Quick Start · How It Works · Skills · Knowledge Base · Demos · Architecture · Setup Guide

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The Problem

Product Managers juggle emails, calendars, ADO boards, meeting notes, action items, partner comms, and strategic docs — across 5+ tools every day. Context is scattered. Priorities are buried. The first 45 minutes of every morning is spent figuring out what to focus on.

The Solution

Brain OS is a local-first, AI-powered PM workspace that auto-fetches your daily signals, generates an intelligent brief, serves a Command Center dashboard, and integrates with GitHub Copilot as your AI PM co-pilot via 22 custom skills.

All data stays on your machine. No cloud dependency. No subscription.

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🚀 Quick Start

Prerequisites Tool Version Notes Windows 10/11 macOS/Linux: partial — see Setup Guide VS Code Latest With GitHub Copilot extension Python 3.10+ For pipeline scripts and portal PowerShell 5.1+ Built into Windows Azure CLI Latest az login for signals

# 1. Clone & Setup
git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/brain-os.git
cd brain-os
python -m venv .venv && .venv\Scripts\activate
pip install -r _Automation\requirements.txt

# 2. Configure
copy _Automation\config.sample.json _Automation\config.json
# Edit config.json with your name, email, projects, ADO org

# 3. Authenticate
az login

# 4. Run your first pipeline
.\_Automation\daily_orchestrator.ps1 -Force

# 5. Launch Command Center
python _Automation\serve_artifacts.py
# → http://localhost:8765

Then open the folder in VS Code — Copilot automatically loads your skills and knowledge base.

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⚡ How It Works

The pipeline runs automatically every weekday morning. Each step is independent and skippable:

Phase	Steps	What Happens
Fetch	Inbox → Emails → Chats → ADO → Calendar	Gather raw signals from all your tools into markdown files
Synthesize	AI Brief	Copilot cross-references signals + Knowledge Base → priorities, prep, actions
Act	Focus Blocks → Sync	Block calendar time for top priorities, regenerate Copilot context

The portal at localhost:8765 serves everything in a Fluent 2-themed dashboard with dark/light mode — KPIs, calendar, action items, project tiles, daily brief, and file search.

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🧠 Skills

Skills are markdown instruction files that turn GitHub Copilot into a domain-specific PM assistant. They load on-demand — zero context overhead when idle.

Full Skills Reference (click to expand)

Daily Workflow

Skill	Trigger	Description
Quick Capture	/capture	Extract decisions, AIs, signals from meetings → route to correct files
End of Day	/eod	Interactive close-out → review tasks, log wins, seed tomorrow
MOM Generator	/mom	Minutes of Meeting from transcripts or live notes
KT Session Parser	/kt_parser	Parse KT sessions into structured knowledge artifacts

Communication

Skill	Trigger	Description
Email Drafter	/m365_email_drafter	Draft professional emails with KB context + templates
Teams Comms	/m365_teams_comms	Standups, announcements, escalations, shoutouts
Meeting Prep	/m365_meeting_prep	Auto-generate prep docs from calendar + signals + KB

Analysis & Artifacts

Skill	Trigger	Description
PRD Writer	/prd_writer	Full PRDs, one-pagers, RFCs from scratch or signals
Dashboard Generator	/dashboard_generator	Interactive HTML dashboards, Kusto, Excel, Power BI
Doc Generator	/m365_doc_generator	Generate Word/PPT/Excel from templates and data
Design Spec	/design_spec	UI/UX specs, technical design docs, Figma briefs
Insights to Spec	/insights_to_spec	Convert signal patterns into structured feature specs

Intelligence & Ops

Skill	Trigger	Description
ADO Reporter	/m365_ado_reporter	Sprint health, epic burndown, stale item detection
Feedback Synthesis	/feedback_synthesis	Cross-source feedback analysis → unified themes
Deep Review	/deep_review	Adversarial review with 3 parallel agents
PM OS Architect	/pm_os_architect	Design and extend your automation pipeline
PM OS Eval	/pm_os_eval	Score and regression-test daily brief quality
Workspace Kit	/pm_workspace_kit	Setup wizard, portal launch, health check

Specialized

Skill	Trigger	Description
Kusto Report	/kusto_report	Run KQL queries, generate HTML reports
Kusto Telemetry	/kusto_telemetry	Azure Data Explorer analysis with table catalog
IcM Integration	/icm	Incident management queries and on-call schedules
TSG Writer	/tsg_writer	Troubleshooting guides with required sections
AI-Ready Docs	/ai_ready_docs	Format documentation for AI consumption
Delegate ADO	/delegate_ado	Create ADO work items from plans

See example outputs → docs/demos/ · Live Demo Gallery

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📚 Knowledge Base

Every file in 00_Daily_Intelligence/Knowledge_Base/ feeds into the AI brief generator and Copilot skills. The richer your knowledge base, the more contextual and accurate your outputs become.

