ModusBrain Skillpack: Reference Architecture for AI Agents
This is a reference architecture for how a production AI agent uses modusbrain as its knowledge backbone. Based on patterns from a real deployment with 14,700+ brain files, 40+ skills, and 20+ cron jobs running continuously. The memex vision, realized. Vannevar Bush imagined a device where an individual stores everything, mechanized so it may be consulted with exceeding speed. ModusBrain is that device, except the memex builds itself. The agent detects entities, enriches pages, creates cross-references, and maintains compiled truth automatically. Each section below is a standalone guide. Click through to the full content.Core Patterns
The foundational read-write loop and data model.Data Pipelines
Getting data in and keeping it current.Operations
Running a production brain.
Subagent routing (v0.11.0+): agents that dispatch background work should route through
skills/conventions/subagent-routing.md — it reads ~/.modusbrain/preferences.json#minion_mode
and branches between native subagents and Minion jobs. The v0.11.0 migration auto-injects
a marker into AGENTS.md pointing at this convention.
Cron routing (v0.11.0+): scheduled work goes through Minions, not OpenClaw’s agentTurn.
See skills/conventions/cron-via-minions.md for the rewrite pattern. The v0.11.0 migration
auto-rewrites entries whose handler is a modusbrain builtin; host-specific handlers (e.g.
ea-inbox-sweep) need a code-level registration per docs/guides/plugin-handlers.md.
Architecture
How to structure your system.Integrations
Wiring up your life.Administration
Keeping it running and up to date.Getting Started
After setup, the brain is empty. The cold-start skill sequences the highest-leverage data sources to populate it:Appendix: ModusBrain CLI Quick Reference
Run
modusbrain --help for the full command reference.
Architecture & Philosophy
- Infrastructure Layer — Import pipeline, chunking, embedding, search
- Thin Harness, Fat Skills — Architecture philosophy
- Markdown Skills as Recipes — Why markdown is code and your agent is a package manager
- Homebrew for Personal AI — The 10-star vision
- Recommended Schema — Directory structure for your brain repo
- Verification Runbook — End-to-end installation verification