# Brain

> | Answers questions about your own systems, notes, decisions, runbooks, and conventions from your governed knowledge brain, returning a qmd:// citation for every claim — receipts, not recall. Use when you want to know what your brain has captured about your own architecture, infrastructure, decisions, or conventions (e.g. "what does my system map say about the proxy", "why did I pick Apache-2.0", "what's my deploy runbook"). Trigger with "/brain", "ask the brain", "what do I know about", or "check my knowledge base".

- Skill: `thedixitjain/brain` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds add thedixitjain/brain`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/thedixitjain/brain/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: DevOps & Infra
- Author: thedixitjain (https://skillmd.com/u/thedixitjain)
- Updated: 2026-09-08
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/thedixitjain/brain

---



# Brain — cited answers from your governed knowledge base

Ask your knowledge **brain** a question and get an answer grounded in your governed
corpus, where **every claim carries a qmd:// citation**. The brain does not paraphrase
from memory — it retrieves governed memories and cites them, so any answer is
verifiable after the fact.

## Overview

This is the read surface of Bob's Big Brain: your files are **compiled** into
governed memories, **governed** by deterministic code, and **retrieved** with citations
by **Tobi's qmd** (OSS). The `brain_search` MCP tool fronts that retrieval. Your product
surround is INTKB govern + ICO compile + this plugin — not a fork of qmd.

The job here is to turn a natural-language question into a cited answer — and to refuse
to answer beyond what the citations support.

## Prerequisites

- The **bobs-big-brain** / governed-brain plugin is installed (MCP `governed-brain`).
- **Mode is automatic.** In **local mode** (default) search runs **in-process**
  against your local `~/.teamkb` index — no network, no API key; a compatible **qmd**
  binary must be available (prefer monorepo pin `@tobilu/qmd` via INTKB / installer).
  Operators can use `scripts/bbb-qmd` from qmd-team-intent-kb so XDG points at the team
  index, not personal `~/.cache/qmd`. In **team mode** (`TEAMKB_API_URL` set) search
  proxies to the team brain. Every hit is a `qmd://` citation.

## Instructions

### Step 1: Search the governed corpus

Retrieval is **Tobi's qmd** (BM25 keyword via the MCP). Prefer **short keyword queries**
over full sentences.

1. Derive **1–4 distinctive nouns/verbs** from the user question (drop what/why/how, articles,
   auxiliaries, prepositions).
2. Call **`brain_search`** with those keywords and `scope: "curated"` (default promoted knowledge).

```
brain_search({ query: "SOPS age secrets", scope: "curated" })
```

The tool returns `{ source, results: [{ citation, snippet, score, collection }] }`.
Each `citation` is a `qmd://COLLECTION/FILENAME` URI — the receipt for that hit.

**Empty-result ladder (do not stop after one miss):**

1. **Keyword retry (curated):** only if the first call was still a long natural-language sentence
   (you skipped deriving 1–4 keywords). Re-run with 1–4 keywords only. **Skip this step** when the
   first query was already keyword-style — do not re-call with the same tokens.
2. **Scope retry (`all`):** if curated is still empty, re-run the **same keywords** with
   `scope: "all"`. Do **not** use `inbox`/`archived` unless the user asks.
3. Only after curated+keywords and all+keywords are empty → Step 3 (honest refuse).

```
brain_search({ query: "shipped week", scope: "curated" })
// if empty (keywords already used):
brain_search({ query: "shipped week", scope: "all" })
```

### Step 2: Answer ONLY from the cited results

- Synthesize a direct answer from the returned snippets.
- **Attach the qmd:// citation to every claim**, inline — for example:
  `The proxy reverse-proxies the API (qmd://kb-curated/system-map.md).`
- If two hits conflict, surface both with their citations rather than silently
  picking one — the governance layer tracks contradictions; do not paper over them.
- **Do not add knowledge the citations do not support.** Any reasoning beyond the
  corpus must be labeled clearly as inference, not the brain's answer.

### Step 3: Handle an empty result honestly

If `results` is **still** empty after the empty-result ladder in Step 1, say so plainly: the brain
has nothing governed on that topic. Do **not** fall back to general knowledge and present it as the
brain's answer. Optionally note that the topic may need to be captured (run `/brain-save`).

## Output

1. A short, direct answer.
2. Each load-bearing claim followed by its qmd:// citation.
3. A closing **Sources** list of the distinct qmd:// URIs used.

## Examples

**Cited answer:**

```
/brain what does my system map say about the proxy?

→ The proxy is the single ingress; it reverse-proxies each domain to its service
  and must be reloaded, not restarted, after edits (qmd://kb-curated/system-map.md).

Sources:
- qmd://kb-curated/system-map.md
```

**Empty result (honest refusal):**

```
/brain what is my refund policy?

→ The brain has nothing governed on a refund policy. I won't guess from general
  knowledge. If this should be in your brain, capture it with /brain-save.
```

## Error Handling

| Situation                                | Response                                                                                  |
| ---------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `brain_search` returns empty `results`   | Run the empty-result ladder (keywords → scope all); only then refuse. Do not fabricate. |
| `qmd` missing / index empty              | Retrieval degrades to empty. Tell operator: install `@tobilu/qmd`, run INTKB `pnpm search-canary -- --heal` or `bbb-qmd status`. |
| MCP tool unavailable                     | Plugin not enabled; install/enable bobs-big-brain / governed-brain. |
| User asks to write/capture               | Out of scope here — direct them to `/brain-save`.                                          |

## Guardrails

- Read-only. This skill never writes to the corpus — capture and governance live in
  `/brain-save`.
- Never invent a qmd:// URI. Cite only URIs returned by `brain_search`.
- Prefer fewer, well-cited claims over a broad answer that cannot be anchored.
- Do not conflate this product with IRSB / Moat / Scout (separate stack).

## Resources

- [Bob's Big Brain umbrella](https://github.com/intent-solutions-io/bobs-big-brain-umbrella) — stack map.
- [bobs-big-brain-plugin](https://github.com/jeremylongshore/bobs-big-brain-plugin) — this plugin.
- [qmd-team-intent-kb](https://github.com/jeremylongshore/qmd-team-intent-kb) — govern layer + `bbb-qmd`.
- [tobi/qmd](https://github.com/tobi/qmd) (npm `@tobilu/qmd`) — retrieve engine (OSS; we pin, we do not fork).
- [intentional-cognition-os](https://github.com/jeremylongshore/intentional-cognition-os) — compile layer (ICO).
- The write counterpart: the `/brain-save` skill (governed capture).

---

**Source:** [`jeremylongshore/claude-code-plugins-plus-skills`](https://github.com/jeremylongshore/claude-code-plugins-plus-skills) → `plugins/mcp/governed-second-brain/skills/brain/SKILL.md`