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🎨 Demo Artifacts

Open these directly in your browser — no setup required. All content uses fictional data.

Sprint Dashboard Interactive HTML with KPIs, burndown, risk heatmap, dark/light toggle /dashboard_generator

Command Center Static demo of the localhost:8765 portal with full layout Portal

PRD: Notifications Full PRD with problem, metrics, acceptance criteria, risks /prd_writer

MOM: Sprint Plan Minutes with decisions table, AIs, parking lot /mom

Daily Brief AI-generated intelligence with priorities, OKRs, focus blocks Pipeline

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🏗️ Architecture

For detailed diagrams, see the Architecture Guide — includes system overview, pipeline flow, skills binding, and artifact generation diagrams.

Folder Structure (click to expand)

brain-os/
├── _Automation/           ← Pipeline scripts + config
│   ├── config.json        ← YOUR identity, projects, settings
│   ├── daily_orchestrator.ps1  ← Master pipeline (10 steps)
│   ├── generate_brief.ps1      ← AI brief generator
│   ├── serve_artifacts.py      ← Command Center portal server
│   ├── fetch_emails.ps1        ← Outlook signal fetcher
│   ├── fetch_calendar.ps1      ← Calendar signal fetcher
│   ├── fetch_ado.ps1           ← ADO work item fetcher
│   ├── fetch_chats.ps1         ← Teams chat fetcher
│   ├── graph_helpers.ps1       ← MS Graph API helpers
│   ├── parse_inbox.ps1         ← File parser & router
│   ├── block_calendar.ps1      ← Focus time blocker
│   ├── cleanup.ps1             ← Signal/brief archival
│   ├── sync_instructions.ps1   ← Auto-sync copilot-instructions.md
│   └── weekly_snapshot.ps1     ← Weekly signal aggregation
│
├── .vscode/
│   ├── tasks.json         ← VS Code task shortcuts
│   └── skills/            ← 22 GitHub Copilot skills
│
├── 00_Daily_Intelligence/
│   ├── Knowledge_Base/    ← Goals, contacts, action items, processes
│   ├── Daily_Briefs/      ← AI-generated daily briefs
│   ├── Signals/           ← Raw signal files (emails, ADO, calendar, chats)
│   ├── Meeting_Prep/      ← Generated meeting prep docs
│   └── Weekly_Snapshots/  ← Friday aggregations
│
├── _Inbox/                ← Drop files here → auto-routed to projects
│
├── projects/              ← Your project folders (create per charter area)
│
└── docs/                  ← Setup guide, architecture, skill reference, demos

Design Principles

Principle	What It Means
Local-first	All data on your machine. No cloud storage of personal data.
Config-driven	One JSON file defines your entire workspace identity.
Dual-mode signals	COM (Windows Outlook) with Graph API fallback.
Skill-based AI	Copilot skills loaded on-demand, not always in context.
Trust boundaries	Every script has a trust level (read-only → communicate).
Eval-driven	Brief quality scored against a rubric. Changes require regression tests.

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🔧 AI Engineering

Brain OS applies production AI engineering practices:

Practice	Implementation
Temperature routing	config.json maps task types → temperatures (0.1 data, 0.5 comms, 0.8 creative)
CoT + Step-Back	System prompts include chain-of-thought and step-back reasoning
Eval suite	Golden test cases for brief generation with 5-dimension scoring
Failure taxonomy	Dev / LLM / Production classification with recovery playbook
Trust levels	L0 (read) → L4 (external API) with escalation triggers
Pre-mortem gate	Every new automation passes a 10-question checklist

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⚙️ Customization

Add a new project

1. Add to config.json → projects[]
2. Create a folder in projects/ (e.g., projects/my-project/)
3. Add routing keywords to config.json → charter_patterns[]
4. Run sync_instructions.ps1 to update Copilot context

Create a new skill

1. Create .vscode/skills/my_skill.md — see Skills Guide for template
2. Register in .github/copilot-instructions.md
3. Test with /my_skill in Copilot Chat

Add a pipeline step

1. Create your script in _Automation/
2. Add it to daily_orchestrator.ps1 as a new step
3. Run the pre-mortem checklist: Agent_Build_Checklist.md

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Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

License

MIT — Use it, fork it, make it yours.

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Built for PMs who believe their daily workflow deserves
the same engineering rigor they demand from their products.