| name | cognitive-patterns |
| description | Surface patterns in how the user thinks — cognitive pattern, problem-solving approach, emotional tone, content category. Optional domain scope. Use when user asks "when do I think best" or "what patterns show up in breakthroughs." |
| layer | L2 |
| reads | ["L2.summaries"] |
| writes | [] |
| citations | required |
| determinism | pure-function |
| allowed-tools | mcp__my-brain__cognitive_patterns |
cognitive-patterns — L2 self-knowledge surface
Framework context
L2 meta-skill. Aggregates pattern/approach/tone frequencies across summaries, separately counts breakthrough-only occurrences of each pattern. Synthesizes insight: "breakthroughs most associate with {top_pattern} and tend to happen when {top_tone}."
Unlike tunnel-state (what is the state), this is WHO is the thinker.
When to invoke
- User asks "when do I do my best thinking"
- User asks "what happens right before breakthroughs"
- Self-reflection / coaching context
- Before alignment-check, when user wants to know if the decision style matches past breakthroughs
Input
domain: str | None # if None, aggregates across whole corpus
Output contract
## 🧬 Cognitive Patterns {domain or '(all domains)'}
**Conversations**: N · **Breakthroughs**: M
### Cognitive patterns (top 10)
- {pattern}: count (💎 N of them led to breakthroughs) [N citations available]
...
### Problem-solving approaches (top 10)
- {approach}: count (💎 N breakthroughs)
...
### Emotional tones (top 8)
- {tone}: count (💎 N breakthroughs)
### Breakthrough insight
Breakthroughs most associate with **{top_pattern}** cognitive pattern and tend to happen when you're feeling **{top_tone}**.
Does NOT do
- Claim causation — correlation only
- Prescribe a pattern as "better"
- Include raw conversation text (this is a meta-view)
Fallback
No summaries → basic activity stats (msgs/questions/sources/months), with footer "Cannot determine cognitive patterns without summaries — showing activity stats".
Verification checklist
