brain-init

Initialize a project in your second brain

You are registering a repository with a central Obsidian vault (the "brain"). The repo becomes a tracked project with a bidirectional .brain/ bridge.

Language / Idioma

Reply in the user's language. If they wrote Spanish, run the whole interaction in Spanish (questions, confirmations, summary); if English, English. Keep frontmatter field names in English (the sync script parses them).

Locate the vault (no hardcoded paths)

1. Read BRAIN_PATH from the environment. That is the vault root.
2. If BRAIN_PATH is unset: ask the user once for the absolute path to their Obsidian vault, and suggest they add it to their .env / shell so future sessions skip this. Do not invent or assume a path.
3. The vault must contain Projects/ and Templates/Project.md. If Templates/Project.md is missing, offer to copy the starter from this skill category's templates/Project.md.

Throughout this skill, $BRAIN = the resolved BRAIN_PATH.

What you'll do

1. Detect the host repo — current working directory, or a path the user passes after /brain-init.
2. Gather metadata (ask one question at a time, multiple-choice where possible).
3. Create the project note at $BRAIN/Projects/<Slug>.md from $BRAIN/Templates/Project.md.
4. Run the sync so .brain/ gets scaffolded in the repo.

Step-by-step

Step 1 — Detect / confirm host repo

• Default to the current working directory; if invoked with a path argument, use that.
• Confirm: "Register brain tracking for <path>?"

Step 2 — Ask for metadata (one question at a time)

Use AskUserQuestion. These options are suggested defaults — adapt them to the user's domain, they are not fixed:

Type: client-delivery · client-support · internal-tool · research · legacy · admin Status: planning · active · on-hold · archived Priority: p0 (drop everything) · p1 (this week) · p2 (later) Client / Owner: free-text (blank if internal — do not invent one) Scope: one sentence → goes in ## Scope Attention (optional): integer rank if it belongs in the user's top-active list

Step 3 — Slug + collision check

slug = <ProjectName>: spaces → hyphens, drop chars except [A-Za-z0-9_-]
notePath = $BRAIN/Projects/<slug>.md

If notePath exists, ask to overwrite or pick a new slug.

Step 4 — Compute the folder: field

folder: is the repo path relative to $BRAIN/Projects/, so the sync can resolve the repo from the vault. Examples (vault at $BRAIN, sibling repos one level up):

• repo <parent>/Aclara → folder: "../../Aclara"
• nested <parent>/Aclara/exp-x → folder: "../../Aclara/exp-x"

Compute it correctly for the actual relative location — do not assume the example layout.

Step 5 — Write the project note

Read $BRAIN/Templates/Project.md, substitute {{title}} → display name, {{date}} → today (YYYY-MM-DD), fill frontmatter from the answers, set started: and last-activity: to today, inject the computed folder:. Leave unanswered optional fields empty. Write with the Write tool, UTF-8.

Step 6 — Run the sync

pwsh <path-to>/Sync-Project-Brains.ps1 -BrainRoot "$env:BRAIN_PATH"

This pushes CONTEXT.md, TASKS.md, ASKS.md, INSTRUCTIONS.md into the repo's .brain/ and seeds empty STATUS.md, LOG.md, ANSWERS.md.

Step 7 — Confirm + brief

Tell the user: note created at $BRAIN/Projects/<slug>.md, .brain/ scaffolded in the repo, and that the agent in this repo now follows the brain-sync protocol. Suggest opening the note to fill milestones, team, and the Brain → Repo · Tasks / · Asks sections.

Rules

• ⚠ Don't pre-fill metadata the user didn't give. No client? Leave it blank.
• ⚠ Don't manually edit vault dashboards/indexes — they auto-aggregate (Dataview) on sync.
• ⚠ Don't duplicate INSTRUCTIONS.md into project docs — the sync generates it.
• ✅ Do verify BRAIN_PATH resolves to a real vault before writing anything.