brain-startup

name

brain-startup

description

Brief the agent on the current state of the Obsidian AI Brain at the start of meaningful work. Reads cross-machine snapshot, shared memory, this machine's context, and relevant project memory; creates a per-session activity record so concurrent tasks remain visible. Use when starting work on a project, when the user says "start a session", "starting a session", "begin session", "kick off", "let's get started", "what was I doing", "where did I leave off", "catch me up", "what's the current state", "what's the state of X", or at the beginning of any non-trivial session where you'd benefit from knowing prior decisions and context.

brain-startup

Reads the Obsidian AI Brain at the start of a session and creates an independent activity record so other machines see every in-flight task.

When to invoke

• Start of any meaningful work session
• User says "what was I doing", "catch me up", "where did I leave off", "what's the state of X"
• Starting work in a project repo and you need the durable context
• After a long gap when in-flight state from another machine might be relevant

What to do

0. Resolve THIS machine's stable name (CRITICAL — DO NOT SKIP)

Every example in this skill uses <MACHINE> as a placeholder. You MUST substitute your actual machine name. Do NOT copy "Laptop" or any literal name from this doc — that's just the example machine.

Resolve the network hostname or alias to the canonical AI Brain folder:

cd ~/Obsidian-Vault
node "AI Brain/scripts/brain.mjs" whoami

Use the reported canonical: value. The stable AI Brain name may differ from hostname; aliases are defined in AI Brain/Machines/aliases.json. If registered: no, invoke the brain-bootstrap skill instead.

Use the matched folder name as <MACHINE> in every command below. If you find yourself about to type the literal string "Laptop" in a command, STOP — that's the classic multi-machine bug: one machine overwriting another machine's Current Activity. Always substitute.

1. Pull latest vault state

cd ~/Obsidian-Vault
git pull --ff-only

If the pull fails or there are local changes, surface that to the user before proceeding.

2. Check who's doing what across machines

node "AI Brain/scripts/brain.mjs" snapshot

If another machine shows ACTIVE with a recent heartbeat (within ~2 hours) on the same project the user wants to work on, flag the collision before proceeding.

3. Read shared and machine memory

Read these files into context (in this order):

• AI Brain/Shared/Profile.md
• AI Brain/Shared/Preferences.md
• AI Brain/Shared/Active Projects.md
• AI Brain/Shared/Open Loops.md
• AI Brain/Machines/<MACHINE>/Current Context.md
• AI Brain/Machines/<MACHINE>/Local Setup.md
• AI Brain/Machines/<MACHINE>/Working Projects.md (may not exist on newer machines — skip if missing)

Substitute <MACHINE> with the name you detected in Step 0.

3.5. Auto-heal empty machine templates (one-time per machine)

After reading the machine files above, check whether Local Setup.md or Current Context.md are still template-only (headings with empty - bullets, no real values, file size typically under ~700 bytes). If they are, fill them in silently — this is one-time-per-machine cleanup, not something to bug the user about.

Local Setup.md — observable from this machine, fill it in with no user interaction:

echo "hostname=$(hostname)"
echo "os=$(uname -sr)"
echo "shell=$SHELL"
echo "node=$(node --version 2>/dev/null || echo 'not installed')"
echo "python=$(python3 --version 2>&1 || echo 'not installed')"
echo "git=$(git --version | awk '{print $3}')"

Use the output to populate the ## Machine, ## Vault Location, and ## Tools Installed sections. Vault path is ~/Obsidian-Vault (resolve ~ to the actual home dir). Set Last updated: to today's date. Use the Edit tool — don't overwrite the whole file, just replace the empty bullets.

Current Context.md — write a minimal honest placeholder; don't fabricate context:

• ## Current Focus: - (none — fill in when this machine has a recurring focus)
• ## Recent Work: - (none yet)
• ## Local Constraints: leave whatever was bootstrapped
• ## Next Agent Should Know: - Read AI Brain/Shared/ first for cross-machine context.
• ## Do Not Touch Without Asking: leave whatever was bootstrapped

If either file already has real content (over ~700 bytes, or any bullet has a value after :), leave it alone — don't overwrite user-curated text.

Briefly mention the fill-in to the user in your closing brief (one sentence, not a section): "Filled in this machine's Local Setup template since it was empty."

4. If a project is implied, read its memory

Look at the user's first message and the current cwd. If a project under AI Brain/Projects/<name>/ matches, read:

• Overview.md
• Current State.md
• Next Steps.md
• Decisions.md

If no project memory exists for an obviously meaningful project, suggest creating one with node "AI Brain/scripts/brain.mjs" init-project "Project Name" before continuing.

5. Check the wiki index for related synthesis pages

Read index.md (vault root). If the user's task overlaps with any entry under Synthesis/, Infrastructure/, or Tools/, read those pages too.

6. Start an activity session on this machine

node "AI Brain/scripts/brain.mjs" startup "<MACHINE>" \
  --agent "Claude Code" \
  --project "<Project Name>" \
  --focus "<one-line description of what you're about to do>" \
  --cwd "$(pwd)"

Capture the returned session_id and retain it as <SESSION_ID> for this task. Heartbeat and closeout commands must target that ID when concurrent sessions exist.

Choose <Project Name> to match an AI Brain/Projects/<name>/ folder if possible. If the work doesn't fit a known project, use a short topical label.

7. Brief the user

In 3–6 lines, tell the user:

• What you already know about this project (from the memory you just loaded)
• What's currently open (Next Steps + Open Loops items that match)
• Whether another machine is active on it (from the snapshot)
• What you suggest doing next

Do not dump the raw memory at the user. Summarize.

8. (Optional) Push the activity record

If the work session is going to be substantial, push so other machines see it:

cd ~/Obsidian-Vault && git add "AI Brain/Machines/<MACHINE>/Activities/<SESSION_ID>.md" "AI Brain/Machines/<MACHINE>/Current Activity.md" && git commit -m "<MACHINE> startup: <focus>" && git push

For quick sessions, skip the push — the closeout will carry the activity with the session file.

Rules

• Never store secrets, credentials, or full chat transcripts
• Read only what's relevant — do not bulk-load session history unless the user asks
• If you're already mid-session and the user invokes this, do the snapshot + brief but do not create a second activity file for the same task