🔀 Decision: Obsidian Vault as Company Brain
Date: 2026-08-03 Status: Accepted Decided by: Pat (Managing President)
Context
We’ve had 4 separate memory systems — Hermes compressed memory, memU (empty/broken), session_search (text only), and Paperclip issue boards. Each one fails differently:
- Hermes memory is compressed to 2KB, not readable by Pat, easy to trust without verification
- memU was installed but never activated (21 unprocessed jobs, empty DB)
- Paperclip agents self-report “done” without real verification
- No single source of truth that both Pat and J.A.R.V.I.S. can read and write to
Inspired by OneBrain concept (Obsidian + shared agent memory) and Wanderloots video on connecting Obsidian to Hermes with access controls.
Decision
Replace all memory systems with a single Obsidian vault at /root/repos/brain/, git-backed, with folder-level access controls.
Reasoning
- Transparency — Pat can read every note. Markdown is universal.
- Version control — Git history shows what changed and when. No silent drift.
- Structured — Folders for projects, decisions, lessons, operations. Not a compressed blob.
- Access controls — Read-write, read-only, and private zones (per Wanderloots pattern).
- Editable — Pat can correct J.A.R.V.I.S. by editing a note directly.
- One source — Both human and AI read from the same files. No more “trust me.”
Consequences
- memU is disabled (cron removed, files preserved for reference)
- Hermes memory reduced to 3 lean entries (pointer to vault, key facts)
- All project knowledge migrates to vault
- New workflow: J.A.R.V.I.S. checks vault before answering, writes learnings to vault
- Paperclip agents will be given read-only access to relevant project folders