gbrain/CLAUDE.md

CLAUDE.md

GBrain is a personal knowledge brain and GStack mod for agent platforms. Pluggable engines: PGLite (embedded Postgres via WASM, zero-config default) or Postgres + pgvector

• hybrid search in a managed Supabase instance. gbrain init defaults to PGLite; suggests Supabase for 1000+ files. GStack teaches agents how to code. GBrain teaches agents everything else: brain ops, signal detection, content ingestion, enrichment, cron scheduling, reports, identity, and access control.

Architecture

Contract-first: src/core/operations.ts defines ~36 shared operations. CLI and MCP server are both generated from this single source. Engine factory (src/core/engine-factory.ts) dynamically imports the configured engine ('pglite' or 'postgres'). Skills are fat markdown files (tool-agnostic, work with both CLI and plugin contexts).

Trust boundary: OperationContext.remote distinguishes trusted local CLI callers (remote: false set by src/cli.ts) from untrusted agent-facing callers (remote: true set by src/mcp/server.ts). Security-sensitive operations like file_upload tighten filesystem confinement when remote=true and default to strict behavior when unset.

Key files

• src/core/operations.ts — Contract-first operation definitions (the foundation). Also exports upload validators: validateUploadPath, validatePageSlug, validateFilename. OperationContext.remote flags untrusted callers.
• src/core/engine.ts — Pluggable engine interface (BrainEngine). clampSearchLimit(limit, default, cap) takes an explicit cap so per-operation caps can be tighter than MAX_SEARCH_LIMIT. Exports LinkBatchInput / TimelineBatchInput for the v0.12.1 bulk-insert API (addLinksBatch / addTimelineEntriesBatch).
• src/core/engine-factory.ts — Engine factory with dynamic imports ('pglite' | 'postgres')
• src/core/pglite-engine.ts — PGLite (embedded Postgres 17.5 via WASM) implementation, all 40 BrainEngine methods. addLinksBatch / addTimelineEntriesBatch use multi-row unnest() with manual $N placeholders.
• src/core/pglite-schema.ts — PGLite-specific DDL (pgvector, pg_trgm, triggers)
• src/core/postgres-engine.ts — Postgres + pgvector implementation (Supabase / self-hosted). addLinksBatch / addTimelineEntriesBatch use INSERT ... SELECT FROM unnest($1::text[], ...) JOIN pages ON CONFLICT DO NOTHING RETURNING 1 — 4-5 array params regardless of batch size, sidesteps the 65535-parameter cap.
• src/core/utils.ts — Shared SQL utilities extracted from postgres-engine.ts
• src/core/db.ts — Connection management, schema initialization
• src/commands/migrate-engine.ts — Bidirectional engine migration (gbrain migrate --to supabase/pglite)
• src/core/import-file.ts — importFromFile + importFromContent (chunk + embed + tags)
• src/core/sync.ts — Pure sync functions (manifest parsing, filtering, slug conversion)
• src/core/storage.ts — Pluggable storage interface (S3, Supabase Storage, local)
• src/core/supabase-admin.ts — Supabase admin API (project discovery, pgvector check)
• src/core/file-resolver.ts — File resolution with fallback chain (local -> .redirect.yaml -> .redirect -> .supabase)
• src/core/chunkers/ — 3-tier chunking (recursive, semantic, LLM-guided)
• src/core/search/ — Hybrid search: vector + keyword + RRF + multi-query expansion + dedup
• src/core/search/intent.ts — Query intent classifier (entity/temporal/event/general → auto-selects detail level)
• src/core/search/eval.ts — Retrieval eval harness: P@k, R@k, MRR, nDCG@k metrics + runEval() orchestrator
• src/commands/eval.ts — gbrain eval command: single-run table + A/B config comparison
• src/core/embedding.ts — OpenAI text-embedding-3-large, batch, retry, backoff
• src/core/check-resolvable.ts — Resolver validation: reachability, MECE overlap, DRY checks, structured fix objects
• src/core/backoff.ts — Adaptive load-aware throttling: CPU/memory checks, exponential backoff, active hours multiplier
• src/core/fail-improve.ts — Deterministic-first, LLM-fallback loop with JSONL failure logging and auto-test generation
• src/core/transcription.ts — Audio transcription: Groq Whisper (default), OpenAI fallback, ffmpeg segmentation for >25MB
• src/core/enrichment-service.ts — Global enrichment service: entity slug generation, tier auto-escalation, batch throttling
• src/core/data-research.ts — Recipe validation, field extraction (MRR/ARR regex), dedup, tracker parsing, HTML stripping
