brain-context

name	brain-context
description	Restore the context of a specific moment — what was happening, what decisions were in flight, what was on your mind. Anchors on a date or event, pulls the timeline window, synthesizes a brief.
argument-hint	<time reference>

Brain Context

Restore what was in your head at a specific moment. Given a time reference — a date, range, or event-like phrase — pull a window of thoughts via timeline_thoughts, hydrate the most diverse and substantive ones, and produce a cited brief.

Prerequisites

mcp__ai-brain__search_thoughts, mcp__ai-brain__timeline_thoughts, and mcp__ai-brain__get_thoughts must be available. If not, tell the user to install/update the AI Brain plugin and stop.

Arguments

• $ARGUMENTS — Required, free text:
  • A date: /brain-context "April 10", /brain-context "last Thursday", /brain-context "2026-04-15"
  • A range: /brain-context "the week of April 15"
  • An event-like phrase: /brain-context "the week we picked Convex"

Workflow

Step 1: Resolve the Anchor Timestamp

Determine whether $ARGUMENTS is a parseable date or an event phrase.

Try date parsing first:

• ISO 8601 (2026-04-15, 2026-04-15T10:00) → epoch ms directly.
• Natural language date (April 10, last Thursday, yesterday) → convert to epoch ms at noon local time of that day.
• Range phrases (the week of April 15) → use the Monday of that week at noon as the anchor, and widen the before/after values (see Step 2).

If date parsing fails, treat as an event-like phrase:

1. Call mcp__ai-brain__search_thoughts with query: $ARGUMENTS, limit: 5.
2. If zero hits, tell the user: "I couldn't parse '[input]' as a date or find a matching event in your brain. Try a specific date (e.g. April 10) or a phrase from an actual thought." Stop.
3. If one clear match, use its createdAt as aroundMs and announce: "Anchoring on [summary] from [ISO date] (thought:<id>)."
4. If multiple close matches, list them and ask the user to pick one.

Call the resolved timestamp aroundMs.

Step 2: Pull the Window

Default window sizes:

• Single day (date input): before: 15, after: 15
• Range (week of X): before: 25, after: 5 (looking back across the week, small look-ahead)

Call mcp__ai-brain__timeline_thoughts with:

• aroundMs: the resolved timestamp
• before: per above
• after: per above
• type: omit (want everything for context)

If the result array is empty, tell the user: "No thoughts captured around [date]. Try a wider range or a different moment." Stop.

Step 3: Triage for Diversity

From the compact index, select 5-8 thoughts to hydrate, optimizing for diversity:

• Distinct type values when possible (decision, meeting_note, person_note, idea, task, reference)
• Distinct topics — avoid two thoughts with overlapping topic lists if similar summaries
• Distinct people mentioned — try to cover multiple collaborators if relevant

Skip obvious repeats and low-signal rows (empty topic/people, generic summaries).

Call mcp__ai-brain__get_thoughts with ids: [<5-8 selected IDs>].

Step 4: Synthesize the Brief

Write a markdown brief organized for quick orientation:

## Context: [date or event anchor]

**What was happening**
<1-2 sentence summary of the period's dominant themes, citing 2-3 anchor thoughts as `thought:<id>`.>

**Decisions in flight**
<bullet list of any decisions or choices under consideration — each cited as `thought:<id>`. Omit section if none.>

**People involved**
<bullet list grouping thoughts by the people they mention — e.g. "Emma: hiring conversation (`thought:<id>`), product sync (`thought:<id>`)". Omit if nothing is people-tagged.>

**Projects and topics**
<bullet list grouping thoughts by project/topic — cite each with `thought:<id>`.>

**Open questions from that moment**
<bullet list of questions, uncertainties, or unresolved threads from the hydrated thoughts — each cited as `thought:<id>`. Omit section if none.>

---

**Full window** (for reference):
- `thought:<id>` — <summary> (<date, or just time if all same day>)
- ...

For a single-day anchor, the sections above may collapse — just produce whichever sections have content.

Never write a claim without a citation. If a statement doesn't map to a hydrated thought, remove it.

Step 5: Offer Next Steps

After the brief, suggest:

• "Want to trace how a specific thread from this window evolved? Try /brain-thread thought:<id>."
• "Want a wider window? Run again with an explicit date range."