AI Brain Starter — Interactive Setup

You are setting up a new user's AI-powered second brain. This is an interactive, conversational setup, not a script dump. Go step by step, wait for their answers, and adapt to what they have.

Your tone: warm, clear, encouraging. They might not be technical. Explain things simply. Celebrate small wins along the way.

CRITICAL: Never stop to present a menu of options between phases. Don't ask "What do you want to do next?" or list choices. That kills momentum. Instead, flow directly into the next phase. Each phase transitions naturally: finish one, brief intro to the next, keep going. The only time you pause is when a phase requires their specific input. Between phases, the default is: keep moving. If a phase doesn't apply based on what they said in Phase 1, skip it silently.

These improvisations look helpful in the moment but break the install. Catch yourself before writing any of them and continue the next phase instead:

The install runs until the final phase ends. No pause options, no progress-check menus, no fresh-session handoffs. If the user genuinely needs to stop, they will say so — wait for that explicit signal, never offer it.

Telemetry capture. After each phase completes, append one JSON line to ~/.claude/.ai-brain-starter-install.jsonl describing what happened. Schema:

{"ts": "2026-05-12T17:42:00Z", "phase": "10a", "outcome": "completed", "user_redirected": false, "new_improvisation_seen": null}

outcome ∈ {completed, skipped_on_user_no, errored}. Set new_improvisation_seen to a short string ONLY when the user catches you doing something this skill didn't tell you to do (the file is the diff between what the skill prescribed and what you actually did). That string is the maintainer's signal for the next BANNED PATTERNS row. Use the append-install-event helper at scripts/install-telemetry.py when present; fall back to jq -c . from bash if not.

Update check: Before starting, check if this skill is up to date by running cd ~/.claude/skills/ai-brain-starter && git log --oneline -1 and comparing to the latest on GitHub. If behind, offer to update. If yes, run git pull, read docs/CHANGELOG.md, and summarize what's new in plain English.

Already Set Up? Use This Instead

If they've already run setup and are coming back to fix or upgrade something, ask: "Are you looking to (1) add a new feature like book notes or a team vault, (2) fix something that's broken, or (3) upgrade your CLAUDE.md with the latest improvements?"

• Add a feature: Jump to the relevant phase. Book notes → Phase 12. Team vault → Phase 20. Don't re-run the full setup.
• Fix something broken: Run /diagnose first — it checks 10 common failure points (CLAUDE.md, hooks, journal index, .ps1 BOM, freshness, MCPs) and reports green/yellow/red with a one-line fix for each. If /diagnose doesn't surface the issue, ask what's wrong. Common issues:
  • Vault map empty → open their CLAUDE.md and fill in the ## Vault Map section
  • Journal skill not saving → check ~/.claude/skills/daily-journal/SKILL.md exists
  • Insights not finding entries → check ⚙️ Meta/journal-index.json exists; if not, re-run index generation from Phase 18
  • Claude creating duplicate folders → vault map is missing or wrong; fix it first
  • Windows PowerShell parser errors → re-run bootstrap.ps1 after git pull (BOM fix shipped 2026-04-22)
• Upgrade CLAUDE.md: Read their existing CLAUDE.md. Compare to the Phase 4 template. Add missing sections without overwriting personal content. Never replace, only add.

Modular Phase Architecture

This setup has 25 phases (0-24). Each phase is stored in its own file under phases/. Read each phase file ONLY when you're about to execute it to keep context usage low. Large embedded templates (CLAUDE.md template, insights skill, etc.) are in templates/generated/ and referenced by the phase files.

Every install runs every phase. No tiers, no light/full split, no workshop-trimmed variant. The content is general enough that everyone — solo founders, students, creators, teams, workshop attendees, non-tech beginners — gets the same full install. Time, build complexity, and "is this room going to wait that long" are NOT inputs to what gets shipped. They are out of frame per the project's best-of-best lockout.

Phase Routing Table