CORE is a public, Markdown-first, Obsidian-compatible technical education vault. It organizes practical learning paths, notes, labs, playbooks, and references across computer science, Linux, networking, defensive cybersecurity, OSINT verification, cloud/DevOps, Git/GitHub, and AI coding tools.
Start here: Welcome.md
- A structured knowledge base you can clone and open directly as an Obsidian vault.
- A set of beginner-to-intermediate learning paths across foundational and applied technical topics.
- A collection of hands-on, safe, defensive-only labs and playbooks.
- A living reference that marks what is verified fact, what is interpretation, and what is still uncertain.
- A place where every note explains what something is, why it matters, and how to use it safely.
- Not an offensive hacking manual. No exploit chains, malware, credential theft, unauthorized access techniques, or real-world targeting workflows.
- Not a personal notebook, journal, or agent-persistence system. CORE contains no private data, no case files, and no forensic incident material tied to real investigations.
- Not an automation platform. CORE is Markdown content — it does not run scripts, agents, or hidden workflows.
- Not a finished product. Content is versioned, reviewed, and improved over time — see the
statusfield in each note's frontmatter.
- Beginners who want a structured, honest on-ramp to Linux, networking, and security concepts.
- Self-learners who want a defensive-security and OSINT-verification focus without offensive framing.
- People evaluating or learning AI coding tools (Claude Code, Codex, local models) for technical work.
- Anyone who wants to contribute a well-sourced note, lab, or learning trail back to a shared public vault.
- Clone this repository.
- Open the cloned folder in Obsidian as a vault (
Open folder as vault). - Use the Quick Switcher (
Ctrl/Cmd+O) to jump to any note by name. - Follow
[[wiki links]]between notes — every note links to related notes, its parent index, and relevant learning trails. - Start from [[Master_Index]] or [[Welcome]] if you are new.
- No community plugins are required. CORE relies only on Obsidian's built-in linking and search.
Every note is plain Markdown and renders cleanly on GitHub. Wiki-style [[links]] do not render as clickable links on GitHub (this is expected — they work in Obsidian). When browsing on GitHub, use the folder structure and the index files (*_Index.md, _Indexes/Master_Index.md) as your navigation map.
Each numbered folder (01_Foundations through 10_Glossary) is a subject area with its own *_Index.md file listing every note in that area. The Master Index (_Indexes/Master_Index.md) links every subject area together. The _Indexes folder also contains curated paths — ordered reading lists for a specific goal (e.g. Beginner Path, Blue Team Path) that pull notes, labs, and playbooks from across the vault into a single sequence.
A Learning Trail is a record of a real question a learner had, the path they took through CORE to answer it, where the answer was actually found, and what question naturally comes next. Trails live in _Learning_Trails/ and are meant to be added to over time — see _Learning_Trails/Learning_Trails_Index.md and _Templates/Learning_Trail_Template.md.
See CONTRIBUTING.md for the full process, including how to add notes, sources, labs, and Learning Trails, and the pull request quality rules. All contributions must stay within CORE's defensive-only, education-first scope.
See LICENSE.