• src/commands/extract.ts — gbrain extract links|timeline|all [--source fs|db]: batch link/timeline extraction. fs walks markdown files, db walks pages from the engine (mutation-immune snapshot iteration; use this for live brains with no local checkout). As of v0.12.1 there is no in-memory dedup pre-load — candidates are buffered 100 at a time and flushed via addLinksBatch / addTimelineEntriesBatch; ON CONFLICT DO NOTHING enforces uniqueness at the DB layer, and the created counter returns real rows inserted (truthful on re-runs).
• src/commands/graph-query.ts — gbrain graph-query <slug> [--type T] [--depth N] [--direction in|out|both]: typed-edge relationship traversal (renders indented tree)
• src/core/link-extraction.ts — shared library for the v0.12.0 graph layer. extractEntityRefs (canonical, replaces backlinks.ts duplicate), extractPageLinks, inferLinkType heuristics (attended/works_at/invested_in/founded/advises/source/mentions), parseTimelineEntries, isAutoLinkEnabled config helper. Used by extract.ts, operations.ts auto-link post-hook, and backlinks.ts.
• src/core/minions/ — Minions job queue: BullMQ-inspired, Postgres-native (queue, worker, backoff, types)
• src/core/minions/queue.ts — MinionQueue class (submit, claim, complete, fail, stall detection, parent-child, depth/child-cap, per-job timeouts, cascade-kill, attachments, idempotency keys, child_done inbox, removeOnComplete/Fail)
• src/core/minions/worker.ts — MinionWorker class (handler registry, lock renewal, graceful shutdown, timeout safety net)
• src/core/minions/attachments.ts — Attachment validation (path traversal, null byte, oversize, base64, duplicate detection)
• src/commands/jobs.ts — gbrain jobs CLI subcommands + gbrain jobs work daemon
• src/commands/features.ts — gbrain features --json --auto-fix: usage scan + feature adoption salesman
• src/commands/autopilot.ts — gbrain autopilot --install: self-maintaining brain daemon (sync+extract+embed)
• src/mcp/server.ts — MCP stdio server (generated from operations)
• src/commands/auth.ts — Standalone token management (create/list/revoke/test)
• src/commands/upgrade.ts — Self-update CLI. runPostUpgrade() enumerates migrations from the TS registry (src/commands/migrations/index.ts) and tail-calls runApplyMigrations(['--yes', '--non-interactive']) so the mechanical side of every outstanding migration runs unconditionally.
• src/commands/migrations/ — TS migration registry (compiled into the binary; no filesystem walk of skills/migrations/*.md needed at runtime). index.ts lists migrations in semver order. v0_11_0.ts = Minions adoption orchestrator (8 phases). v0_12_0.ts = Knowledge Graph auto-wire orchestrator (5 phases: schema → config check → backfill links → backfill timeline → verify). phaseASchema has a 600s timeout (bumped from 60s in v0.12.1 for duplicate-heavy brains). v0_12_2.ts = JSONB double-encode repair orchestrator (4 phases: schema → repair-jsonb → verify → record). All orchestrators are idempotent and resumable from partial status.
• src/commands/repair-jsonb.ts — gbrain repair-jsonb [--dry-run] [--json]: rewrites jsonb_typeof='string' rows in place across 5 affected columns (pages.frontmatter, raw_data.data, ingest_log.pages_updated, files.metadata, page_versions.frontmatter). Fixes v0.12.0 double-encode bug on Postgres; PGLite no-ops. Idempotent.
• src/core/markdown.ts — Frontmatter parsing + body splitter. splitBody requires an explicit timeline sentinel (<!-- timeline -->, --- timeline ---, or --- immediately before ## Timeline/## History). Plain --- in body text is a markdown horizontal rule, not a separator. inferType auto-types /wiki/analysis/ → analysis, /wiki/guides/ → guide, /wiki/hardware/ → hardware, /wiki/architecture/ → architecture, /writing/ → writing (plus the existing people/companies/deals/etc heuristics).
• scripts/check-jsonb-pattern.sh — CI grep guard. Fails the build if anyone reintroduces the ${JSON.stringify(x)}::jsonb interpolation pattern (which postgres.js v3 double-encodes). Wired into bun test.
• docs/UPGRADING_DOWNSTREAM_AGENTS.md — Patches for downstream agent skill forks (Wintermute etc.) to apply when upgrading. Each release appends a new section. v0.10.3 includes diffs for brain-ops, meeting-ingestion, signal-detector, enrich.
• src/core/schema-embedded.ts — AUTO-GENERATED from schema.sql (run bun run build:schema)
