MonoBrain

MonoBrain maps the instruction and memory sources that shape an AI workspace: AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md, CLI initiate.md/SKILL.md, Claude project memory, Codex memory, and related project guidance. It builds a dedicated Monomento- backed brain index, reports drift before reading it, and can draft a folder-scoped AGENTS.md without silently applying the draft. Published contract: monobrain 0.1.0, OpenCLIs build 2026-05-24-013543. The OpenCLIs-managed payload, installed-state row, and public CDN metadata agree on this release identity. The public binary exposes 14 canonical operational commands, 8 root aliases, 6 rule-management actions, and a 12-command typed MCP surface. help, version, mcp, and mcp-schema are control/meta commands rather than additional memory operations.

When auditing an installation, prefer the exact path in openclis list --json over command -v monobrain: an older copy earlier on PATH can shadow the OpenCLIs payload while reporting the same SemVer.

Quick Start

openclis install monobrain

monobrain --version
monobrain scan .
monobrain analyze . --class stable -n 20
monobrain index . --project
monobrain status . --project --strict

Complete Command Reference

Command	What it does	Write and control boundary
`scan [path]`	Lists memory and instruction sources in scope.	Read-only discovery.
`analyze [path]`	Classifies source items as stable, ephemeral, or reference material.	`--class`, `-n`, `--target`; read-only.
`skills <query>`	Returns thin skill-routing hints with source, scope, matched tokens, and corpus-aware weights.	Does not load the full skill; open its `SKILL.md` before use.
`rules show`	Shows the effective global/project skill-routing rule files.	`--path` or `--global`; read-only.
`rules init`	Creates a routing-rules JSON file.	Explicit project/global file write.
`rules exclude add/remove`	Adds or removes a skill exclusion.	CLI-only mutation; not exposed through MCP.
`rules penalty add/remove`	Adds or removes a conditional score multiplier.	CLI-only mutation; index selects a removal row.
`map [path]`	Shows source layers and candidate `AGENTS.md` target locations.	Read-only.
`index [path]`	Indexes brain documents into the global or project brain DB.	`--project` selects the scoped DB; explicit persistent write.
`search <query>`	Searches indexed brain documents after reporting freshness.	`--project`; read-only over current DB.
`path <query>`	Searches indexed brain document paths with optional containment evidence.	`--contains`, `--project`; read-only.
`claude-memory <path>`	Resolves the best Claude project `MEMORY.md` by path trigrams and explicit evidence boosts.	`--project`; read-only.
`propose-agents [path]`	Prints provenance-linked `AGENTS.md` draft sections.	`--missing-only`, `--target`; never writes.
`apply <target>`	Writes one explicitly selected proposal target.	`--from <path>`; an existing target requires `--force`; CLI-only.
`status [path]`	Reports fresh, stale, or not-initialized state and source drift.	`--project`; `--strict` exits nonzero for stale/uninitialized.
`audit [repo]`	Audits canonical and legacy component/layout ownership.	Read-only.
`doctor [repo]`	Explains the canonical/legacy layout and readiness.	Read-only.
`mcp-schema`	Prints the CLI-to-MCP command schema generated from the shared command table.	Machine-readable.
`mcp`	Runs the stdio MCP server.	MCP re-runs read/index CLI commands with `--json`; `apply` and rule mutations are excluded.
`help` / `--help` / `-h`	Prints the installed guide.	Read-only.
`version` / `--version` / `-V`	Prints the executing version; combines with `--json`.	Read-only.

All normal commands accept --json. Text output includes a [NEXT] hint; JSON includes next_hint.reason and next_hint.commands.

Root aliases

Canonical command	Accepted alias
`skills`	`skill-hints`
`rules`	`routing-rules`
`path`	`path-search`
`claude-memory`	`resolve-claude-memory`
`propose-agents`	`propose`
`status`	`freshness`
`audit`	`self-audit`
`mcp`	`serve`

--mcp-schema is also accepted as a spelling of mcp-schema. The installed 0.1.0 payload does not expose a docs command; use monobrain help for the embedded guide. A source checkout can be ahead of that published surface, so source-only dispatch arms are not release proof.

Freshness Is Explicit

discover current source set + mtimes
                ↓ compare
brain DB state = fresh | stale | not-initialized
                ↓
read only after reporting state
                ↓
explicit `index` to refresh; never implicit

The dedicated databases are:

~/.monolex/monobrain.db
~/.monolex/monobrain/<target>-<hash>.db   # --project

They are separate from general Monomento indexes. Running monomento index --project does not refresh MonoBrain. status --strict turns stale and not-initialized into non-zero automation gates. Search, path lookup, and Claude-memory resolution report freshness but never reindex implicitly; run monobrain index . --project explicitly.

Typed MCP Boundary

scan · analyze · map · skills · index · search
path · claude-memory · propose-agents · status · audit · doctor

The schema contains 12 commands. index is the one persistent writer in that surface. rules, apply, raw server/meta commands, and their aliases are excluded, so an MCP client cannot rewrite routing rules or an AGENTS.md target through this server.

Memory and Instruction Boundaries

User memories remain searchable evidence and are not default write candidates for AGENTS.md.
propose-agents is always read-only; only apply writes.
Claude project-memory resolution compares cwd, repository root, ancestors, encoded Claude keys, and git remote aliases. The index keeps both encoded source_path and original logical_path; it does not guess paths by replacing hyphens with slashes.
skills is routing assistance, not skill instruction execution.
The old MonoTerm PTY companion is monobrain-bridge; the legacy MCP experiment is separate and intentionally not the monobrain binary.

Release Platforms

The 0.1.0 release metadata publishes five platform artifacts:

Platform key	Binary
`darwin-aarch64`	`monobrain`
`darwin-x86_64`	`monobrain`
`linux-aarch64`	`monobrain`
`linux-x86_64`	`monobrain`
`windows-x86_64`	`monobrain.exe`

There is no windows-aarch64 artifact in this release.

Relationships

Tool	Ownership
Monomento	Shared document retrieval kernel; MonoBrain keeps its own scoped DBs
NIIA	Work-entry and unified research/session context around memory use
Work Wiki	Work evidence and project history, not instruction synthesis

Get Started

Articles

So Anthropic

User Guide

Philosophy

Applied Philosophy

Architecture

Gestalt Color

Transparency

Terminal Core

Features

VariableMD

Research

CodexMono

OpenCLIs

vpncli

MonoSurf

AI-CLIs

Quick Start

Complete Command Reference

Root aliases

Freshness Is Explicit

Typed MCP Boundary

Memory and Instruction Boundaries

Release Platforms

Relationships

​Quick Start

​Complete Command Reference

​Root aliases

​Freshness Is Explicit

​Typed MCP Boundary

​Memory and Instruction Boundaries

​Release Platforms

​Relationships

Quick Start

Complete Command Reference

Root aliases

Freshness Is Explicit

Typed MCP Boundary

Memory and Instruction Boundaries

Release Platforms

Relationships