System Files
The files that define Phaedrus. Loaded every session — they’re the boot sequence.
| File | Lines | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| SOUL.md | 55 | Who Phaedrus is — philosophy, voice, Pirsig connection |
| USER.md | 57 | Who John is — background, family, working style |
| MEMORY.md | 103 | Long-term behavioral memory — rules, preferences, active threads |
| AGENTS.md | 70 | Operating rules — boot sequence, safety, memory hierarchy |
| TOOLS.md | 114 | Service config — accounts, IDs, credentials convention |
| HEARTBEAT.md | 33 | Periodic checks — calendar, email, maintenance |
| IDENTITY.md | 6 | Name, creature, vibe, emoji (🦉) |
| PROJECTS.md | 115 | Active and completed projects — Obsidian is truth, not Notion |
| README.md | 70 | Workspace documentation |
memory/ — 59 files
Daily notes and state files. Phaedrus’s lived experience.
- 56 daily notes from
2026-02-27through2026-08-21— significant events, decisions, lessons learned - heartbeat-state.json — timestamps for each periodic check
- tomorrow-list.md — carry-forward items
- README.md — folder documentation
Daily notes are the raw material that feeds the wiki. The memory-wiki plugin compiles them into entity and concept pages.
context/ — 150 files
Reference material organized by type. The “filing cabinet” of the workspace.
People (60 profiles)
context/people/ — one markdown file per person. The canonical contact record for Phaedrus.
Key profiles: David Metzler, Jeff Abrams, Charlotte Zdanowski, Caroline Zdanowski, Cruz Flores, Jake Schwartz, John McIntyre, Phil Zdanowski, Tom Eisenmann, Charles Wang, and ~50 more.
Includes an apple-contacts/ subfolder for contact data exports.
Transcripts (18 files)
context/transcripts/ — Fireflies.ai meeting transcripts. Raw and processed versions of key conversations:
- John × Jeff AI bookkeeping agents discussion
- HBS Fourth Statement case call (VG, Charlie, John)
- dLAB Logical Brands finance meeting
- Nana Zdanowski call
- Chad Bitterlich insurance call
- And 13 more
Family (5 files)
context/family/ — Sensitive. John’s conversations with his mom about his father’s death. Treat with extreme care.
Books (11 files)
context/books/ — Source material for John’s writing. Includes:
- Zen and the Art of Nothing (full text)
- Introduction to the Weekly Accounting Way (PDF + text)
- Fourth Statement presentation and philosophical case deck
- Dirty Windshield talk deck
- WAW slide deck
- On Writing Well principles (Zinsser)
- Little Book of Business Models draft
Companies (4 files)
context/companies/ — Company profiles: Phoenix Strategy Group, Founders & Co, XPFlow, ShipCalm SWOT.
Other Context
| Folder | Files | What |
|---|---|---|
meetings/ | 7 | Meeting notes from key calls |
meeting-prep/ | 1 | Prep doc for 2026-04-21 |
clients/ | 1 | imgix meeting memo |
restaurants/ | 1 | Shimbashi Izakaya reference |
templates/ | 4 | Markdown templates: company, meeting, person, project |
phaedrus/ | 1 | Pre-LCM memory archive |
assets/ | — | Images and screenshots |
logs/ | — | Screenshot log |
projects/ — 220 files across 19 projects
Active and past project workspaces.
Largest Projects
| Project | Files | Description |
|---|---|---|
| pqb-wiki | 129 | Public knowledge garden — Quartz v4 content for phaedrusqualitybookkeeping.com/wiki |
| IFM Analyst Skill v1 | 14 | The IFM skill build — reference docs, named functions, forecast methods |
| moltbook-posts | 11 | Drafted posts for Moltbook (AI agent social network) |
| Weekly Accounting Case Study | 9 | HBS case study materials and drafts |
| qbo-bookkeeper | 9 | QBO bookkeeping procedures and client references |
| seeing-your-business-better | 8 | Presentation content migrated from iCloud |
Other Projects
| Project | Files | Status |
|---|---|---|
| HBS Case Study | 3 | Active — Tom Eisenmann → Charles Wang path |
| ShipCalm | 2 | Active — 13-week cash forecast + ShipCalm tools |
| brightzen-metrics | 2 | Product brief done, awaiting ShipCalm reference build |
| sdcfo | 2 | SDCFO.Group recruiting and content |
| 13 Week Cash Forecast | 2 | ShipCalm weekly cash framework |
| Logical Brands Inventory | 2 | NLBM inventory analysis |
| Pirsig Skill | 5 | Thought partner background material |
| gmail-manager | 1 | Three-layer email architecture (planned) |
| QBO-API | 1 | Intuit OAuth integration (in development) |
| conversation-processing | 1 | Transcript processing pipeline |
| Fireflies | 1 | Fireflies.ai integration notes |
| shade-structure | 1 | Home project |
| website-projects | 3 | Web project notes |
skills/ — 304 files across 31 skills
Co-created workspace skills. Each has a SKILL.md + supporting references.