• src/schema.sql — Full Postgres + pgvector DDL (source of truth, generates schema-embedded.ts)
• src/commands/integrations.ts — Standalone integration recipe management (no DB needed). Exports getRecipeDirs() (trust-tagged recipe sources), SSRF helpers (isInternalUrl, parseOctet, hostnameToOctets, isPrivateIpv4). Only package-bundled recipes are embedded=true; $GBRAIN_RECIPES_DIR and cwd ./recipes/ are untrusted and cannot run command/http/string health checks.
• src/core/search/expansion.ts — Multi-query expansion via Haiku. Exports sanitizeQueryForPrompt + sanitizeExpansionOutput (prompt-injection defense-in-depth). Sanitized query is only used for the LLM channel; original query still drives search.
• recipes/ — Integration recipe files (YAML frontmatter + markdown setup instructions)
• docs/guides/ — Individual SKILLPACK guides (broken out from monolith)
• docs/integrations/ — "Getting Data In" guides and integration docs
• docs/architecture/infra-layer.md — Shared infrastructure documentation
• docs/ethos/THIN_HARNESS_FAT_SKILLS.md — Architecture philosophy essay
• docs/ethos/MARKDOWN_SKILLS_AS_RECIPES.md — "Homebrew for Personal AI" essay
• docs/guides/repo-architecture.md — Two-repo pattern (agent vs brain)
• docs/guides/sub-agent-routing.md — Model routing table for sub-agents
• docs/guides/skill-development.md — 5-step skill development cycle + MECE
• docs/guides/idea-capture.md — Originality distribution, depth test, cross-linking
• docs/guides/quiet-hours.md — Notification hold + timezone-aware delivery
• docs/guides/diligence-ingestion.md — Data room to brain pages pipeline
• docs/designs/HOMEBREW_FOR_PERSONAL_AI.md — 10-star vision for integration system
• docs/mcp/ — Per-client setup guides (Claude Desktop, Code, Cowork, Perplexity)
• docs/benchmarks/ — Search quality benchmark results (reproducible, fictional data)
• skills/_brain-filing-rules.md — Cross-cutting brain filing rules (referenced by all brain-writing skills)
• skills/RESOLVER.md — Skill routing table (modeled on Wintermute's AGENTS.md)
• skills/conventions/ — Cross-cutting rules (quality, brain-first, model-routing, test-before-bulk, cross-modal)
• skills/_output-rules.md — Output quality standards (deterministic links, no slop, exact phrasing)
• skills/signal-detector/SKILL.md — Always-on idea+entity capture on every message
• skills/brain-ops/SKILL.md — Brain-first lookup, read-enrich-write loop, source attribution
• skills/idea-ingest/SKILL.md — Links/articles/tweets with author people page mandatory
• skills/media-ingest/SKILL.md — Video/audio/PDF/book with entity extraction
• skills/meeting-ingestion/SKILL.md — Transcripts with attendee enrichment chaining
• skills/citation-fixer/SKILL.md — Citation format auditing and fixing
• skills/repo-architecture/SKILL.md — Filing rules by primary subject
• skills/skill-creator/SKILL.md — Create conforming skills with MECE check
• skills/daily-task-manager/SKILL.md — Task lifecycle with priority levels
• skills/daily-task-prep/SKILL.md — Morning prep with calendar context
• skills/cross-modal-review/SKILL.md — Quality gate via second model
• skills/cron-scheduler/SKILL.md — Schedule staggering, quiet hours, idempotency
• skills/reports/SKILL.md — Timestamped reports with keyword routing
• skills/testing/SKILL.md — Skill validation framework
• skills/soul-audit/SKILL.md — 6-phase interview for SOUL.md, USER.md, ACCESS_POLICY.md, HEARTBEAT.md
• skills/webhook-transforms/SKILL.md — External events to brain signals
• skills/data-research/SKILL.md — Structured data research: email-to-tracker pipeline with parameterized YAML recipes
• skills/minion-orchestrator/SKILL.md — Background job orchestration: submit, fan out children with depth/cap/timeouts, collect results via child_done inbox
• templates/ — SOUL.md, USER.md, ACCESS_POLICY.md, HEARTBEAT.md templates
• skills/migrations/ — Version migration files with feature_pitch YAML frontmatter
• src/commands/publish.ts — Deterministic brain page publisher (code+skill pair, zero LLM calls)
• src/commands/backlinks.ts — Back-link checker and fixer (enforces Iron Law)
• src/commands/lint.ts — Page quality linter (catches LLM artifacts, placeholder dates)
• src/commands/report.ts — Structured report saver (audit trail for maintenance/enrichment)
• openclaw.plugin.json — ClawHub bundle plugin manifest

