Exbrain — Your AI's External Brain

An AI knowledge system that automatically remembers, organizes, and reflects.
Claude Code × Obsidian × SOUL/MEMORY/DREAMS

🇯🇵 日本語版はこちら · Inspired by Karpathy's LLM Wiki

What is Exbrain?

Exbrain turns Claude Code's hidden internal state — Memory files, CLAUDE.md configs, Skills — into a human-readable Obsidian vault. It adds a Dreaming layer that automatically reflects on your day, detects patterns, and builds a growth trajectory over time.

Your laptop can be closed. Your phone shows everything. You just open Obsidian and read.

The SOUL / MEMORY / DREAMS Trinity

The core of Exbrain is three files at the root of your vault:

~/vault/
├── SOUL.md      ← WHO you are (identity, values, boundaries)
├── MEMORY.md    ← WHAT you've experienced (decisions, patterns, lessons)
└── DREAMS.md    ← WHERE you're going (insights, growth, open questions)

SOUL.md — Identity

Defines who you are and how the AI should behave. Merged from Claude Code's CLAUDE.md and any external agent personality configs.

## Identity
- Your name, role, company

## Values
- "Ship fast, iterate later"
- "API-first, no manual work"

## Boundaries (non-negotiable)
- "Never send emails — drafts only"
- "Never post to Slack without confirmation"

## Tech Ecosystem
- APIs, MCP servers, CLI tools

MEMORY.md — Experience

A digest of everything the AI has learned. Auto-synced from Claude Code's Memory (.claude/projects/*/memory/) + enriched by Cloud Scheduled Tasks.

## Recent
- [2026-04-07] Built Obsidian vault with SOUL/MEMORY/DREAMS
- [2026-04-06] Shipped new feature for Project Alpha

## Decisions
- Hybrid design: static mirror + Karpathy pattern + Dreaming

## Patterns
- Fridays are meeting-heavy (3 weeks in a row)
- Email replies concentrate in the afternoon

## CC Memory Summary (35 files)
- feedback/21: "Never send emails", "Always git commit after GAS edits"
- reference/7: API locations, tool configs
- project/4: Active project statuses
- user/1: User profile and preferences

DREAMS.md — Reflection

Updated automatically by Dreaming (morning + evening + weekly). Tracks patterns that emerge over time.

## Current Insights
- Meeting density peaks on Mondays (10+ meetings, 3 consecutive weeks)

## Emerging Patterns
| Pattern | Count | Trend |
|---------|-------|-------|
| Tool → Skill → Automation cycle | 10+ | Consistent |
| Email/Slack send caution | 5+ | Critical boundary |

## Growth Trajectory
- Q1: Built 26 skills, automated 32 cron jobs

## Open Questions
- Should CC Memory duplicates be consolidated?

Clips — Knowledge Clipping

Clips automatically captures tweets and articles into your vault. Like Karpathy's compounding knowledge pattern, everything you read accumulates and becomes searchable.

Three Ways to Clip

Method	Trigger	How it works
/clip skill	/clip <URL> in Claude Code	Detects X tweet vs article, fetches content, generates summary + tags, saves to clips/
X Bookmark Sync	Daily cron (22:00)	Auto-fetches yesterday's X bookmarks via xurl, summarizes, saves to clips/x/
Slack/Discord	Post URL in channel	External agent picks up URL, scrapes, saves to clips/articles/

Clip File Format

---
date: 2026-04-08
type: clip
source: x | article
url: https://...
author: "@username"
tags: [ai, claude-code, agent]
---

## Summary
(3-5 line summary in your language)

## Key Points
- Point 1
- Point 2

## Notes
> Important quotes

## Related
[[insights/...]] | [[clips/...]]

Daily Note Integration

Each clip is automatically linked in the day's daily note:

## Clips
- [[clips/x/2026-04-08_sam-altman-social-contract]] — Sam Altman's social contract
- [[clips/articles/2026-04-08_karpathy-llm-wiki]] — Karpathy LLM Wiki pattern

