by huytieu
Self-evolving second brain with 17 AI skills, 6 worker agents, and people CRM — inspired by Garry Tan's gstack and gbrain. Works with Claude Code, Cursor, Kiro, Gemini CLI, Codex.
# Add to your Claude Code skills
git clone https://github.com/huytieu/COG-second-brainCognition + Obsidian + Git — A self-evolving second brain powered by AI agents, markdown files, and version control. No database, no vendor lock-in — just .md files that think.
Quick Start | Skills | Features | FAQ | SETUP.md
Works with Claude Code • Cursor • Kiro • Gemini CLI • OpenAI Codex • any AI that reads markdown
Inspired by Garry Tan's gstack and gbrain
graph LR
A[You] -- natural language --> B[AI Agent]
B -- runs --> C[17 Skills]
C -- delegates to --> W[6 Worker Agents]
C -- reads & writes --> D[.md Files]
W -- reads & writes --> D
C -- syncs with --> G[GitHub / Linear / Slack / PostHog]
D --> E[Git]
D --> F[iCloud]
New to COG? Watch the 2-minute walkthrough to see it in action.
1. Clone & enter the repo:
git clone https://github.com/huytieu/COG-second-brain.git
cd COG-second-brain
2. Run onboarding in your agent:
| Agent | Command | How it finds skills |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Code | code . → "Run onboarding" | |
| Cursor | Open folder → "Run onboarding" | + |
| Kiro | Open folder → "setup COG" | |
| Gemini CLI | → | + |
| OpenAI Codex | → "Run onboarding" | |
| Other agents | Point at → "Run onboarding" | |
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.claude/skills/.cursor-plugin/.cursorrules.kiro/powers/gemini/onboardingGEMINI.md.gemini/commands/codexAGENTS.mdAGENTS.mdAGENTS.mdOr install via skills.sh:
npx skills add huytieu/COG-second-brain
Done — COG is personalized and ready in ~2 minutes. See SETUP.md for optional config (Git sync, iCloud, Obsidian Tasks, etc.).
COG ships a full Claude Code surface plus core native surfaces for Kiro and Gemini CLI, with AGENTS.md as the universal fallback for Codex and other markdown-reading agents.
| Surface | Current support | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Code | 17 native skills + 6 worker agents | Full first-class surface |
| Cursor | Plugin manifest + rules | .cursor-plugin/plugin.json + .cursorrules |
| Kiro | 7 native powers | Core workflows today |
| Gemini CLI | 7 native commands | Core workflows today |
| AGENTS.md | 17 documented commands | Universal fallback for Codex and other agents |
Before publishing or updating framework files, run ./scripts/validate-agent-surface.sh to catch drift between manifests, docs, and shipped files. See docs/AGENT-SUPPORT.md for the detailed support matrix and contributor rules.
| Skill | What it does | Try saying... | |---|---|---| | onboarding | Personalize COG for your workflow (run first!) | "Run onboarding" | | braindump | Capture raw thoughts with intelligent classification | "I need to braindump" | | daily-brief | Verified news intelligence (7-day freshness) | "Give me my daily brief" | | url-dump | Save URLs with auto-extracted insights | "Save this URL" | | weekly-checkin | Cross-domain pattern analysis | "Weekly review" | | knowledge-consolidation | Build frameworks from scattered notes | "Consolidate my knowledge" | | update-cog | Update framework files without touching your content | "Update COG" |
| Skill | What it does | Try saying... | |---|---|---| | team-brief | Cross-reference GitHub + Linear + Slack + PostHog into a daily team intelligence brief with two-way Linear sync-back | "Team brief" / "What did we ship?" | | meeting-transcript | Process meeting recordings into structured decisions, action items, and team dynamics | "Process this meeting" | | comprehensive-analysis | Deep 7-day analysis for weekly reviews, board prep, or strategic planning (~8-12 min) | "Weekly analysis" / "Board prep" |
| Skill | What it does | Try saying... | |---|---|---| | create-user-story | Create user stories with duplicate checking across Linear, GitHub Issues, or Jira | "Create a user story for..." | | generate-prd | Draft PRDs with approval gate before publishing to Confluence/Notion | "Generate a PRD for..." | | generate-release-notes | Generate release notes from GitHub milestones, Linear cycles, or manual input | "Generate release notes for v2.1" | | export-open-issues | Audit and export open issues from any tracker into a structured vault summary | "Export open issues" | | publish-to-confluence | Publish any vault markdown file to Confluence | "Publish this to Confluence" | | update-knowledge-base | Maintain product knowledge base from releases, features, and project changes | "Update the knowledge base with v2.1 changes" |
PM Workflow: These skills form a complete product management lifecycle: Research (
/auto-research) → PRD (/generate-prd) → Stories (/create-user-story) → Development → Release Notes (/generate-release-notes) → Knowledge Base (/update-knowledge-base). Use/export-open-issuesfor audits and/publish-to-confluenceto share externally.