Commands

Run gbrain --help or gbrain --tools-json for full command reference.

Key commands added in v0.7:

• gbrain init — defaults to PGLite (no Supabase needed), scans repo size, suggests Supabase for 1000+ files
• gbrain migrate --to supabase / gbrain migrate --to pglite — bidirectional engine migration

Key commands added for Minions (job queue):

• gbrain jobs submit <name> [--params JSON] [--follow] [--dry-run] — submit a background job
• gbrain jobs list [--status S] [--queue Q] — list jobs with filters
• gbrain jobs get <id> — job details with attempt history
• gbrain jobs cancel/retry/delete <id> — manage job lifecycle
• gbrain jobs prune [--older-than 30d] — clean old completed/dead jobs
• gbrain jobs stats — job health dashboard
• gbrain jobs work [--queue Q] [--concurrency N] — start worker daemon (Postgres only)

Key commands added in v0.12.2:

• gbrain repair-jsonb [--dry-run] [--json] — repair double-encoded JSONB rows left over from v0.12.0-and-earlier Postgres writes. Idempotent; PGLite no-ops. The v0_12_2 migration runs this automatically on gbrain upgrade.

Testing

bun test runs all tests. After the v0.12.1 release: ~75 unit test files + 8 E2E test files (1412 unit pass, 119 E2E when DATABASE_URL is set — skip gracefully otherwise). Unit tests run without a database. E2E tests skip gracefully when DATABASE_URL is not set.

