Open Brain

The infrastructure layer for your thinking. One database, one AI gateway, one chat channel. Any AI you use can plug in. No middleware, no SaaS chains, no Zapier.

This isn't a notes app. It's a database with vector search and an open protocol — built so that every AI tool you use shares the same persistent memory of you. Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Claude Code, whatever ships next month. One brain. All of them.

Open Brain was created by Nate B. Jones. Follow the Substack for updates, discussion, and the companion prompt pack. Join the Discord for real-time help and community.

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/80a79b09-f323-42c6-b11b-de10bb6fa36f

Getting Started

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/85208d73-112b-4204-82fd-d03b6c397a8b

Never built an Open Brain? Start here:

1. Setup Guide — Build the full system (database, AI gateway, Slack capture, MCP server) in about 45 minutes. No coding experience needed. Or watch the video walkthrough (~27 min).
2. AI-Assisted Setup — Prefer building with Cursor, Claude Code, or another AI coding tool? Point it at this repo and go. Same system, different workflow.
3. Companion Prompts — Five prompts that help you migrate your memories, discover use cases, and build the capture habit.
4. Then pick Extension 1 and start building.

If you hit a wall: We built a FAQ that covers the most common questions and gotchas. And if you need real-time help, we created dedicated AI assistants that know this system inside and out: a Claude Skill, a ChatGPT Custom GPT, and a Gemini GEM. Use whichever one matches the AI tool you already use.

Extensions — The Learning Path

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/cc477f00-bb6b-4f96-9f7d-a6bcd0cf8b60

Build these in order. Each one teaches new concepts through something you'll actually use. By the end, your agent manages your household, your schedule, your meals, your professional network, and your career — all interconnected.

#	Extension	What You Build	Difficulty
1	Household Knowledge Base	Home facts your agent can recall instantly	Beginner
2	Home Maintenance Tracker	Scheduling and history for home upkeep	Beginner
3	Family Calendar	Multi-person schedule coordination	Intermediate
4	Meal Planning	Recipes, meal plans, shared grocery lists	Intermediate
5	Professional CRM	Contact tracking wired into your thoughts	Intermediate
6	Job Hunt Pipeline	Application tracking and interview pipeline	Advanced

Extensions compound. Your CRM knows about thoughts you've captured. Your meal planner checks who's home this week. Your job hunt contacts automatically become professional network contacts. This is what happens when your agent can see across your whole system.

Primitives: Concepts That Compound

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/f488e495-fe2a-4ccc-a834-fc6ab5a0ed41

Some concepts show up in multiple extensions. Learn them once, apply them everywhere.

Primitive	What It Teaches	Used By
Row Level Security	PostgreSQL policies for multi-user data isolation	Extensions 4, 5, 6
Shared MCP Server	Giving others scoped access to parts of your brain	Extension 4

Community Contributions

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/9454662f-2648-4928-8723-f7d52e94e9b8

Beyond the curated learning path, the community builds and shares real tools that real people use. Every contribution below was reviewed, approved, and merged by the maintainer team. Look for the Community Contribution badge in each README.

/recipes — Import Your Data

Pull your digital life into Open Brain. Each recipe handles a specific data source — parsing, deduplication, embedding, and ingestion included.

Recipe	What It Does	Contributor
ChatGPT Import	Parse ChatGPT data exports, filter trivial conversations, summarize via LLM	@matthallett1
Perplexity Import	Import Perplexity AI search history and memory entries	@demarant
Obsidian Vault Import	Parse and import Obsidian vault notes with full metadata	@snapsynapse
X/Twitter Import	Import tweets, DMs, and Grok chats from X data exports	@alanshurafa
Instagram Import	Import DMs, comments, and captions from Instagram exports	@alanshurafa
Google Activity Import	Import Google Search, Gmail, Maps, YouTube, Chrome history from Takeout	@alanshurafa
Grok (xAI) Import	Import Grok conversation exports with MongoDB-style date handling	@alanshurafa
Journals/Blogger Import	Import Atom XML blog archives from Blogger/Journals	@alanshurafa
Email History Import	Pull your Gmail archive into searchable thoughts	@matthallett1

/recipes — Tools & Workflows

Standalone capabilities that make your Open Brain smarter.

Recipe	What It Does	Contributor
Auto-Capture Protocol	Stores ACT NOW items and session summaries in Open Brain at session close using the reusable Auto-Capture skill	@jaredirish
Panning for Gold	Mine brain dumps and voice transcripts for actionable ideas — battle-tested across 13+ sessions	@jaredirish
Aiception (formerly Claudeception)	Self-improving system that creates new skills from work sessions — skills that create other skills	@jaredirish
Schema-Aware Routing	LLM-powered routing that distributes unstructured text across multiple database tables	@claydunker-yalc
Fingerprint Dedup Backfill	Backfill content fingerprints and safely remove duplicate thoughts	@alanshurafa
Source Filtering	Filter thoughts by source and backfill missing metadata for early imports	@matthallett1
Life Engine	Self-improving personal assistant — calendar, habits, health, proactive briefings via Telegram or Discord	@justfinethanku
Life Engine Video	Add-on that renders Life Engine briefings as short animated videos with voiceover	@justfinethanku
Daily Digest	Automated daily summary of recent thoughts delivered via email or Slack	OB1 Team
Bring Your Own Context	Portable context workflow that packages extraction prompts, profile generation, and remote MCP deployment into one entrypoint	@jonathanedwards
Work Operating Model Activation	Conversation-first workflow that turns tacit work patterns into structured Open Brain records and agent-ready operating files	@jonathanedwards
World Model Diagnostic Activation	Ship-now activation path for a 20-minute world-model readiness diagnostic that compounds through core Open Brain capture	@jonathanedwards
Research-to-Decision Workflow	Composition recipe that chains canonical skills into operator and investor research, synthesis, meeting, and memo workflows	@NateBJones
OpenClaw Agent Memory for OB1	Canonical recipe for using OB1 Agent Memory as the governed continuity layer for OpenClaw workflows	OB1 Team
OpenClaw Code Review Memory	Flagship workflow for compounding repo-specific review lessons, maintainer corrections, and false positives	OB1 Team
OpenClaw TaskFlow Work Log	Durable handoff recipe for long-running OpenClaw TaskFlows across agents, models, and channels	OB1 Team

