Second Brain Starter — AI skill for Claude Code

Build Your AI Second Brain with Claude Code

A skill for [Claude Code](https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code) that generates a personalized Product Requirements Document (PRD) for building your own AI second brain - a proactive, persistent AI assistant that knows your context, remembers across sessions, and keeps you informed.

**Watch the overview:** [How I Built My AI Second Brain with Claude Code](https://youtube.com/@ColeMedin) (YouTube)

What This Does

You fill out a simple requirements template describing your tools, workflow, and preferences. Then Claude Code generates a phased build plan tailored to your setup - covering memory, integrations, skills, a proactive heartbeat, chat interface, and security hardening.

The generated PRD gives you (or your coding agent) a step-by-step blueprint for building a second brain that:

• Remembers across sessions - decisions, preferences, context, all in markdown files
• Connects to your platforms - Gmail, Slack, Calendar, Asana, Linear, GitHub, and more
• Proactively monitors your email, calendar, and tasks every 30 minutes
• Chats with you through Slack (or Discord, or any messaging platform)
• Searches months of memory with hybrid keyword + semantic search
• Drafts replies in your voice using RAG on your past messages
• Tracks habits with daily nudges inspired by Atomic Habits

Quick Start

1. Install the Skill

Copy the `.claude/skills/create-second-brain-prd/` directory into your project:

# Clone this repo
git clone https://github.com/coleam00/second-brain-starter.git

# Copy the skill into your project
cp -r second-brain-starter/.claude/skills/create-second-brain-prd \
      your-project/.claude/skills/create-second-brain-prd

Or just copy the `.claude/` folder from this repo into an existing project.

2. Fill Out the Requirements Template

Copy the template to your workspace and fill it out:

cp .claude/skills/create-second-brain-prd/my-second-brain-requirements.md \
   ./my-second-brain-requirements.md

The template has 8 sections:

1. About You - Name, role, timezone
2. Your Platforms - Which tools you use (Gmail, Slack, Linear, etc.)
3. Top Tasks - 3-5 things you want AI to handle proactively
4. Proactivity Level - Observer, Advisor, Assistant, or Partner
5. Security Boundaries - What the agent should never do without permission
6. Memory Categories - What types of knowledge matter to you
7. Infrastructure - OS, local vs. VPS deployment
8. Integration Priority - Which 3 integrations to build first

See `example-my-second-brain-requirements.md` in the skill directory for a completed example.

3. Generate Your PRD

Open Claude Code in your project and run:

/create-second-brain-prd ./my-second-brain-requirements.md

Claude will:

1. Read your requirements
2. Load the architecture reference blueprint
3. Research every tool and API in your stack via web search
4. Generate a pe