story-bank

name	story-bank
description	Personal anecdote and experience storage — save your stories, failures, wins, observations, and quotes with tags for instant retrieval when writing content. Adds authenticity and originality to every piece. The most underrated content differentiator.

Story Bank

Your personal experiences are your unfair advantage — store them and never forget a good story.

When to Activate

• User says /story-bank or /stories
• User says /stories add to save a new story
• User says /stories find {topic} to search
• User asks "I need a personal example for {topic}"
• Auto-referenced by content-writer for relevant anecdotes

Prerequisites

• None (works standalone, enhanced with profile.json)

Data: story-bank.json

Location: ~/.content-autopilot/story-bank.json

{
  "version": "1.0",
  "stories": [
    {
      "id": "story-001",
      "added_at": "2026-03-21",
      "title": "The time I automated my entire morning routine with AI",
      "type": "win",
      "story": "Last month, I spent 3 hours setting up...",
      "lesson": "Small automation investments compound over time",
      "emotion": "surprise",
      "tags": ["AI", "automation", "productivity", "personal"],
      "usable_as": ["hook", "example", "case_study", "closing"],
      "used_in": [],
      "detail_level": "full"
    }
  ]
}

Story Types

Type	Description	Best For
win	Success story, achievement	Social proof, inspiration
failure	Mistake, lesson learned	Relatability, trust
observation	Something you noticed	Insight, unique perspective
conversation	Dialogue or exchange	Engagement, story hooks
data	Personal experiment/result	Credibility, evidence
turning_point	Moment that changed your thinking	Transformation narratives
daily	Everyday moment with deeper meaning	Relatability

Commands

/stories — Browse all stories

/stories add — Add a new story (interactive)

/stories quick "{one-liner}" — Quick-add a brief anecdote

/stories find {topic} — Find stories matching a topic

/stories find {type} — Find stories by type (win/failure/observation)

/stories suggest {topic} — Get story prompts to help you remember experiences

/stories stats — Show story bank statistics

Workflow: Add Story

Interactive (/stories add):

Let's save a story! Answer these questions:

1. Give it a short title:
   (e.g., "The time my AI script deleted the wrong files")

2. What type of story is this?
   win / failure / observation / conversation / data / turning_point / daily

3. Tell the story (as much detail as you want):
   (The more detail, the more ways we can use it later)

4. What's the lesson or takeaway?
   (One sentence)

5. What emotion does this story evoke?
   surprise / humor / empathy / inspiration / caution / curiosity

6. Tags (topics this story relates to):
   (e.g., AI, automation, business, personal)

Quick Add (/stories quick):

/stories quick "Tried to automate my email — ended up sending 500 duplicate replies. Lesson: always test with dry-run first."

Saved! Auto-categorized:
  Type: failure
  Tags: automation, email
  Emotion: humor
  Lesson: Always test with dry-run first

Edit details later with /stories edit story-{id}

Story Prompts (/stories suggest {topic}):

Help users remember experiences they haven't recorded:

Story prompts for "{topic}":

Think about...
  1. The first time you {topic-related action} — what happened?
  2. Your biggest mistake with {topic} — what went wrong?
  3. A conversation where someone changed your mind about {topic}
  4. A surprising result when you tried {topic-related experiment}
  5. The moment you realized {topic} was important
  6. Something about {topic} that most people get wrong (and how you know)
  7. A time when {topic} saved you time/money/stress

Which prompt triggers a memory? Tell me the story.

Workflow: Find Stories

/stories find AI:

Stories matching "AI" ({count} results):

1. [win] "Automated my morning routine with AI" (2026-03-21)
   Lesson: Small automation investments compound
   Usable as: hook, example
   Used {N} times in content

2. [failure] "AI script deleted the wrong files" (2026-03-15)
   Lesson: Always test with dry-run first
   Usable as: hook, cautionary tale
   Used {N} times

3. [observation] "Client's face when they saw AI demo" (2026-03-10)
   Lesson: People need to see AI in action, not hear about it
   Usable as: conversation opener, example

Select a story number to see full details, or type a number to use it.

Integration with Other Skills

• content-writer: When generating content, checks story-bank for relevant anecdotes:

  Found relevant story: "Automated my morning routine with AI"
  Include in this article? (yes / no / different story)
  

• hook-library: Stories generate "story" type hooks automatically
• newsletter-generator: "Behind the Scenes" section pulls from story-bank
• persona-switcher: Same story told differently for each persona
• content-dna: Tracks which story types resonate most

Story Freshness

Track usage to avoid overusing stories:

• Stories used 3+ times in 30 days → flagged as "heavily used"
• Suggest alternative stories or prompt for new ones
• used_in array tracks which content pieces used each story

Quality Gate

• Stories are stored with enough detail to be useful later
• Tags enable accurate search
• Story types are correctly categorized
• Lesson/takeaway is captured for each story
• Usage tracking prevents overuse
• Story prompts help users dig into memory