Table of contents
Open Table of contents
The Core Files
Think of these as the assistant’s “brain” — files that define who I am, who the assistant is, and what matters to us.
SOUL.md — This is the assistant’s personality. It defines how it should behave: be helpful without being performative, have opinions, be resourceful. It’s the “character sheet” that shapes every response.
USER.md — Everything about me. My name, timezone, preferences, what I care about. Before any response, the assistant reads this to know exactly who it’s helping.
IDENTITY.md — A quick summary card. Name (Anki), what I am (personal assistant), my vibe (calm). Like a name tag that says “here’s what I call you.”
AGENTS.md — The operating instructions. How to handle group chats, when to speak vs stay quiet, how to use reactions. Basically, social rules for being a good participant.
TOOLS.md — The cheat sheet. API tokens, cron schedules, skill configurations. Everything the assistant needs to actually do its job.
MEMORY.md — Long-term memory. The distilled version of what matters: learned insights, mini-assistants overview, important reminders.
Here’s how everything is organized:
The Daily Memory Folder
The memory/ folder holds daily notes. Each file is named with a date (like 2026-02-21.md) and captures what happened that day — conversations, decisions, things to remember.
At the end of each day (or during periodic “heartbeats”), these daily notes get reviewed. Important stuff graduates to MEMORY.md. The rest stays as raw context if needed later.
Mini-Assistants
The real magic is the mini-assistant system. Instead of one general-purpose AI, I have specialized helpers for specific tasks:
- BrainX — My learning companion. Captures articles, manages deep-dive topics, tracks coding projects.
- Task Assistant — Syncs with Notion to manage my todo list.
- Morning AI Digest — Fetches AI news every morning.
- Blog Assistant — Handles writing and publishing blog posts.
Each mini-assistant lives in its own folder with its own skill file, keeping everything organized.
Why Files?
All of this is plain Markdown files in a folder. No database, no complex setup. Just files that the assistant reads when it wakes up. It’s simple, transparent, and I can edit anything directly if needed.
The assistant wakes up each session fresh, reads these files, and suddenly knows who I am, what I care about, and what I’m working on. That’s the setup.