Unit tests: test/markdown.test.ts (frontmatter parsing), test/chunkers/recursive.test.ts (chunking), test/sync.test.ts (sync logic), test/parity.test.ts (operations contract parity), test/cli.test.ts (CLI structure), test/config.test.ts (config redaction), test/files.test.ts (MIME/hash), test/import-file.test.ts (import pipeline), test/upgrade.test.ts (schema migrations), test/doctor.test.ts (doctor command), test/file-migration.test.ts (file migration), test/file-resolver.test.ts (file resolution), test/import-resume.test.ts (import checkpoints), test/migrate.test.ts (migration; v8/v9 helper-btree-index SQL structural assertions + 1000-row wall-clock fixtures that guard the O(n²)→O(n log n) fix), test/setup-branching.test.ts (setup flow), test/slug-validation.test.ts (slug validation), test/storage.test.ts (storage backends), test/supabase-admin.test.ts (Supabase admin), test/yaml-lite.test.ts (YAML parsing), test/check-update.test.ts (version check + update CLI), test/pglite-engine.test.ts (PGLite engine, all 40 BrainEngine methods including 11 cases for addLinksBatch / addTimelineEntriesBatch: empty batch, missing optionals, within-batch dedup via ON CONFLICT, missing-slug rows dropped by JOIN, half-existing batch, batch of 100), test/utils.test.ts (shared SQL utilities), test/engine-factory.test.ts (engine factory + dynamic imports), test/integrations.test.ts (recipe parsing, CLI routing, recipe validation), test/publish.test.ts (content stripping, encryption, password generation, HTML output), test/backlinks.test.ts (entity extraction, back-link detection, timeline entry generation), test/lint.test.ts (LLM artifact detection, code fence stripping, frontmatter validation), test/report.test.ts (report format, directory structure), test/skills-conformance.test.ts (skill frontmatter + required sections validation), test/resolver.test.ts (RESOLVER.md coverage, routing validation), test/search.test.ts (RRF normalization, compiled truth boost, cosine similarity, dedup key), test/dedup.test.ts (source-aware dedup, compiled truth guarantee, layer interactions), test/intent.test.ts (query intent classification: entity/temporal/event/general), test/eval.test.ts (retrieval metrics: precisionAtK, recallAtK, mrr, ndcgAtK, parseQrels), test/check-resolvable.test.ts (resolver reachability, MECE overlap, gap detection, DRY checks), test/backoff.test.ts (load-aware throttling, concurrency limits, active hours), test/fail-improve.test.ts (deterministic/LLM cascade, JSONL logging, test generation, rotation), test/transcription.test.ts (provider detection, format validation, API key errors), test/enrichment-service.test.ts (entity slugification, extraction, tier escalation), test/data-research.test.ts (recipe validation, MRR/ARR extraction, dedup, tracker parsing, HTML stripping), test/minions.test.ts (Minions job queue v7: CRUD, state machine, backoff, stall detection, dependencies, worker lifecycle, lock management, claim mechanics, depth/child-cap, timeouts, cascade kill, idempotency, child_done inbox, attachments, removeOnComplete/Fail), test/extract.test.ts (link extraction, timeline extraction, frontmatter parsing, directory type inference), test/extract-db.test.ts (gbrain extract --source db: typed link inference, idempotency, --type filter, --dry-run JSON output), test/extract-fs.test.ts (gbrain extract --source fs: first-run inserts + second-run reports zero, dry-run dedups candidates across files, second-run perf regression guard — the v0.12.1 N+1 dedup bug), test/link-extraction.test.ts (canonical extractEntityRefs both formats, extractPageLinks dedup, inferLinkType heuristics, parseTimelineEntries date variants, isAutoLinkEnabled config), test/graph-query.test.ts (direction in/out/both, type filter, indented tree output), test/features.test.ts (feature scanning, brain_score calculation, CLI routing, persistence), test/file-upload-security.test.ts (symlink traversal, cwd confinement, slug + filename allowlists, remote vs local trust), test/query-sanitization.test.ts (prompt-injection stripping, output sanitization, structural boundary), test/search-limit.test.ts (clampSearchLimit default/cap behavior across list_pages and get_ingest_log), test/repair-jsonb.test.ts (v0.12.2 JSONB repair: TARGETS list, idempotency, engine-awareness), test/migrations-v0_12_2.test.ts (v0.12.2 orchestrator phases: schema → repair → verify → record), test/markdown.test.ts (splitBody sentinel precedence, horizontal-rule preservation, inferType wiki subtypes).

E2E tests (test/e2e/): Run against real Postgres+pgvector. Require DATABASE_URL.

• bun run test:e2e runs Tier 1 (mechanical, all operations, no API keys). Includes 9 dedicated cases for the postgres-engine addLinksBatch / addTimelineEntriesBatch bind path — postgres-js's unnest() binding is structurally different from PGLite's and gets its own coverage.
• test/e2e/search-quality.test.ts runs search quality E2E against PGLite (no API keys, in-memory)
• test/e2e/graph-quality.test.ts runs the v0.10.3 knowledge graph pipeline (auto-link via put_page, reconciliation, traversePaths) against PGLite in-memory
• test/e2e/postgres-jsonb.test.ts — v0.12.2 regression test. Round-trips all 5 JSONB write sites (pages.frontmatter, raw_data.data, ingest_log.pages_updated, files.metadata, page_versions.frontmatter) against real Postgres and asserts jsonb_typeof='object' plus ->>'key' returns the expected scalar. The test that should have caught the original double-encode bug.
• test/e2e/upgrade.test.ts runs check-update E2E against real GitHub API (network required)
• Tier 2 (skills.test.ts) requires OpenClaw + API keys, runs nightly in CI
• If .env.testing doesn't exist in this directory, check sibling worktrees for one: find ../ -maxdepth 2 -name .env.testing -print -quit and copy it here if found.
• Always run E2E tests when they exist. Do not skip them just because DATABASE_URL is not set. Start the test DB, run the tests, then tear it down.

API keys and running ALL tests

ALWAYS source the user's shell profile before running tests:

source ~/.zshrc 2>/dev/null || true

This loads OPENAI_API_KEY and ANTHROPIC_API_KEY. Without these, Tier 2 tests skip silently. Do NOT skip Tier 2 tests just because they require API keys — load the keys and run them.

When asked to "run all E2E tests" or "run tests", that means ALL tiers:

• Tier 1: bun run test:e2e (mechanical, sync, upgrade — no API keys needed)
• Tier 2: test/e2e/skills.test.ts (requires OpenAI + Anthropic + openclaw CLI)
• Always spin up the test DB, source zshrc, run everything, tear down.

