Setup

Design Brain Setup

Generate a personalized design knowledge system through conversation.

When to use

• First time setting up design-brain in a workspace
• Re-initializing after changing design focus
• Adding to a workspace that already has .design-brain/ from CLI captures

4-Phase Flow

Phase 1: Detect

Check the current state of the workspace:

ls -la .design-brain/ 2>/dev/null

Determine:

• Does .design-brain/ exist?
• Are there existing projects/captures?
• Are knowledge system files (self/, notes/, ops/) already present?

Report findings to the user:

• "Found existing design brain with N projects and M inspirations" or
• "No design brain found, starting fresh"

Phase 2: Understand

Ask 2-3 questions about the user's design practice. Use AskUserQuestion with multiple choice.

Question 1: Design domains "What design domains do you work in?" Options (multiSelect: true):

• Web product design (SaaS, dashboards, landing pages)
• Brand & visual identity (logos, guidelines, color systems)
• Mobile & native apps
• Design systems engineering (tokens, components, Figma-to-code)

Question 2: Primary focus "What's your main goal with design-brain?" Options:

• Competitive analysis (study what others build)
• Design system development (extract patterns into reusable systems)
• Inspiration library (collect and organize reference material)
• Cross-project knowledge (track decisions and principles across projects)

Question 3 (optional, based on Q2): If design system development or cross-project knowledge: "What tools and frameworks do you primarily use?" Options (multiSelect: true):

• Tailwind CSS
• Figma
• Storybook
• Custom design system

Phase 3: Generate

Based on answers, run the following commands:

1. Initialize the brain if not present:

design-brain-memory init --root .

2. Generate identity file at .design-brain/self/identity.md:

• Include selected domains
• Include focus description
• Include tools if provided

3. Generate methodology at .design-brain/self/methodology.md

4. Generate MOC hub at .design-brain/notes/mocs/hub.md

5. Generate domain MOCs for each selected domain at .design-brain/notes/mocs/<domain>.md

6. Generate maintenance file at .design-brain/ops/maintenance.md

7. If existing captures exist, update MOC hub with project links

Important: Use the generateIdentity, generateMethodology, generateMocHub, generateDomainMoc, and generateMaintenance functions from the design-brain-memory package. These are available via:

design-brain-memory reindex --root .

This will auto-generate all knowledge system files with sensible defaults. After reindex, update the identity file with the user's specific answers.

Phase 4: Validate

Verify all pieces exist:

ls .design-brain/self/identity.md
ls .design-brain/self/methodology.md
ls .design-brain/notes/mocs/hub.md
ls .design-brain/notes/mocs/color-systems.md
ls .design-brain/notes/mocs/typography.md
ls .design-brain/notes/mocs/components.md
ls .design-brain/notes/mocs/layout.md
ls .design-brain/notes/mocs/motion.md
ls .design-brain/notes/mocs/brand.md
ls .design-brain/ops/maintenance.md
ls .design-brain/notes/patterns/
ls .design-brain/notes/decisions/
ls .design-brain/notes/principles/
ls .design-brain/ops/queue/
ls .design-brain/ops/sessions/

Report results:

• "Knowledge system ready! Created N files across self/, notes/, ops/"
• List the key files created
• Suggest next steps: "Run /db-capture to ingest your first inspiration, then /db-extract to generate pattern notes"

Output

After setup completes, the workspace should have:

.design-brain/
├── self/
│   ├── identity.md          # Personalized to user's answers
│   └── methodology.md       # Standard pipeline description
├── notes/
│   ├── patterns/            # Empty, ready for extraction
│   ├── decisions/           # Empty, ready for decisions
│   ├── principles/          # Empty, ready for principles
│   └── mocs/
│       ├── hub.md           # Links to all domain MOCs and projects
│       ├── color-systems.md
│       ├── typography.md
│       ├── components.md
│       ├── layout.md
│       ├── motion.md
│       └── brand.md
├── ops/
│   ├── queue/               # Empty, ready for pipeline tasks
│   ├── sessions/            # Empty, ready for session logs
│   └── maintenance.md       # Initial health status
├── projects/                # Existing or empty
├── graph/                   # Existing or empty
└── database.json            # Existing or fresh