Architecture

┌─ Layer 1: Cloud Scheduled Tasks (no PC needed) ────────────┐
│                                                              │
│  07:00  vault-daily-morning                                  │
│  ├── Read SOUL.md (understand user context)                  │
│  ├── Read MEMORY.md (recent decisions & patterns)            │
│  ├── Google Calendar → today's schedule                      │
│  ├── Slack → overnight highlights                            │
│  ├── Gmail → important unread emails                         │
│  ├── Morning Dreaming (yesterday's review → today's focus)   │
│  ├── Update MEMORY.md Recent section                         │
│  └── git push                                                │
│                                                              │
│  18:30  vault-daily-evening                                  │
│  ├── Read SOUL.md + MEMORY.md + DREAMS.md                    │
│  ├── Evening Dreaming (today + 7-day pattern detection)      │
│  ├── Update MEMORY.md + DREAMS.md                            │
│  ├── Sunday: weekly Dreaming + Lint + Slack notification      │
│  └── git push                                                │
│                                                              │
└──────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────┘
                       │ push
                       ▼
┌─ GitHub (private repo) ──────────────────────────────────────┐
│  All vault files                                              │
└──────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────┘
                       │ pull (hourly via launchd)
                       ▼
┌─ Layer 2: Local Automation ──────────────────────────────────┐
│                                                               │
│  Claude Code Hooks (async: true)                              │
│  ├── PostToolUse → log file changes                           │
│  └── Stop → append session end to daily note + MEMORY.md      │
│                                                               │
│  External Agent Cron (when PC is on)                          │
│  ├── Additional data: Salesforce, Stripe, HERP, YouTube       │
│  └── Skipped when PC is off (Layer 1 is self-sufficient)      │
│                                                               │
└──────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────┘
                       │ iCloud sync
                       ▼
              Obsidian (Mac + iPhone)

Vault Structure

~/vault/
├── SOUL.md                ← Identity, values, boundaries
├── MEMORY.md              ← Experience digest (CC Memory mirror)
├── DREAMS.md              ← Dreaming accumulation (auto-updated)
├── CLAUDE.md              ← Schema (LLM rules for this vault)
│
├── daily/                 ← Daily notes (auto-generated morning & evening)
│   └── 2026-04-07.md         Schedule / Gmail / Slack / AI Analysis /
│                              Morning Reflection / Evening Reflection /
│                              Claude Code Session / Thoughts
│
├── system/                ← Claude Code system mirror (SYNCED)
│   ├── claude-md-tree.md     All CLAUDE.md files as a tree
│   ├── global-rules.md       Rules & boundaries summary
│   ├── api-inventory.md      API list (no keys)
│   ├── tech-stack.md         Technology stack
│   └── cron-jobs.md          Running cron jobs
│
├── skills/                ← All skills with details (SYNCED)
├── memory/                ← CC Memory individual file mirror (SYNCED)
│   ├── feedback/             Behavioral guidelines
│   ├── reference/            External system pointers
│   ├── project/              Project statuses
│   └── user/                 User profile
│
├── clips/                 ← Clipped tweets & articles (auto + manual)
│   ├── x/                    X bookmarks (auto-synced daily at 22:00)
│   ├── articles/             Web articles (via /clip or Slack)
│   ├── _index.md             Clip index (auto-updated)
│   └── tags.md               Tag-based classification (Dataview)
│
├── clients/               ← Client knowledge (Karpathy pattern)
├── meetings/              ← Meeting summaries (auto from /auto-minutes)
├── decisions/             ← Decision log
├── insights/              ← Learnings + weekly Dreaming
├── templates/             ← daily-note, meeting, decision
└── scripts/               ← Hook scripts + sync scripts

Hybrid Design: Three Personalities

vault/
├── system/, skills/, memory/
│   → Static mirror (dashboard)
│   → Auto-synced from Claude Code, read-only
│   → <!-- SYNCED: DO NOT EDIT --> header
│
├── daily/
│   → Auto log + handwritten diary
│   → Calendar + Slack + Gmail + AI Analysis + Dreaming
│   → Runs even with PC closed (Cloud Scheduled Tasks)
│
└── meetings/, clients/, insights/
    → Karpathy pattern (compounding knowledge)
    → Each meeting processed → client page auto-enriched
    → No need to re-read 12 meeting transcripts