E2E test DB lifecycle (ALWAYS follow this)

You are responsible for spinning up and tearing down the test Postgres container. Do not leave containers running after tests. Do not skip E2E tests.

1. Check for .env.testing — if missing, copy from sibling worktree. Read it to get the DATABASE_URL (it has the port number).
2. Check if the port is free: docker ps --filter "publish=PORT" — if another container is on that port, pick a different port (try 5435, 5436, 5437) and start on that one instead.
3. Start the test DB:

   docker run -d --name gbrain-test-pg \
     -e POSTGRES_USER=postgres -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=postgres \
     -e POSTGRES_DB=gbrain_test \
     -p PORT:5432 pgvector/pgvector:pg16
   

   Wait for ready: docker exec gbrain-test-pg pg_isready -U postgres
4. Run E2E tests: DATABASE_URL=postgresql://postgres:postgres@localhost:PORT/gbrain_test bun run test:e2e
5. Tear down immediately after tests finish (pass or fail): docker stop gbrain-test-pg && docker rm gbrain-test-pg

Never leave gbrain-test-pg running. If you find a stale one from a previous run, stop and remove it before starting a new one.

Skills

Read the skill files in skills/ before doing brain operations. GBrain ships 26 skills organized by skills/RESOLVER.md:

Original 8 (conformance-migrated): ingest (thin router), query, maintain, enrich, briefing, migrate, setup, publish.

Brain skills (from Wintermute): signal-detector, brain-ops, idea-ingest, media-ingest, meeting-ingestion, citation-fixer, repo-architecture, skill-creator, daily-task-manager.

Operational + identity: daily-task-prep, cross-modal-review, cron-scheduler, reports, testing, soul-audit, webhook-transforms, data-research, minion-orchestrator.

Conventions: skills/conventions/ has cross-cutting rules (quality, brain-first, model-routing, test-before-bulk, cross-modal). skills/_brain-filing-rules.md and skills/_output-rules.md are shared references.

Build

bun build --compile --outfile bin/gbrain src/cli.ts

Pre-ship requirements

Before shipping (/ship) or reviewing (/review), always run the full test suite:

• bun test — unit tests (no database required)
• Follow the "E2E test DB lifecycle" steps above to spin up the test DB, run bun run test:e2e, then tear it down.

Both must pass. Do not ship with failing E2E tests. Do not skip E2E tests.

Post-ship requirements (MANDATORY)

After EVERY /ship, you MUST run /document-release. This is NOT optional. Do NOT skip it. Do NOT say "docs look fine" without running it. The skill reads every .md file in the project, cross-references the diff, and updates anything that drifted.

If /ship's Step 8.5 triggers document-release automatically, that counts. But if it gets skipped for ANY reason (timeout, error, oversight), you MUST run it manually before considering the ship complete.

Files that MUST be checked on every ship:

• README.md — does it reflect new features, commands, or setup steps?
• CLAUDE.md — does it reflect new files, test files, or architecture changes?
• CHANGELOG.md — does it cover every commit?
• TODOS.md — are completed items marked done?
• docs/ — do any guides need updating?

A ship without updated docs is an incomplete ship. Period.

CHANGELOG voice + release-summary format

Every version entry in CHANGELOG.md MUST start with a release-summary section in the GStack/Garry voice — one viewport's worth of prose + tables that lands like a verdict, not marketing. The itemized changelog (subsections, bullets, files) goes BELOW that summary, separated by a ### Itemized changes header.

The release-summary section gets read by humans, by the auto-update agent, and by anyone deciding whether to upgrade. The itemized list is for agents that need to know exactly what changed.

Release-summary template

Use this structure for the top of every ## [X.Y.Z] entry:

1. Two-line bold headline (10-14 words total) ... should land like a verdict, not marketing. Sound like someone who shipped today and cares whether it works.
2. Lead paragraph (3-5 sentences) ... what shipped, what changed for the user. Specific, concrete, no AI vocabulary, no em dashes, no hype.
3. A "The X numbers that matter" section with:
   • One short setup paragraph naming the source of the numbers (real production deployment OR a reproducible benchmark ... name the file/command to run).
   • A table of 3-6 key metrics with BEFORE / AFTER / Δ columns.
   • A second optional table for per-category breakdown if relevant.
   • 1-2 sentences interpreting the most striking number in concrete user terms.
4. A "What this means for [audience]" closing paragraph (2-4 sentences) tying the metrics to a real workflow shift. End with what to do.

