matskoan/pensiever

Pensiever is a starter kit for building a personal knowledge system that an AI agent runs for you. Instead of using a note taking app, you keep everything as plain markdown files inside a git repository, and an AI agent such as Claude Code, Cursor, or GitHub Copilot reads your raw thoughts, classifies them, files them, links them together, and later helps you reason over what you have written. The idea behind the project is that you should own your memory while renting the intelligence that manages it. Your notes stay as ordinary files you control, so if a newer or better AI agent comes along, you can point it at the same folder and keep going. The main cost of switching agents is teaching the new one your conventions, which the kit stores as skill and instruction files. The system is organized around a master index file that the agent checks first before searching, which keeps things simple for a personal vault with hundreds or a few thousand notes rather than needing a database. Original source documents you capture, like clips or transcripts, are never edited by the agent, only summarized and linked. Every new file gets added to the index and connected with links so nothing is left orphaned. Important decisions are recorded in an append only log so you can see why choices were made over time. The kit is honest about its limits. It is meant for one person's use, not a team or a large scale search engine. The agent can make mistakes such as misfiling a note, so you are expected to review its work, and git history lets you undo anything. There is no polished mobile app, capture happens through plain text or voice notes. To get started, you clone the repository, open it in a supported AI agent, and tell it to set you up. It will ask a short set of questions about your name, your main areas of focus, and which tools you use, then create your personal files.