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Agent instructions — machine brain

Agent instructions — machine brain

This repo is Conor's long-term memory: journals, system facts, settings and reference notes. Load it as context before answering questions about this machine, his services, his projects or past incidents.

Read order

  1. index.md — human map of contents.
  2. llms.txt — same map, terse, for retrieval.
  3. The specific note you need. Use rg -n "<term>" rather than guessing.

Rules for editing

  • Files are the source of truth. Never store brain content only in a database (BookStack, Nextcloud, etc.). If something is added to a web app, copy it back here.

  • Do not duplicate project repos. 30-projects/<name>.md is a hub note; code and long-form project docs stay in their own repos. Link to them.

  • One topic per note, named for the topic, with YAML frontmatter:

    ---
title: Short title
updated: 2026-11-05
tags: [systems, mail]
---

  • Record decisions, not just outcomes. Append to 10-journal/decisions.md with the date, the choice, the alternatives rejected and why.

  • Journal entries are append-only. Add a new entry at the top of 10-journal/ops-journal.md; do not rewrite history.

  • Cite the evidence. Exact paths, commands, hostnames, IPs, URLs and dates. "It was fixed" is not an entry.

  • Keep secrets out. Reference Passwords.kdbx, .env files and tokens by location; never paste credentials or keys into a note.

  • Commit your change with a short message (journal: ..., systems: ...).

What belongs here

  • Ops incidents, root causes and preventions.
  • Machine/service facts that are expensive to rediscover.
  • Account/domain/subdomain maps, ports, paths.
  • Personal reference: health notes, photography settings, vendor contacts.
  • Project hub notes and open questions.

What does not

  • Credentials, private keys, API tokens.
  • Large binaries (PDFs, photos, model files). Link to them instead.
  • Generated artefacts, node_modules, logs.
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