/skills — Agent Skills

Plain-text skill packs you can drop into Claude Code, Codex, or other AI clients that support reusable prompts/rules. These are the canonical reusable building blocks that recipes and other contributions can depend on.

Skill	What It Does	Contributor
Auto-Capture Skill Pack	Captures ACT NOW items and session summaries to Open Brain when a session ends	@jaredirish
Competitive Analysis Skill Pack	Builds competitor briefs, pricing comparisons, market maps, and strategic recommendations	@NateBJones
Financial Model Review Skill Pack	Reviews an existing model for assumption quality, structural risk, and scenario gaps	@NateBJones
Deal Memo Drafting Skill Pack	Turns existing diligence materials into structured deal, IC, or partnership memos	@NateBJones
Research Synthesis Skill Pack	Synthesizes source sets into findings, contradictions, confidence markers, and next questions	@NateBJones
Meeting Synthesis Skill Pack	Converts meeting notes or transcripts into decisions, action items, risks, and follow-up artifacts	@NateBJones
Panning for Gold Skill Pack	Turns brain dumps and transcripts into evaluated idea inventories	@jaredirish
Aiception Skill Pack (formerly Claudeception)	Extracts reusable lessons from work sessions into new skills	@jaredirish
Work Operating Model Skill Pack	Runs a five-layer elicitation interview and saves the approved operating model into Open Brain	@jonathanedwards
World Model Readiness Diagnostic	Runs a 20-minute world-model diagnostic that maps paradigm fit, audits the boundary layer, and labels findings by confidence	@jonathanedwards
OpenClaw Agent Memory Skill Pack	Teaches OpenClaw agents to recall, write back, report usage, and respect OB1 provenance/use-policy rules	OB1 Team

/dashboards — Frontend Templates

Host on Vercel or Netlify, pointed at your Supabase backend. Two community-built options — pick the framework you prefer.

Dashboard	What It Does	Contributor
Open Brain Dashboard	SvelteKit dashboard with MCP proxy and Supabase auth	@headcrest
Open Brain Dashboard (Next.js)	Full-featured Next.js dashboard — 8 pages, dark theme, smart ingest, quality auditing	@alanshurafa

/integrations — New Connections

MCP server extensions, alternative deployment targets, and capture sources beyond Slack.

Integration	What It Does	Contributor
Kubernetes Deployment	Fully self-hosted K8s deployment with PostgreSQL + pgvector — no Supabase required	@velo
Agent Memory API	Runtime-neutral recall, write-back, review, inspector, and recall-trace API for OB1 Agent Memory	OB1 Team
OpenClaw Agent Memory	OpenClaw plugin and publishing package for using OB1 Agent Memory from OpenClaw workflows	OB1 Team
Slack Capture	Quick-capture thoughts via Slack messages with auto-embedding and classification	Core
Discord Capture	Discord bot that captures messages into Open Brain, mirroring the Slack pattern	Core

/schemas — Database Extensions

Tables and sidecars that extend the base thoughts model without replacing it.

Schema	What It Does	Contributor
Agent Memory	Provenance, review, use-policy, source-reference, relation, recall-trace, and audit sidecars for agent workflow memory	OB1 Team

/primitives — Reusable Patterns

Primitive	What It Does	Contributor
Content Fingerprint Dedup	SHA-256 deduplication for thought ingestion — prevents duplicates across all import recipes	@alanshurafa

Using a Contribution

1. Browse the category tables above or the folders in the repo
2. Open the contribution's folder and read the README
3. Every README has prerequisites, step-by-step instructions, expected outcomes, and troubleshooting
4. Most contributions involve running SQL, deploying an edge function, or hosting frontend code — the README tells you exactly what to do

Contributing

Read CONTRIBUTING.md for the full details. The short version:

• Extensions are curated — discuss with maintainers before submitting
• Primitives should be referenced by 2+ extensions to justify extraction
• Recipes, schemas, dashboards, integrations, and skills are open for community contributions
• Every PR runs through an automated review agent that checks structure, secrets, SQL safety, dependencies, and documentation quality
• If the agent passes, a human admin reviews for quality and clarity
• Your contribution needs a README with real instructions and a metadata.json with structured info

Community

• Discord — Real-time help, show-and-tell, contributor discussion
• Substack — Updates, deep dives, and the story behind Open Brain

Who Maintains This

Built by Nate B. Jones's team. Matt Hallett is the first community admin and repo manager. PRs are reviewed by the automated agent + human admins.

License

FSL-1.1-MIT