Brain Filing Rules -- MANDATORY for all skills that write to the brain

The Rule

The PRIMARY SUBJECT of the content determines where it goes. Not the format, not the source, not the skill that's running.

Decision Protocol

1. Identify the primary subject (a person? company? concept? policy issue?)
2. File in the directory that matches the subject
3. Cross-link from related directories
4. When in doubt: what would you search for to find this page again?

Common Misfiling Patterns -- DO NOT DO THESE

Wrong	Right	Why
Analysis of a topic -> sources/	-> appropriate subject directory	sources/ is for raw data only
Article about a person -> sources/	-> people/	Primary subject is a person
Meeting-derived company info -> meetings/ only	-> ALSO update companies/	Entity propagation is mandatory
Research about a company -> sources/	-> companies/	Primary subject is a company
Reusable framework/thesis -> sources/	-> concepts/	It's a mental model
Tweet thread about policy -> media/	-> civic/ or concepts/	media/ is for content ops

Sanctioned exception: synthesis output is sui generis

The "file by primary subject" rule is for raw ingest. Synthesized output that is one-of-one to a single source AND a specific reader (a personalized book mirror, a strategic-reading playbook tied to one problem) does not fit any subject directory cleanly: filing by topic loses the "this is the book" dimension; filing by author muddles authorship pages with synthesis pages.

Format-prefixed paths under media/<format>/<slug> are the sanctioned exception:

• media/books/<slug>-personalized.md (book-mirror output)
• media/articles/<slug>-personalized.md (long-form article personalization)

If you find yourself wanting media/<format>/ for raw ingest, that is still the anti-pattern in the table above. The exception is narrow: synthesized, one-of-one, sui generis to a single source.

What sources/ Is Actually For

sources/ is ONLY for:

• Bulk data imports (API dumps, CSV exports, snapshots)
• Raw data that feeds multiple brain pages (e.g., a guest export, contact sync)
• Periodic captures (quarterly snapshots, sync exports)

If the content has a clear primary subject (a person, company, concept, policy issue), it does NOT go in sources/. Period.

Notability Gate

Not everything deserves a brain page. Before creating a new entity page:

• People: Will you interact with them again? Are they relevant to your work?
• Companies: Are they relevant to your work or interests?
• Concepts: Is this a reusable mental model worth referencing later?
• When in doubt, DON'T create. A missing page can be created later. A junk page wastes attention and degrades search quality.

Iron Law: Back-Linking (MANDATORY)

Every mention of a person or company with a brain page MUST create a back-link FROM that entity's page TO the page mentioning them. This is bidirectional: the new page links to the entity, AND the entity's page links back.

Format for back-links (append to Timeline or See Also):

- **YYYY-MM-DD** | Referenced in [page title](path/to/page.md) -- brief context

An unlinked mention is a broken brain. The graph is the intelligence.

Citation Requirements (MANDATORY)

Every fact written to a brain page must carry an inline [Source: ...] citation.

Three formats:

• Direct attribution: [Source: User, {context}, YYYY-MM-DD]
• API/external: [Source: {provider}, YYYY-MM-DD] or [Source: {publication}, {URL}]
• Synthesis: [Source: compiled from {list of sources}]

Source precedence (highest to lowest):

1. User's direct statements (highest authority)
2. Compiled truth (pre-existing brain synthesis)
3. Timeline entries (raw evidence)
4. External sources (API enrichment, web search -- lowest)

When sources conflict, note the contradiction with both citations. Don't silently pick one.

Raw Source Preservation

Every ingested item should have its raw source preserved for provenance.

Size routing (automatic via gbrain files upload-raw):

• < 100 MB text/PDF: stays in the brain repo (git-tracked) in a .raw/ sidecar directory alongside the brain page
• >= 100 MB OR media files (video, audio, images): uploaded to cloud storage (Supabase Storage, S3, etc.) with a .redirect.yaml pointer left in the brain repo. Files >= 100 MB use TUS resumable upload (6 MB chunks with retry) for reliability.

Upload command:

gbrain files upload-raw <file> --page <page-slug> --type <type>

Returns JSON: {storage: "git"} for small files, {storage: "supabase", storagePath, reference} for cloud.