Voice rules:

• No em dashes (use commas, periods, "...").
• No AI vocabulary (delve, robust, comprehensive, nuanced, fundamental, etc.) or banned phrases ("here's the kicker", "the bottom line", etc.).
• Real numbers, real file names, real commands. Not "fast" but "~30s on 30K pages."
• Short paragraphs, mix one-sentence punches with 2-3 sentence runs.
• Connect to user outcomes: "the agent does ~3x less reading" beats "improved precision."
• Be direct about quality. "Well-designed" or "this is a mess." No dancing.

Source material to pull from:

• CHANGELOG.md previous entry for prior context
• docs/benchmarks/[latest].md for the headline numbers
• Recent commits (git log <prev-version>..HEAD --oneline) for what shipped
• Don't make up numbers. If a metric isn't in a benchmark or production data, don't include it. Say "no measurement yet" if asked.

Target length: ~250-350 words for the summary. Should render as one viewport.

Itemized changes (the existing rules)

Below the release summary, write ### Itemized changes and continue with the detailed subsections (Knowledge Graph Layer, Schema migrations, Security hardening, Tests, etc.). Same rules as before:

• Lead with what the user can now DO that they couldn't before
• Frame as benefits and capabilities, not files changed or code written
• Make the user think "hell yeah, I want that"
• Bad: "Added GBRAIN_VERIFY.md installation verification runbook"
• Good: "Your agent now verifies the entire GBrain installation end-to-end, catching silent sync failures and stale embeddings before they bite you"
• Bad: "Setup skill Phase H and Phase I added"
• Good: "New installs automatically set up live sync so your brain never falls behind"
• Always credit community contributions. When a CHANGELOG entry includes work from a community PR, name the contributor with Contributed by @username. Contributors did real work. Thank them publicly every time, no exceptions.

Reference: v0.12.0 entry as canonical example

The v0.12.0 entry in CHANGELOG.md is the canonical example of the format. Match its structure for every future version: bold headline, lead paragraph, "numbers that matter" with BrainBench-style before/after table, "what this means" closer, then ### Itemized changes with the detailed sections below.

Version migrations

Create a migration file at skills/migrations/v[version].md when a release includes changes that existing users need to act on. The auto-update agent reads these files post-upgrade (Section 17, Step 4) and executes them.

You need a migration file when:

• New setup step that existing installs don't have (e.g., v0.5.0 added live sync, existing users need to set it up, not just new installs)
• New SKILLPACK section with a MUST ADD setup requirement
• Schema changes that require gbrain init or manual SQL
• Changed defaults that affect existing behavior
• Deprecated commands or flags that need replacement
• New verification steps that should run on existing installs
• New cron jobs or background processes that should be registered

You do NOT need a migration file when:

• Bug fixes with no behavior changes
• Documentation-only improvements (the agent re-reads docs automatically)
• New optional features that don't affect existing setups
• Performance improvements that are transparent

The key test: if an existing user upgrades and does nothing else, will their brain work worse than before? If yes, migration file. If no, skip it.

Write migration files as agent instructions, not technical notes. Tell the agent what to do, step by step, with exact commands. See skills/migrations/v0.5.0.md for the pattern.

Migration is canonical, not advisory

GBrain's job is to deliver a canonical, working setup to every user on upgrade. Anything that looks like a "host-repo change" — AGENTS.md, cron manifests, launchctl units, config files outside ~/.gbrain/ — is a GBrain migration step, not a nudge we leave for the host-repo maintainer. Migrations edit host files (with backups) to make the canonical setup real. Exceptions: changes that require human judgment (content edits, renames that break semantics, host-specific handler registration where shell-exec would be an RCE surface). Everything mechanical ships in the migration.

Test: if shipping a feature requires a sentence that starts with "in your AGENTS.md, add…" or "in your cron/jobs.json, rewrite…", the migration orchestrator should be doing that edit, not the user.

The exception is host-specific code. For custom Minion handlers (ea-inbox-sweep, frameio-scan, etc. on Wintermute), shipping them as a data file the worker would exec is an RCE surface. Those get registered in the host's own repo via the plugin contract (docs/guides/plugin-handlers.md); the migration orchestrator emits a structured TODO to ~/.gbrain/migrations/pending-host-work.jsonl + the host agent walks the TODOs using skills/migrations/v0.11.0.md — stays host-agnostic, still canonical.

