# AI Second Brain Starter

A sanitized, original AIBB template for one business project. Replace bracketed prompts with your information. Save each named section as its own Markdown file in a project folder. Plain text files are enough to begin; this template installs no software, connects no accounts, and schedules no work.

Do not put passwords, API keys, private customer records, or unrelated personal material in this starter. Add only sources you are authorized to use. Bracketed values are deliberately blank, not verified facts.

## Suggested layout

```text
Your Project/
  PROJECT_MEMORY.md
  WORK.md
  SOURCES.md
  TOOLS.md
  Knowledge/
    Index.md
    Sources/
      first-source.md
    Notes/
      first-question.md
```

## PROJECT_MEMORY.md — current state

# [Project name]

Owner: [Person responsible]
Goal: [One concrete outcome]
Current state: [Verified facts only]
Last verified: [Date and what was checked]
Evidence: [Link to original record or output]
Decision: [What was decided, when, and its scope]
Supersedes: [Earlier decision, if any]
Open question: [Missing input or unresolved choice]
Next action: [One specific action]

Keep changing project status here. Link from other notes instead of copying this status. Preserve important historical evidence separately when updating.

## WORK.md — scope and completion

# [Project name] work

Deliverable: [What the user should receive]
Inputs: [Approved files and source locations]
Scope: [What this task includes]
Constraints: [Business requirements and working rules]
Completion test: [What evidence shows the result is usable]
Review owner: [Who checks the result]
External-action authority: [What sending, publication or account changes are actually authorized]

Do not turn an exploratory suggestion into an approved procedure. Distinguish drafts, checked previews and public releases.

## SOURCES.md — evidence register

# [Project name] sources

| Source | Location | Source date | Reviewed date | Supports | Limits |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Descriptive title] | [Original URL or file link] | [Date or unknown] | [Date actually read] | [Specific claim or decision] | [Missing coverage, snapshot age or uncertainty] |

Follow links to original evidence before relying on changing facts. A file modification date does not establish a business verification date.

## TOOLS.md — needed capabilities

# [Project name] tools

Task: [Exact work requiring access]
Required capability: [For example, read one approved report]
Source application or folder: [Name or location, without credentials]
Access status: [Verified, unavailable, or not checked]
Last useful check: [Date and precise read or output]
Known limitation: [What this access does not prove]
Safe next step: [One action]

Configured access is not proof of successful authentication or task completion. Record the first useful read; do not repeatedly test an unchanged failure.

## Knowledge/Index.md — questions and navigation

# [Topic] knowledge index

Purpose: [The recurring work this collection supports]
Current project state: [Link to PROJECT_MEMORY.md]

Questions this collection should answer:

1. [Question one]
2. [Question two]
3. [Question three]

Topic notes:

- [Descriptive question title](Notes/first-question.md)

Source notes:

- [Descriptive source title](Sources/first-source.md)

Index only selected useful files. If you later add search or a visual dashboard, record its exact source list and what refresh updates.

## Knowledge/Sources/first-source.md — capture

# [Source title]

Original location: [URL or file]
Author or organization: [Name or unknown]
Published: [Date or unknown]
Reviewed: [Date actually inspected]
Coverage: [Full document, selected passage, partial transcript, or other limit]
Business question: [What this source helps answer]

### Source findings

- [Finding, with page, section or timestamp where useful]

### Our interpretation

[Explain what the finding may mean for the business without attributing your inference to the source.]

### Limits and next use

[State uncertainty and a practical use. An untested idea remains untested.]

## Knowledge/Notes/first-question.md — synthesis

# [A question someone will actually ask]

Current understanding: [A concise supported answer]

Evidence:

- [Claim] — [source link and relevant section]

Conflicting evidence: [Describe disagreements or write none identified]
Limits: [Coverage and freshness constraints]
Current project record: [Link, rather than copied status]
Next research question: [One useful gap]

## Retrieval acceptance test

Open a fresh conversation in the intended project or workspace and ask:

> Use the selected project records and knowledge notes to answer the three questions in the index. Identify the exact sources you read, their relevant dates and any unsupported part of the answer. Do not guess missing facts or assume connected services are current.

Check the response:

- [ ] The assistant accessed the intended files.
- [ ] Each important claim matches its cited original source.
- [ ] It distinguishes current decisions from historical drafts.
- [ ] It identifies missing or stale evidence.
- [ ] It identifies the correct next action without repeating completed work.

If the test fails, fix the specific access, discovery, authority or evidence gap before adding more material.

## Provenance

This starter was written by AIBB as an original, sanitized record template. The separate local visual knowledge implementation discussed in the companion article was adapted from Nate Herk's MIT-licensed AIS-OS: https://github.com/nateherkai/AIS-OS. This download does not include that application's code or imply endorsement.