The .redirect.yaml pointer format:

target: supabase://brain-files/page-slug/filename.mp4
bucket: brain-files
storage_path: page-slug/filename.mp4
size: 524288000
size_human: 500 MB
hash: sha256:abc123...
mime: video/mp4
uploaded: 2026-04-11T...
type: transcript

Accessing stored files:

gbrain files signed-url <storage-path>    # Generate 1-hour signed URL
gbrain files restore <dir>                # Download back to local

This ensures any derived brain page can be traced back to its original source, and large files don't bloat the git repo.

Dream-cycle synthesize / patterns directories (v0.23)

The synthesize and patterns phases of gbrain dream write to a fixed allow-list of paths sourced from _brain-filing-rules.json's dream_synthesize_paths.globs array. Editing that JSON is the ONLY way to add a new directory the synthesis subagent may write to:

Output type	Slug pattern	What goes here
Reflection	wiki/personal/reflections/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>-<hash[:6]>	Self-knowledge, emotional processing, pattern recognition. Verbatim quotes from the user, with analysis.
Original idea	wiki/originals/ideas/YYYY-MM-DD-<idea>-<hash[:6]>	New frames, theses, mental models, "conceptive ideologist" outputs. Capture the user's exact phrasing — that's the artifact.
People enrichment	wiki/people/<existing-slug>	Timeline entries appended to existing people pages from session mentions. Stub pages for new substantive people.
Pattern	wiki/personal/patterns/<theme>	Cross-session theme detected across ≥3 reflections. Highest-leverage output: a pattern can span 25 years if reflections reference dated content.
Cycle summary	dream-cycle-summaries/YYYY-MM-DD	Index of every page produced by one dream cycle. Auto-written deterministically by the orchestrator.

Iron Law for synthesize output:

1. Quote the user verbatim. Do not paraphrase memorable phrasings.
2. Cross-reference compulsively: every new page MUST link to existing brain content.
3. Slug discipline: lowercase alphanumeric and hyphens only, slash-separated. NO underscores, NO file extensions.
4. Edited transcripts produce NEW slugs (content-hash suffix changes) — never silently overwrite a prior reflection.

Takes attribution (v0.32+)

When writing a <!--- gbrain:takes:begin --> fence, the holder column says WHO BELIEVES the claim, not who it's ABOUT. Cross-modal eval over 100K production takes scored attribution at 6.5/10 — holder/subject confusion was the #1 error. These six rules are the contract. Long form with worked examples lives in docs/takes-vs-facts.md.

1. Holder ≠ subject. The test: did this person SAY or CLEARLY IMPLY this?
   • YES → holder = people/<slug>
   • NO, it's your analysis OF them → holder = brain
   • Example: "Garry has a hero/rescuer pattern" → holder=brain (analysis ABOUT Garry, not stated BY Garry)
2. Atomic claims. Split compound rows into separate rows. One claim per row.
3. Amplification ≠ endorsement. A retweet-only signal caps at weight 0.55. The user shared something; they didn't necessarily endorse every clause.
4. Self-reported ≠ verified. "Saif reports 7 figures" → holder=people/saif, weight=0.75, NOT holder=world/1.0. Self-report is a strong individual signal, not consensus fact.
5. No false precision. Use 0.05 increments only (0.35, 0.55, 0.75). 0.74 and 0.82 imply calibration accuracy that doesn't exist. The engine layer rounds on insert — match the grid in your fence and avoid the warning.
6. "So what" test. Skip metadata-style trivia (Twitter handles, follower counts, obvious bio fields). A take has to be load-bearing for some future query.

Holder format (enforced as a parser warning in v0.32, error in v0.33+):

• world (consensus fact, no individual claimant)
• brain (AI-inferred, holder genuinely ambiguous)
• people/<slug> (individual's stated belief)
• companies/<slug> (institutional fact, no individual claimant)

Slugs use the standard grammar ([a-z0-9._-]+). Garry, people/Garry-Tan, and world/garry-tan all fail validation.

Founder-describing-own-company rule. When a founder describes their own company, the holder is the FOUNDER, not the company. "We can hit $10M ARR" said by Bo Lu → holder=people/bo-lu, NOT holder=companies/clipboard-health. Companies don't speak; their employees do.