Brainstorm

Brainstorm -- LLM Knowledge Base Builder

Two modes: Ideation (think through problems) and Knowledge (build a persistent wiki from raw sources).

Architecture follows Karpathy's LLM Knowledge Bases pattern -- a structured, interlinked markdown wiki that compounds over time, browsable in Obsidian.

Quick Start

• /brainstorm <topic> -- ideation mode (default)
• /brainstorm ingest <source> -- knowledge mode, ingest a source
• /brainstorm query <question> -- query the wiki
• /brainstorm lint -- maintenance pass on the wiki

Architecture

See ARCHITECTURE.md for full wiki structure and Obsidian setup.

Ideation Mode

1. Frame: "What are you solving? What's the constraint? What have you tried?"
2. Diverge: Generate 5-10 approaches. Include one unconventional option. Do NOT evaluate yet.
3. Converge: For each approach -- what breaks? what scales? what ships fastest? Connect to the student's production context.
4. Crystallize: One direction, explicit next steps. Save to brainstorms/{topic}-{date}.md if worth persisting.

NEVER write code during brainstorming. Output is thinking, not implementation.

Discuss Mode (MANDATORY for every Q&A / brainstorm exchange)

Knowledge created from Principal-Partner conversation, not from an external source.

This mode fires automatically. It is NOT a judgment call. Every Q&A session, every brainstorm, every teaching exchange with durable conceptual content produces wiki artifacts in real-time alongside the knowledge/sessions/YYYY-MM-DD.md entry. The dual-artifact rule is specified in .claude/rules/session-capture.md.

Per exchange, the Partner does ALL of the following:

1. Identify the atomic concept(s) the exchange surfaced (one concept per wiki page -- split if the exchange covered more than one).
2. For each concept: write or update knowledge/wiki/{category}/{concept}.md using the template in ARCHITECTURE.md. If the page exists, merge new understanding in; do not overwrite the old.
3. Add [[wiki-links]] to every related concept page that exists. Creating orphan pages is a failure -- every new node must connect to at least one existing node, or the page must explicitly flag itself as a new cluster root.
4. Update knowledge/wiki/index.md with the new/modified entry under the correct category.
5. Append a line to knowledge/wiki/log.md:

   ## [YYYY-MM-DD] discuss | {concept}
   - Added/Updated: wiki/{category}/{concept}.md
   - Linked to: [[page1]], [[page2]]
   - Source: knowledge/sessions/YYYY-MM-DD.md#exchange-N
   

6. In the session exchange entry (knowledge/sessions/YYYY-MM-DD.md), the Concept linked: field points to the wiki page(s) created/updated this exchange. That is the bridge between the two artifact types.

Why this is mandatory, not optional: the wiki IS the lab's RAG corpus and the Principal's Obsidian second brain. Optional wiki creation = inconsistent corpus = RAG retrieval quality degrades = the research project fails silently. The Partner does not get to decide "this isn't worth a page." If a Q&A exchange happened, the concept earned its node.

Edge case -- trivial exchanges: if an exchange was pure clarification with no new concept (e.g., "what does this file path mean?"), no wiki page is needed. The test: would a future retrieval over this content surface useful signal? If no, skip the wiki write but still log the exchange in the session file.

Knowledge Mode (Ingest)

For external sources (articles, blog posts, documentation).

See ARCHITECTURE.md for the full ingest/query/lint workflows.

Quick version:

1. Add source to knowledge/raw/
2. LLM reads source, discusses takeaways with the student
3. Writes summary page in knowledge/wiki/
4. Updates knowledge/wiki/index.md
5. Revises 5-10 related wiki pages with new cross-links
6. Appends to knowledge/wiki/log.md

Rules

• NEVER write code during brainstorming
• Ask the student to explain their reasoning at every decision point
• Challenge assumptions: "Why not the opposite approach?"
• Connect to production reality and market relevance
• If brainstorming reveals a knowledge gap, flag it for /review-deck
• Use [[wiki links]] in knowledge files for Obsidian graph visualization