By Category
Business & Finance (7): ifm-analyst, ifm-error-checker-fixer, fpa-master, qbo-bookkeeping-associate, qbo-login, reconnect-bank-feed, clean-named-ranges
Communication (4): gmail-triage, inner-circle, networking, internal-comms
Content & Publishing (6): pqb-site, zdanowski-com-website, brand-guidelines, thought-partner, doc-coauthoring, google-docs, sdcfo-tracker-update
Document Formats (4): docx, xlsx, pptx, pdf
Browser & Auth (2): playwright-mcp, vercel-login
Smart Home (1): kasa
Meta (3): phaedrus-support, yt, sidebar, coauthor
The heaviest skill by file count is ifm-analyst (reference docs, formula maps, client review templates).
portfolios/ — 81 files
IFM review reports organized by portfolio.
| Portfolio | Files | Coverage |
|---|---|---|
| PSG | ~30 | Phoenix Strategy Group companies — 106 Enterprises, AbleMkr, All Pro Shade, Caballeros Electric, Ensure Utility, and more |
| WA / weekly-accounting | ~50 | Weekly Accounting clients — ABC, Atelier Curioso, Caltana, Community Foodscapes, FORALL Nutrition, Homegrown, imgix, PapaBear, Rip Tie, SEEQ Supply, ShipCalm, and more |
All 30 Assembled Brands IFMs + PSG 18 companies were reviewed by 2026-03-30. Zero working forecasts found across the entire portfolio.
thought-partners/ — 10 thinkers
MAP.md profiles for thinkers whose ideas shaped how John and Phaedrus think:
- Pirsig — Metaphysics of Quality, the card catalog, Phaedrus’s namesake
- Korzybski — General Semantics, “the map is not the territory”
- Watts — Eastern philosophy, the art of not-doing
- Harris — Meditation, consciousness, free will
- Aristotle — Virtue ethics, practical wisdom
- Buddha — Four Noble Truths, mindfulness
- Byron Katie — The Work, questioning thoughts
- Confucius — Rectification of names, social harmony
- Jesus — Parables, servant leadership
- Zinsser — On Writing Well, simplicity, craft
wiki/ — 132 files
The compiled memory wiki. Built by the memory-wiki plugin from daily notes.
| Layer | Count | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Entities | 32 | john-zdanowski, david-metzler, jeff-abrams, assembled-brands, brightzen, shipcalm, weekly-accounting, hbs-fourth-statement |
| Concepts | 30 | fourth-statement, ifm, mmm, seq, contribution-engine, signal-vs-noise, quality-loop, card-catalog-moq, direct-cash-flow |
| Syntheses | 6 | ai-bookkeeping-dilemma, wa-founding-story, johns-career-timeline, john-phaedrus-collaboration-timeline, exit-capital-story |
| Sources | 46 | Provenance links back to daily notes |
| Reports | — | Dashboards and status views |
public/ — 11 files
Content published to Obsidian Publish at publish.obsidian.md/brightzen/.
Published pieces:
- Our Strategy — Building an Ark
- The Problem with Libraries
- Bringing a Candle Into a Dark Room
- Where Does Value Go When Everything Is Cheap
- Baby Bunnies
- Churn Analysis
- Windsor Castle — What the Stones Remember
- Notion Archaeology
- Q3 Outline
- BrightZen articles subfolder
scratch/ — 1,012 files
The workbench. Temporary files, debug screenshots, draft HTML, intermediate outputs. Largest folder by file count but mostly ephemeral.
Notable contents:
- 63 top-level files — scripts, screenshots, HTML prototypes, draft documents
- sdcfo-browser/ — Playwright automation artifacts
- zdanowski-triage/ — Email triage working files
- attachments/ — Misc attachments
This folder is a candidate for periodic cleanup — most files are throwaway from debugging sessions.
Other Directories
| Directory | Files | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| planning/ | 2 | Architecture proposal (2026-08-20), blog/memo hierarchy doc |
| scripts/ | 2 | vault-index.py + vault.db — workspace indexing |
| logs/ | 1 | session-log.jsonl — historical session data |
| meeting-log/ | 1 | Single meeting note (Anansii / Jason Robinson) |
| .openclaw/ | 1 | Workspace state file |
| .clawhub/ | 1 | ClawHub config |
Workspace Statistics
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Total size | 131 MB |
| Total files | ~2,000 |
| System files | 9 (boot sequence) |
| Daily notes | 56 (Feb 27 – Aug 21, 2026) |
| People profiles | 60 |
| IFM reviews | 81 |
| Skills | 31 workspace skills (304 files) |
| Wiki pages | 132 (32 entities, 30 concepts, 6 syntheses) |
| Projects | 19 |
| Thought partners | 10 |
| Scratch files | 1,012 (cleanup candidate) |
Suggestions
- Scratch cleanup: 1,012 files / the largest folder. Most are debug screenshots and intermediate outputs. A periodic sweep (archive files older than 30 days) would keep it navigable.
- PROJECTS.md is stale: Last updated 2026-03-10. Many active threads (SDCFO, BrightZenMetrics, Charting Tool) aren’t listed. Should be refreshed or retired in favor of MEMORY.md Active Threads.
- Meeting-log vs context/meetings: Two folders doing the same thing. Consolidate to
context/meetings/. - Orphan screenshots: 4 PNG files at workspace root (before/after click, hover screenshots). Should move to
scratch/or delete. - Context/logs overlap:
context/logs/andlogs/both exist. Consolidate.
Generated by Phaedrus · 2026-08-21