Brain capture (zero friction)

A thought becomes a file in <vault>/00-inbox/ IMMEDIATELY — no questions about filing, no tags, no thinking. Sorting happens later at the review.

Conventions: <vault> = the vault path from the Brain vault: line in your global rules — or, if there is no such line, the folder this session was started in, when that folder holds a CLAUDE.md naming a vault mode. A shared company vault has no global line on purpose (its skills travel inside it), so falling back to ~/Brain there would write into somebody's private vault. Only when neither exists does ~/Brain apply. python3 = your working python command (on most Windows machines py -3; the global rules name it).

Steps

0. Read <vault>/CLAUDE.md before the first write of the session. It carries the vault language, the schema and the mode — and unless this session was started inside the vault, none of it is in your context. Not there? Wrong path or unfinished setup: say so instead of writing files into a random folder. (One read per session is enough.)
1. Content = whatever follows "capture:" (or the thought from context when they say "capture that").
2. Write the file: <vault>/00-inbox/YYYY-MM-DD-<short-slug>.md

   # <one-line title>
   
   <the thought, verbatim or lightly cleaned — fix voice-transcription
   typos, do NOT reinterpret the content. Write in the vault language.>
   
   _Captured: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM · Context: <one line on where it came from>_

3. Confirm with ONE line — naming the destination on special cases so nothing feels like it vanished: "✓ captured: <title> → Deadlines + Home". No essays.

Special cases

• Decisions — recognize them by MEANING, not by keyword: the human settles an open question ("decision: …", "Entscheidung: …", "décision :", "we're going with Postgres", "ok, no second supplier"). Whatever language or wording they used, write a decision record to <vault>/40-decisions/YYYY-MM-DD-slug.md instead of an inbox file (template: 40-decisions/_template.md) — context, decision, rejected alternatives. Append-only. Reverses an earlier decision? Search it first (python3 <vault>/.tools/search.py <topic>), then write both sides: the new record gets a ## Status section with Supersedes [40-decisions/<old>.md](40-decisions/<old>.md), and the OLD file: its ## Status body is REPLACED by Superseded by [<path>](<path>) (append the section if it has none), and its frontmatter gets status: deprecated. Never leave an "in force" line standing above a supersede notice — an agent greps the first ## Status and believes it. Nothing else in the old record changes; this one section is the only exception to append-only. Only NARROWS an earlier decision? An exception, a special case, a one-off rate is not a supersede — the old rule still holds everywhere else, and marking it deprecated would be a lie. New record gets Exception to [<path>](<path>), and the old one's status line becomes In force. Exception: [<path>](<path>). That is the only other change ever made to an old record. Either way, add the new record to 40-decisions/index.md under entry points and reset its <!-- generated: --> marker. Otherwise no signpost leads to it until the next review, and a decision nobody can find is a decision nobody made.
• Dates: a capture with a concrete date/deadline ALSO gets a one-liner in <vault>/Deadlines.md right away (date first) — dates never wait for the weekly review. If it lands in the next ~3 dates, refresh the "Next deadlines" block in <vault>/Home.md too. A moved date REPLACES its line, it is never appended — two dates for one appointment is worse than none. Find the old one first: python3 <vault>/.tools/search.py <old-date> <topic>, then update every hit (Deadlines.md, the project note's log, Home.md) and say in your one line which files you corrected.
• Reference material ("keep this findable": a link, a quote, a recommendation): still just one inbox file — the review gives it the light treatment (tags, no atomization). Never over-process a bookmark.
• Several thoughts in one dump (common with voice): split at clear topic boundaries — one file each.

When creating any note from a template, fill {{DATE}} (and {{NAME}}) with real values — placeholders never leave the _templates/ folder.

Company mode (only when the vault CLAUDE.md names the mode company)

Captures still go straight to the inbox. But anything about a person is captured as a ROLE, not a dossier, and nothing you write becomes company truth: a note that leaves the inbox keeps status: draft until a human sets verified: {by: human:<name>, at: YYYY-MM-DD}.

Rules

• NEVER ask "where should I file this?" — the inbox is always right.
• One capture = one file. Two thoughts = two files.
• Capture what they said; never add a conclusion they didn't draw.
• Works from ANY session, whatever project is open.