brain

name	brain
description	Read/write brain files (Obsidian vault at brain/). Use for any task that persists knowledge — reflection, planning, or direct edits. Triggers: brain/ modifications, "add to brain".

Brain

Persistent memory across sessions. Obsidian vault at brain/.

The brain is the foundation of the entire workflow — every agent, skill, and session reads it. Low-quality or speculative content degrades everything downstream. Before adding anything, ask: "Does this genuinely improve how the system operates?" If the answer isn't a clear yes, don't write it.

Before Writing

Read brain/index.md first. Then read the relevant entrypoint for your topic:

• brain/principles.md for principle updates

For directories without a dedicated index file yet, scan nearby files directly and edit an existing note when possible.

Structure

brain/
├── index.md              <- root entry point, links to everything
├── principles.md         <- index for principles/
├── principles/           <- engineering and design principles
├── codebase/             <- project-specific knowledge and gotchas
└── plans/                <- feature plans

Rules:

• One topic per file. brain/codebase/deploy-gotchas.md, not a mega-file.
• Maintain existing index entrypoints: brain/index.md, brain/principles.md.
• If you introduce a new top-level category, add an index-style entrypoint for it (links only, no inlined content).
• brain/index.md is the root. Every brain file must be reachable from it.
• File names: lowercase, hyphenated. worktree-gotchas.md.

Wikilinks

Format: [[section/file-name]]. Resolution order: same directory, then relative path, then vault root. Heading anchors ([[file#heading]]) are stripped during resolution.

Writing Style

• Bullets over prose. No preamble.
• Plain markdown with # Title. No Obsidian frontmatter.
• Keep notes under ~50 lines. Split if longer.

Grounding

Brain content must reflect the user's own thinking, not training-data conventions. When authoring or revising a principle, gotcha, or style note:

• Cite the user's own writing where it exists. Canonical sources: https://alexop.dev/llms.txt (index of posts) and the user's blog posts on alexop.dev.
• Quote conversation evidence ("<user's words>") when the lesson came from a correction or stated preference.
• Do not paraphrase generic Vue/Nuxt/TypeScript advice as if it were the user's view. If the only source is training data, the note doesn't belong in brain/.

After Writing

Update brain/index.md for any files you added or removed. Also update the relevant entrypoint when applicable. Keep indexes link-only and scannable.

Durability Test

Ask: "Would I include this in a prompt for a different task?"

• Yes -> write to brain/. It's durable knowledge.
• No, it's plan-specific -> update the plan's docs instead.
• No, it's a skill issue -> update the skill file directly.
• No, it needs follow-up work -> file a todo.

Maintenance

• Delete outdated or subsumed notes.
• Merge overlapping notes before adding new ones.