Brain Dump

brain-dump

Living capture-and-organize system. Turns scattered inputs (saved tweets, screenshots, half-formed thoughts, articles, voice memos) into structured, scheduleable, searchable knowledge in ryankolean/mindspace.

Operating modes

The skill runs in one of six modes. Identify the mode from the user's intent before executing.

| Mode | Trigger | Output | |---|---|---| | capture | User shares a single item or batch with no other instruction | Structured idea card(s) in inbox/ or library/, optional Calendar event | | triage | "Process my inbox", "triage mindspace", "clear the inbox" | All inbox items moved to library/ or archive/ with classification | | review | "Mindspace review", "what's stale", "what haven't I actioned" | Surface stale items, prompt revisit/archive/escalate | | search | "What did I capture about X", "find ideas on Y" | Filtered list from index.json + grep across library/ | | research | "research backfill", "research today", "research card X", "research refresh X" | Append ## Research block to one or more cards; commit + push | | self-learn | End of every session OR user says "promote learnings" | Append to _meta/learnings.md; if high-value pattern, prompt SKILL.md update |

Bootstrap (first-time setup)

If the repo doesn't exist yet, run the gh-repo-create skill with these parameters: name mindspace, visibility private, description Personal idea capture and triage system. Managed by the brain-dump skill. Then push the contents of mindspace-init/ (provided alongside this skill) as the initial commit.

Capture mode — execution rules

1. Identify input type. URL, image (screenshot/photo), plain text, voice transcript, calendar inbox event, iOS Shortcut payload, file attachment, or "other." If multiple items in one batch, process each independently then summarize at the end.

1. Extract content.

• URLs: web_fetch the page. If the URL is a social media post (X/Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit, HN, YouTube), extract the post body, author, and key replies. Note the platform.
• Images: describe the visible content. If the screenshot contains text, transcribe it. If it's a UI/product screenshot, identify the product and the feature shown.
• Voice transcripts: split into discrete ideas if the transcript covers multiple topics. One idea = one card.
• Calendar inbox events ([Inbox] ...): pull title + description, treat description as the idea body.

1. Propose classification — present this block to the user for approval before writing:

`` Title: Project: Idea-type: Tags: [] Priority: Suggested action: Suggested schedule: Destination: ``

1. Honor user adjustments. If user edits any field, use the edited version. If user says "looks good" or just confirms, proceed.

1. Write the idea card using the template at templates/idea-card.md. File naming: YYYY-MM-DD-HHMM-{slug}.md where slug is 3-5 words from the title, lowercase, hyphenated. Commit message: capture: {title}.

1. Calendar policy.

• Priority High → auto-create event via reminder-hub conventions (no confirmation). Title format: [{Project}] {Title}. Description includes the suggested action, link to the idea card in mindspace, Priority: High, Project: {project}, Category: {idea-type}.
• Priority Medium or Low → present the proposed event to the user, ask "Schedule this? (y/n/edit)" before creating.
• Priority Low with no clear action → no calendar event, just store in library.

1. Update _meta/index.json with the new entry. Update _meta/patterns.json with any new tags (increment frequency counter; if new tag, add with frequency 1).

Triage mode — execution rules

1. List every file in inbox/. If empty, report "Inbox is clear" and exit.
2. For each item, present a one-line summary + proposed classification (same block as capture step 3, condensed). Allow batch operations: "Approve all," "Skip 3," "Archive 5," etc.
3. Move approved items to library/{project}/{idea-type}/. Archive killed items to archive/{YYYY-MM}/. Apply scheduling policy from capture step 6.
4. Commit in batches: one commit per project triaged. Commit message: triage: process N inbox items into {project}.

Review mode — execution rules

1. Read _meta/index.json. Identify items in library/ with status: library and captured older than 14 days with no last_touched field.
2. Group by project. Present each group with: title, idea-type, age, suggested next move (revisit / archive / escalate to High).
3. Apply user decisions. Update last_touched on revisited items; archive killed items; for escalations, run the calendar policy from capture step 6.
4. Commit message: review: triage N stale items.

Search mode — execution rules

1. Parse the user's query for: project filter, idea-type filter, tag filter, free-text terms.
2. Filter _meta/index.json first (fast path).
3. If query needs body content, grep through matching files in library/.
4. Return ranked results: title, project/type, captured date, one-line summary, file path.
5. If user wants to act on a result, jump into capture-style classification on that existing card to update/reschedule.

Research mode — execution rules

1. Determine scope from invocation:

• "backfill" → all cards in _meta/index.json without a `` block
• "today" / "tomorrow's tasks" → cards where suggested_schedule matches the requested day
• "refresh " → that one card; override staleness check
• "card " → that one card; respect staleness

1. For each card in scope, check the body for an existing `` marker:

• Absent → process
• Present and timestamp ≥ 4 days ago → process (replace block atomically)
• Present and timestamp `.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: ryankolean
• Source: ryankolean/summit-claude-skills
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.