# The Company Brain — starter kit

*Free to steal. Copy this, rename the bits in `<angle brackets>`, and you have the foundation of a company brain in about ten minutes.*

A "company brain" is just a layer of plain text files (Markdown, the `.md` format) that hold everything your company knows that matters: what each customer wants, where every deal stands, what your product does, what was decided on a call. People can read these files. So can AI. That is the whole trick: one format that a human and a model read equally well, so the answer is already written down and current when anyone, or any assistant, goes looking.

The model that reads it is a swappable engine. The brain is the asset you own.

## The four rules that hold it together

1. **One file = one clear thing.** One customer, one deal tracker, one policy, one fact. Small focused files beat one giant document, because both people and AI find the right one fast.
2. **One source of truth per topic.** A fact lives in exactly one place, so there is never a "which version is right?" problem. Other files may point to it, never copy it. When two sources disagree, decide in advance which one wins (the signed contract beats a number typed into the CRM from memory).
3. **A gate on what gets in.** A brain is only as good as what you feed it. Only let in facts from a source you trust (a signed document, a recorded call, your billing system). Flag anything unverified, and keep guesses out entirely. Garbage in, confident garbage out.
4. **Date everything.** Put a line at the top of each file saying where its facts came from and when they were last true. A file can be *fresh and wrong*; the date is how you catch it.

## The folder skeleton (mirror your org, not a tool)

Lay the folders out so they look like the company. If you understand the business, you can find anything.

```
company-brain/
├── index.md                  <- the contents page; read this first
├── product/                  <- what you do: the offer, value, FAQs, objections
│   └── what-we-do.md
├── customers/                <- one file per customer (matches their chat channel)
│   ├── _template.md
│   └── <customer-name>.md
├── pipeline/                 <- every open deal and its current state
│   └── deals.md
├── governance/               <- the slow-moving truth: strategy, policies, board
│   └── strategy.md
└── memory/                   <- cross-cutting facts that belong to no single area
    └── how-we-work.md           (brand rules, preferences, deploy steps, the basics)
```

Add or rename pillars to fit you. A services firm might swap `pipeline/` for `projects/`. The shape matters more than the exact names: **one home per kind of information.**

## The header to put on every file (so it never lies about itself)

```markdown
---
source: <where these facts come from — your CRM / signed contract / call notes>
last_updated: <date you last refreshed it>
---
```

Two lines. It's the difference between a brain you trust and a folder of notes that quietly rots.

## The index stub (copy into `index.md`)

```markdown
# <Company> — Company Brain index

The contents page for our shared brain. One source of truth per topic; if it
matters, it is written down here, in one place.

## Start here
- [How we work](memory/how-we-work.md) — the basics any new person (or assistant) loads first.

## The pillars
- **Product** — [what we do](product/what-we-do.md)
- **Customers** — one file per account under `customers/`
- **Pipeline** — [open deals](pipeline/deals.md)
- **Governance** — [strategy](governance/strategy.md)

_Last reviewed: <date>_
```

## Your first week (don't boil the ocean)

1. Create the folders above and the `index.md`.
2. **Start with your system of record.** Pick the one place your business already trusts, for most people that's the CRM or the pipeline, and make it your first "truth centre": one file that mirrors it, with the header above. One good file beats ten half-done ones.
3. **Write one real file properly.** Your most important customer, or your open deals. Source it, date it, keep it to facts.
4. **Add one routine.** Pick a source you already use (your team chat, your call recordings) and once a week update that one file from it. That's your first automation. Keep it to a handful you can actually watch, not a swarm.

Then keep going, one file and one truth centre at a time. Everything else, the website, the branding, the automations, the chatbot, reads from this brain. Build the brain first.

---

*This is the starter from edition 1 of **Built on AI**. The next editions go deep on each piece: how you structure it, how you gate it, how you run the routines, and everything the brain then builds.*