What's in the Brain
Everything a goal's agents know, from agents and skills to memory, tools, connections and models, and how it changes.
The Brain is everything your goal's agents know and use: their instructions, skills, memory, tools, connections, schedules, models and secrets. It also shows how that knowledge changes, who changed it and what is waiting for your approval. Open it from Brain in the goal's rail.
The tabs
The Brain opens on Learning. The other tabs follow in this order.
| Tab | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Learning | What the goal learned from its own work, and the changes it proposes. See Learning. |
| Agents | The goal's agents, their instructions and what each one may use. See Agents and skills. |
| Skills | Written procedures the agents open when a task calls for one. See Skills. |
| Memory | What the goal remembers, including the objective and the goal instructions. See Memory and goal instructions. |
| Tools | Custom tools, written as code, that an agent can call while it works in a session. |
| Marketplace | Ready-made skills and other items you can add to the goal. See Marketplace. |
| Connectors | The apps and services the goal may use, and the channels that reach you. See Connectors and Channels. |
| Triggers | What starts work from outside Chat, such as a timed trigger, a webhook or the Daily digest. See Plans, schedules and triggers. |
| Schedules | The reminders, check-ups and routines the agent keeps for itself. Shown on goals that use Chat. |
| Review | The Review Center: change requests and other work waiting for a decision. See Approvals and autonomy. |
| Models | Which models the goal may use and which one it starts with. See Models. |
| Secrets | API keys and other sensitive values the agents use. See Secrets. |
| Members ↗ | Opens the goal's access list in Organization settings. See Roles and access. |
| Settings | The goal's settings, including Autonomy. See Goal settings. |
Review and Marketplace are on by default. You can turn either off for a goal in Feature flags. As a goal member you see only Learning; see Who can see and change the Brain.
What each item tells you
Cards and files across the Brain carry the same facts.
| You see | What it means |
|---|---|
| Updated 3h ago by you | The last change that reached the goal's repository, and who made it: you, a teammate, Auto Lab, or a change request such as "change #12". |
| 1 proposed change | An open change request would change this item. Inside the file, a banner names the change with a Review change button. |
| Tags | Memory files show their tags, or the folder they sit in when they have none. Use Filter by tag on the Memory tab. |
| Used in | For a skill, memory file or tool: the saved sessions that opened, read or called it. |
Change something
You can edit an item yourself, or ask the agent to change it. A direct edit saves at once. A change made by the agent always goes through a change request that a person approves.
Edit it yourself
- Open Brain › Memory, Brain › Tools or Brain › Skills and select the item. For a skill, select
the file in its file tree, usually
SKILL.md. - Select Edit source and make your change.
- Select Save to project. Auto Lab commits the file to the goal's repository and shows the commit.
Saving does not start a session, run a tool or change a plan.
The direct editor works on existing text files up to 256 KiB. It cannot create, rename or delete files, and binary and executable files stay read-only. Built-in skills are read-only too.
To change an agent's instructions or access, open it in Brain › Agents. Save on the agent's page also commits the change to the goal's repository.
Ask the agent to change it
Use this when the change needs new files, several files or some judgement.
- Select Edit with agent on a skill, memory file or tool. To add something new, select Create with agent on Memory or Tools, or New on Skills or Agents.
- Auto Lab opens a new session with your request filled in. For Edit with agent, confirm with Send first.
- The agent asks what you want, makes the change on a separate branch and opens a change request.
- Review the change request, then apply or dismiss it. Nothing changes until someone applies it.
See Approvals and autonomy for how change requests are reviewed.
When someone saved first
If the file changed after you opened it, Auto Lab keeps your draft and asks you to compare. Select Compare with latest to see both versions. Then select Keep draft with latest revision, adjust your draft and save again, or select Discard draft and reload.
Memory and goal instructions
Memory is the goal's notebook. The agent reads it as it works and writes to it as it learns. The most important parts, such as a one-page profile, key facts and lessons, are in front of the agent on every turn.
Brain › Memory shows these files and folders:
| File or folder | Holds |
|---|---|
objective.md | The goal: the outcome, how it is measured, the target and the constraints |
instructions.md | Goal instructions: standing rules a person approved |
knowledge/ | Facts, procedures, preferences, decisions and lessons |
entities/ | One file for each person and organization the goal deals with |
workstreams/ | Work that is active, completed or set aside for someday |
timeline/ | What happened each day, with daily, weekly and monthly summaries |
comms/ | One file for each outside conversation |
playbook.md | The lessons every run reads, strongest first |
profile.md | A one-page summary the agent reads first, rebuilt each night |
heartbeat.md | The checklist the heartbeat looks at |
MEMORY.md | An index of what memory holds |
Some files appear only once the goal has used them.
Goal instructions
instructions.md is a short list of standing instructions. The agent reads them on every turn, right after its
built-in instructions, and follows them where the two differ. Keep each instruction to one line. The agent reads
up to about 1,600 characters of the list.
You can edit the file directly. Learning may propose one line to add, reword or remove, and that proposal always waits for a person.
The objective
objective.md is read-only in the Brain, because the goal card on the Overview keeps its own copy of the
objective. Change it with Edit goal on the Overview. See
Overview, Needs you and Activity.
Agents, skills, memory and tools are files
Agents, skills, memory and tools are files in the goal's repository, under .kortix/. Files shows that
folder as System files. The goal manifest, kortix.yaml, holds each agent's access rules.
This is why every change to them has an author, a date and a history, and why a change can be reviewed before it lands or undone after. You never need to open the repository to use the Brain. Developers can read The goal's repository.
Who can see and change the Brain
| Who | Can |
|---|---|
| Every member of the goal | Open Learning |
| Goal admins (shown as Project admin) | Open every tab, see the change history, edit items, and use Undo, Pin and Archive on the Learning tab |
Organization owners and admins are admins on every goal. A custom role can add any of these rights to other people. See Roles and access.