Schema state tracking

~/.gbrain/update-state.json tracks which recommended schema directories the user adopted, declined, or added custom. The auto-update agent (SKILLPACK Section 17) reads this during upgrades to suggest new schema additions without re-suggesting things the user already declined. The setup skill writes the initial state during Phase C/E. Never modify a user's custom directories or re-suggest declined ones.

GitHub Actions SHA maintenance

All GitHub Actions in .github/workflows/ are pinned to commit SHAs. Before shipping (/ship) or reviewing (/review), check for stale pins and update them:

for action in actions/checkout oven-sh/setup-bun actions/upload-artifact actions/download-artifact softprops/action-gh-release gitleaks/gitleaks-action; do
  tag=$(grep -r "$action@" .github/workflows/ | head -1 | grep -o '#.*' | tr -d '# ')
  [ -n "$tag" ] && echo "$action@$tag: $(gh api repos/$action/git/ref/tags/$tag --jq .object.sha 2>/dev/null)"
done

If any SHA differs from what's in the workflow files, update the pin and version comment.

PR descriptions cover the whole branch

Pull request titles and bodies must describe everything in the PR diff against the base branch, not just the most recent commit you made. When you open or update a PR, walk the full commit range with git log --oneline <base>..<head> and write the body to cover all of it. Group by feature area (schema, code, tests, docs) — not chronologically by commit.

This matters because reviewers read the PR body to understand what's shipping. If the body only covers your last commit, they miss everything else and can't review properly. A 7-commit PR with a body that describes commit 7 is worse than no body at all — it actively misleads.

When in doubt, run gh pr view <N> --json commits --jq '[.commits[].messageHeadline]' to see what's actually in the PR before writing the body.

Community PR wave process

Never merge external PRs directly into master. Instead, use the "fix wave" workflow:

1. Categorize — group PRs by theme (bug fixes, features, infra, docs)
2. Deduplicate — if two PRs fix the same thing, pick the one that changes fewer lines. Close the other with a note pointing to the winner.
3. Collector branch — create a feature branch (e.g. garrytan/fix-wave-N), cherry-pick or manually re-implement the best fixes from each PR. Do NOT merge PR branches directly — read the diff, understand the fix, and write it yourself if needed.
4. Test the wave — verify with bun test && bun run test:e2e (full E2E lifecycle). Every fix in the wave must have test coverage.
5. Close with context — every closed PR gets a comment explaining why and what (if anything) supersedes it. Contributors did real work; respect that with clear communication and thank them.
6. Ship as one PR — single PR to master with all attributions preserved via Co-Authored-By: trailers. Include a summary of what merged and what closed.

Community PR guardrails:

• Always AskUserQuestion before accepting commits that touch voice, tone, or promotional material (README intro, CHANGELOG voice, skill templates).
• Never auto-merge PRs that remove YC references or "neutralize" the founder perspective.
• Preserve contributor attribution in commit messages.

Skill routing

When the user's request matches an available skill, ALWAYS invoke it using the Skill tool as your FIRST action. Do NOT answer directly, do NOT use other tools first. The skill has specialized workflows that produce better results than ad-hoc answers.

NEVER hand-roll ship operations. Do not manually run git commit + push + gh pr create when /ship is available. /ship handles VERSION bump, CHANGELOG, document-release, pre-landing review, test coverage audit, and adversarial review. Manually creating a PR skips all of these. If the user says "commit and ship", "push and ship", "bisect and ship", or any combination that ends with shipping — invoke /ship and let it handle everything including the commits. If the branch name contains a version (e.g. v0.5-live-sync), /ship should use that version for the bump.

Key routing rules:

• Product ideas, "is this worth building", brainstorming → invoke office-hours
• Bugs, errors, "why is this broken", 500 errors → invoke investigate
• Ship, deploy, push, create PR, "commit and ship", "push and ship" → invoke ship
• QA, test the site, find bugs → invoke qa
• Code review, check my diff → invoke review
• Update docs after shipping → invoke document-release
• Weekly retro → invoke retro
• Design system, brand → invoke design-consultation
• Visual audit, design polish → invoke design-review
• Architecture review → invoke plan-eng-review
• Save progress, checkpoint, resume → invoke checkpoint
• Code quality, health check → invoke health