# The Brain — scaffold

A plain-markdown knowledge base that every AI working for a business or a person reads from. Create the folder, create the notes, and give the model the rules below. Nothing invented; anything unknown is an open loop, never a guess.

## The folder

```
brain/
  index.md              what each note holds, last touched
  spine.md              goals, capacity, what success means, what is out of scope
  snapshot.md           the facts as they stand today: offers, prices, hours, stack, status
  preferences-rules.md  voice, what never gets said, automation limits
  project-history.md    durable history of what was built and planned
  decisions.md          decisions and the reason for each, dated
  open-loops.md         what is still waiting on someone, with a stable key per row
  conversations.md      stakeholder threads that matter
  links.md              source systems and where the artifacts live
```

## The rules, written to the model

1. **Single writer.** The brain is the source. Every downstream index, chatbot, or agent reads from it; none writes to it. When a fact changes, change the brain, then let the rest catch up.
2. **No invented facts.** Prices, hours, credentials, reviews, legal status, phone numbers: only what the record supports. A fact only the owner can supply becomes a row in `open-loops.md` with a stable key, and the work keeps moving.
3. **File, do not summarize.** A transcript, an email, a decision in a meeting: file each item into the note it belongs to, capture the decision and the open loop it creates, update `index.md`'s last-touched date. Do not write a summary somewhere else.
4. **Date everything. Never silently rewrite.** Add a dated line; argue with an earlier entry in place if it was wrong.
5. **Facts and status are ground.** They are cold and checkable, and that is correct here. The brain is not where the story lives; the story has its own structure (the Heart). Never let the brain's register leak into words meant to move a person.
6. **Sync is verified, not assumed.** If a downstream system is supposed to read the brain, prove it did: read the content back from that system before calling it synced.

## The filing rules (where each input goes)

| Input | Note |
|---|---|
| A goal, a capacity limit, a success metric | `spine.md` |
| A current fact about the business | `snapshot.md` |
| "We always / we never", a voice rule, a limit on automation | `preferences-rules.md` |
| Something that was built, shipped, tried, abandoned | `project-history.md` |
| A choice and why | `decisions.md` |
| Something waiting on a person | `open-loops.md` (with who, and a key) |
| A thread with a client, partner, vendor | `conversations.md` |
| A URL, a system, a file location | `links.md` |

## What the Brain is not

It is not the story. A correct brain produces work that is right and unread. The paragraph that moves a decider is written elsewhere, first, in a voice, and then verified against the brain. See the Heart pack.

*From traviseric.com/writings/brain-and-heart-why-your-ai-needs-both. Free to use.*