb/driver.sh

It creates a scratch HOME and vault under mktemp -d (sb reads config from $HOME/.claude/second-brain.md, and os.homedir() respects $HOME, so this never touches your real second-brain config), then runs: init --scaffold → config show → vault info → vault structure → note create → note context → note move → note read → daily path → daily append → permissions → provenance → describe → a --dry-run example. Pass a directory as $1 to reuse a fixed scratch dir instead of a fresh mktemp -d one. It leaves the scratch dir in place on exit — rm -rf it yourself when done inspecting.

For a single command under test, skip the driver and sandbox HOME yourself:

SCRATCH=$(mktemp -d)
export HOME="$SCRATCH/home"
mkdir -p "$HOME/.claude" "$SCRATCH/vault"/{Inbox,Daily,Areas/Productivity,Resources/Tools}
node dist/index.js init --name primary --path "$SCRATCH/vault" --scaffold
node dist/index.js note create --title "My insight" --content "Something worth remembering"
node dist/index.js inbox list

Every command outputs JSON on stdout (except daily path, provenance prints JSON too, and config show which prints the raw markdown config file) and exits 1 with a plain-text message on user-facing errors (e.g. missing config prints Second brain not configured. Run /second-brain:setup first. and exits 1) — no scraping needed, pipe straight to jq.

Run (human path)

npx sb --help

Same binary, meant for interactive use with a real vault configured at ~/.claude/second-brain.md (see sb init). Nothing about it differs from the agent path other than not bothering to sandbox HOME.

Test

npm test

92 tests across 16 files, all passing as of this writing (vitest --run). A few tests intentionally print warnings/errors to stderr as part of exercising error paths (e.g. "Warning: ... does not have .obsidian/ directory", "Vault CLAUDE.md already exists, skipping scaffold.") — those are expected output from passing tests, not failures.

Gotchas

• sb doesn't scaffold vault folders. init --scaffold only writes a vault CLAUDE.md; it does not create Inbox/, Daily/, or any PARA folders. note create and inbox list fail with ENOENT / "Inbox directory not found" unless you mkdir those folders yourself first (or point at a real Obsidian vault that already has them).
• daily append requires the daily note to already exist. DailyNoteManager.appendToSection does a bare readFile — it does not create the file. Pre-create Daily/<today>.md with any content before calling daily append, or it throws ENOENT.
• Config lives at $HOME/.claude/second-brain.md, not a CLI flag. There's no --config override — the only way to sandbox a run against a disposable config is exporting HOME before invoking node dist/index.js, relying on os.homedir() respecting $HOME.
• init refuses to add a vault name that already exists in the config file (Vault "x" already exists in config. Use a different name., exit 1) — use a fresh scratch HOME per run rather than reusing one with the same vault name already registered.