| Skill | What it does | Try saying... | |---|---|---| | auto-research | Deep strategic research engine — decomposes questions into parallel research threads with multiple agents | "Research the future of AI testing tools" |
COG uses a worker agent architecture inspired by garrytan/gstack specialist sessions and garrytan/gbrain knowledge patterns. Workers handle data-heavy tasks cheaply (Sonnet) while the lead session does reasoning (Opus).
| Agent | What it does | Model | |---|---|---| | worker-data-collector | Structured extraction from GitHub, Slack, Jira, Linear | Sonnet | | worker-researcher | Web research with source citations | Sonnet | | worker-file-ops | Vault file operations, metadata, profiles | Sonnet | | worker-executor | Pre-approved mutations (Jira, Linear, APIs) | Sonnet | | worker-publisher | Publishing to Slack, Confluence, Notion | Sonnet | | brief-people-updater | Batch-update people profiles from meetings/briefs | Sonnet |
Workers write results to
/tmp/files and return only a status + path. The lead reads the file for synthesis. This eliminates slow token generation in agent output.
Track the people you work with using progressive, evidence-based profiles in 05-knowledge/people/. Profiles auto-escalate via tiered enrichment:
Every observation includes a source citation with confidence level. See 05-knowledge/people/README.md for details.
COG matches your role during onboarding to a role pack that prioritizes the most relevant skills and integrations for you. Available role packs: Product Manager, Engineering Lead, Engineer, Designer, Founder, Marketer — or create your own from the template.
New to team skills? These require GitHub CLI (
gh) and work best with Linear, Slack, and PostHog MCP integrations. They degrade gracefully — start with just GitHub and add integrations over time. See SETUP.md for configuration.
graph TD
A[Daily: Braindump thoughts] --> B[Daily: News intelligence]
A --> T[Daily: Team intelligence brief]
M[Meetings: Process transcripts] --> T
T -- syncs back to --> L[Linear / GitHub]
B --> C[Weekly: Pattern analysis]
T --> CA[Weekly: Comprehensive analysis]
C --> D[Monthly: Knowledge consolidation]
CA --> D
D -- COG learns your patterns --> A
R[Strategic: Auto-research] --> P[PM: Generate PRD]
P --> S[PM: Create user stories]
S -- after development --> RN[PM: Release notes]
RN --> KB[PM: Update knowledge base]
| | | |
|---|---|---|
| Self-Evolving — Learns your patterns, auto-organizes content, builds frameworks | Self-Healing — Rename files or restructure; cross-references update automatically | Verification-First — Sources required, 7-day freshness, confidence levels on all analysis |
| Privacy-First — Local .md files, strict domain separation, no external servers | Multi-Device — iCloud sync to iPhone/iPad/Mac; Git for version history | Obsidian Tasks — 📅 YYYY-MM-DD emoji format works with Tasks plugin das