Setup

Prerequisites

• Claude Code (Pro or Max)
• Obsidian (free)
• GitHub account
• (Optional) Slack / Google Calendar / Gmail Connectors

Step 1: Create Vault

mkdir -p ~/vault/{daily,system,skills,memory/{feedback,reference,project,user},clients,meetings,decisions,insights,templates,scripts}

# iCloud sync (for iPhone)
mv ~/vault ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/iCloud~md~obsidian/Documents/exbrain
ln -s ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/iCloud~md~obsidian/Documents/exbrain ~/vault

Step 2: Copy Templates

git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/exbrain.git /tmp/exbrain
cp -r /tmp/exbrain/vault-template/* ~/vault/

Step 3: Configure Hooks

Add to ~/.claude/settings.json:

{
  "hooks": {
    "PostToolUse": [{
      "matcher": "Write|Edit",
      "hooks": [{
        "type": "command",
        "command": "bash ~/vault/scripts/on-file-change.sh",
        "async": true
      }]
    }],
    "Stop": [{
      "hooks": [{
        "type": "command",
        "command": "bash ~/vault/scripts/on-session-end.sh",
        "async": true
      }]
    }]
  }
}

Step 4: Initial Sync

In Claude Code:

Please read all my skills from ~/.claude/skills/, all memory files from
~/.claude/projects/*/memory/, and sync them to ~/vault/. Create SOUL.md
with my identity and MEMORY.md with a digest of all memories.

Step 5: GitHub Backup

cd ~/vault
git init && git add -A && git commit -m "Initial vault"
gh repo create my-vault --private --source=. --push

Step 6: Cloud Scheduled Tasks (PC-free automation)

At claude.ai/code/scheduled:

• vault-daily-morning (07:00): Read SOUL.md → Calendar + Slack + Gmail → daily note + Morning Dreaming
• vault-daily-evening (18:30): Read SOUL.md + MEMORY.md + DREAMS.md → Evening Dreaming + pattern detection

Daily Note Example

---
date: 2026-04-07
weekday: Monday
type: daily
score: 74
---

## Schedule
| Time | Event | Note |
|------|-------|------|
| 09:00 | Management meeting | |
| 10:00 | Sales standup | |
| 14:00 | Company standup | |

## Gmail
| From | Subject | Action |
|------|---------|--------|
| [Contact] | Project meeting request | Reply needed |

## Slack Highlights
- **#general**: Organization restructuring discussion
- **#sales**: New lead from inbound campaign
- **#daily-report**: Project Beta milestone reached

## Morning Reflection
- Yesterday's decision: Revised product roadmap
- Today's focus: Follow up on pending proposals

## Evening Reflection
- Highlight: Project Beta milestone reached
- Pattern: Mondays consistently have 10+ meetings (3 weeks)
- Unresolved: Partner meeting follow-up

## Thoughts
<!-- Write your own reflection here -->

Scripts Included

Script	Purpose
on-session-end.sh	Stop hook: appends session summary to daily note + MEMORY.md
on-file-change.sh	PostToolUse hook: logs CLAUDE.md/memory/skill changes
weekly-sync.sh	Weekly lint: broken links, orphan pages, stale content
git-pull-sync.sh	Hourly git pull with stash handling
sync-agent-to-vault.sh	Enriches daily notes from external agent JSON data
sync-x-bookmarks.sh	Auto-fetches X bookmarks + clips (cron 22:00)

All scripts are macOS-compatible (no GNU extensions), reviewed for security (no shell injection, PID-based locking instead of flock).

References

• Karpathy's LLM Wiki — The original pattern
• Claude Code Hooks — async hook documentation
• Cloud Scheduled Tasks — PC-free automation
• QMD — Markdown semantic search (for 100+ pages)

License

MIT