Free · MIT licensed
Second Brain Starter
Put each project's facts, decisions and next work in plain Markdown. Home and sixteen shared skills keep the record current between sessions.
Get the free starterSecond Brain for builders
Every new AI chat starts from zero.
Keep each project's facts, decisions and next step in plain files. Claude Code or Codex starts there next time.
Get the free starter Give each kind of work a home
A beta launch is a project. Customer discovery is an ongoing area. Link the two and the next session finds its context without you pasting it in again.
Sort your notes with PARA
Projects, Areas, Resources and Archives hold active work, ongoing responsibilities, reference notes and finished work. One home each, so your agent knows where to look.
Turn notes into a beta brief
Capture, Organize, Distill, Express: CODE turns raw interview notes into a short beta brief. The brief keeps a link to every note it came from.
Check the sources with a skill
A skill is a written method your assistant follows every time. This Research skill checks the source notes, finds the needs that repeat and flags what is still a guess.
Gather, compare, then draft
A workflow chains the steps: gather the interview findings, compare the needs and draft a beta scope. The draft waits for a person to review it.
Review before saving the decision
ICM bounds what goes in, what comes out and what counts as evidence. You review the proposal, then the decision and the lesson go into the project record.
Continue to the exampleIllustrative beta launch
Turn scattered notes into a next action.
Follow one example from interview notes to a reviewed beta brief. The excerpts and decisions below are synthetic teaching material.
Capture interview notes
Keep the original words in Resources and link them to the beta launch project.
Interview notes · illustrative source A: "I reopen my notes and still don't know what to do first."
B: "Give me one next action when I start the day."
Distill a beta brief
Compare the excerpts, name the shared need, and propose a scope a person can review.
Draft brief · awaiting review
Propose: one next action on Home.
Defer: automated scheduling and a team dashboard.
Unknown: would a builder pay for this?
Review and save
Check the proposal against its sources, approve the narrow scope, and save the remaining question.
Reviewed record · illustrative approval
Beta scope: one next action. Willingness to pay stays open.
Next: draft the next-action screen for a builder to review.
Inspect the saved files
Context you can inspect
The next session starts here.
The reviewed scope and the unanswered question travel together. These sample Markdown records show what to read next time.
Read the illustrative source notesFACTS.md
# Beta launch
Goal: test whether builders need a daily next action.
Evidence: illustrative interview notes, excerpts A and B.
Known: both excerpts ask for a clearer starting point.
Uncertain: willingness to pay has not been tested.
Review status: checked against the sample notes.Decisions.md
# Beta scope
Proposed decision: show one next action on Home.
Reason: excerpts A and B describe a lost starting point.
Review status: approved for this illustrative beta.
Deferred: automated scheduling and a team dashboard.
Revisit when: beta feedback challenges this scope.progress.md
# Session close
Done: reviewed the notes and agreed a narrow beta scope.
Verified: the proposed scope points back to excerpts A and B.
Open: willingness to pay remains unknown.
Next: draft the next-action screen for a builder to review.Inside the free starter
Start with one project. Connect more later.
Home.md points to your current work. PARA gives the records a home; CODE helps you capture, organize, distill and express what you learn. Each repository you connect adds a row to the project index.
Home.md
00-Meta/
Daily-Task-Plan.md
01-Projects/Selected-Project/
FACTS.md
Decisions.md
roadmap.md
progress.mdFive of the sixteen skills
- context
- Load the selected project's current record.
- capture
- Give incoming work a home and next action.
- close
- Record the work and its evidence.
- review
- Check open work and stale claims.
- learning
- Record evidence for a proposed improvement.
Get the starter
Clone the public MIT repository, or download the latest release ZIP.
Ask for the setup
Open the folder in Claude Code or Codex and type: Set this up for me. It asks for one project folder.
Approve the plan
Read the setup plan and approve it. Nothing is written before that. It checks the result and opens Home.md.
The setup needs Node.js 22 or newer. A text editor is enough to read the records. Ordinary web chat cannot run the setup. The connect command can also stage Spec Harness, the open-source spec-driven workflow, into a repository you name.
Reusable methods
Build a scroll story of your own.
- Scroll storytelling
- Plan the lesson, visual beats and desktop/mobile review.
- Scroll-scrub video
- Connect an approved film to reversible scroll, readable labels and still fallbacks.
- Shared scroll component
- Use the same player across websites, with your own film, chapters and design.
One React file, an example and the skill that wires them into your page, free in the starter. Bring your own media. The two planning methods are also available.
Start with the free foundation
Add the learning layer when you need it.
Optional · paid Agentic OS edition
Builder AI OS
Add prepared diagnostics and worked sessions. Turn repeated failures into proposed improvements for you to review and approve.
See Builder AI OSThe free starter works on its own. The paid layer is self-serve; support calls, installation and a hosted service are not included.
Want a hand with the first setup?
I run free setup calls for people trying the starter. Bring the Claude Code or Codex setup that keeps fighting back.
Before you start.
What do I get in the free starter?
Plain Markdown records for each project, Home.md, PARA and CODE guidance, sixteen shared skills, and a local initializer with verify and rollback. A connect command registers one repository at a time and can stage the bundled Spec Harness into it. The source is MIT licensed; the repository README has the current setup steps.
What do I need to use it?
Node.js 22 or newer and an assistant with local file access, such as Claude Code or Codex. Open the starter in it, type "Set this up for me", read the plan and approve it. A text editor is enough to read the records. Ordinary web chat cannot run the setup.
Will my AI remember automatically?
You or your chosen assistant must read the current project records at the start of a session and update them after the work. Files make context recoverable; they don't guarantee that an assistant loads or follows it. The chat still needs to do its homework.
Do I need Builder AI OS?
No. Start with the free starter and one project. Builder AI OS is an optional paid memory and controlled learning layer, with prepared diagnostics and worked sessions. Proposed improvements need human approval.
Where do my files and private notes go?
The records stay in your local folder unless you share them. Any notes you give your chosen assistant are subject to that tool's data handling. Inspect the selected files before granting access or sharing; keep private notes out of public copies.
Give the next session a starting point.
Choose one project. Save its current decision and next action. Start there.
Get the free starter