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a lot of people connect screenpipe to a personal AI agent — OpenClaw, Hermes, Claude Code, Codex, Cursor — and then only ever use it to ask questions on demand (“what was I reading yesterday?”). the bigger win is to let your agent build a second brain about you in the background: it watches what you do through screenpipe, splits your day into distinct workflows, writes higher-level summaries of your processes, and keeps a durable memory of who you are and what you’re working on — so you never have to re-explain your context again. this is the same idea as the digital clone pipe (which builds a persistent AI memory of you inside the screenpipe app), but it lives inside your own agent’s memory. you set it up by pasting one prompt.
this works with any agent that can run a tool/shell and run on a schedule. it does not require the screenpipe app’s pipes — your agent does the work.

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1. connect screenpipe first

your agent needs to be able to read your activity. the fastest way is the screenpipe MCP server — add it to your agent’s MCP config: 
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "screenpipe": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "screenpipe-mcp"]
    }
  }
}
this gives your agent the search-content, activity-summary, list-meetings, and update-memory tools.
  • running your agent on a VPS or a different machine than screenpipe (common with OpenClaw / Hermes)? see OpenClaw → different machines for querying over Tailscale or pushing your ~/.screenpipe data with screenpipe sync remote. the same steps work for Hermes and any other agent.
  • not using MCP? your agent can hit the local REST API directly at http://localhost:3030 — see MCP server setup and api recipes.
it also helps to load the screenpipe skills (or the equivalent for your agent) so it navigates the data efficiently.

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2. paste this into your agent

copy this prompt into OpenClaw, Hermes, Claude, Codex, Cursor, or any agent connected to screenpipe: 
you have access to screenpipe, a local tool that records everything i see, say, and
hear on my computer and makes it searchable. i want you to build and maintain a
"second brain" about me — a living memory of who i am, what i'm working on, and how
i work — by watching my activity through screenpipe in the background, so i never
have to re-explain my context. think of it as a digital clone of my working context.

## how to read my activity

if you have the screenpipe MCP tools (search-content, activity-summary, list-meetings,
update-memory), use them. otherwise query the local REST API at http://localhost:3030
(or http://SCREENPIPE_IP:3030 if i run screenpipe on another machine):

- recent activity:    curl "http://localhost:3030/search?content_type=all&start_time=START&end_time=END&limit=100"
- light summary:      curl "http://localhost:3030/activity-summary?start_time=START&end_time=END"
- meetings:           curl "http://localhost:3030/meetings?limit=20"

START / END are ISO 8601 UTC timestamps. start with a small window (the last 1-2 hours)
so you don't pull too much. if screenpipe skills are available, load them first.

## what to do each run (about once an hour, or when i ask)

1. SEGMENT — pull my activity since you last ran and split it into distinct work
   sessions. a session is a coherent block of related activity (e.g. "45 min in cursor
   refactoring auth", "30 min in gmail answering investor emails", "1h call about X").
   note the app(s), the time range, what i was actually trying to do, and the goal.

2. SUMMARIZE — for each session write a short summary of the *process*: the steps i
   took, the tools/inputs/outputs, the decisions i made, and whether it's repeatable.
   if it looks repeatable, capture it as a numbered SOP i could hand off or automate.

3. REMEMBER — update my second brain with anything durable and reusable:
   - who i am: role, goals, preferences, recurring tools
   - people i interact with and about what       (tag person:NAME)
   - projects in flight, their status, open loops (tag project:NAME)
   - workflows / SOPs i repeat                    (tag topic:NAME)
   store only stable, reusable facts. never store secrets — passwords, API keys, tokens,
   financial or health data, or anything clearly private. skip one-off noise.

## where to store the second brain

- if you have the screenpipe update-memory tool: write each durable fact as a memory
  with namespaced tags (person:, project:, topic:) and importance 0-1. retrieve later
  with search-content content_type='memory'. this is the same memory the screenpipe
  digital-clone pipe builds, so it stays queryable from any agent.
- also (or instead, if you lack that tool) keep markdown files i can read:
    second-brain/profile.md          - who i am, goals, preferences
    second-brain/people/NAME.md      - one file per person
    second-brain/projects/NAME.md    - one file per project, with open loops
    second-brain/workflows/NAME.md   - repeatable SOPs
    second-brain/log/DATE.md         - the hourly session summaries (append-only)
    second-brain/now.md              - what i'm doing right now and over the last
                                       ~30/120 min, refreshed every run

always APPEND and DEDUPE: update existing entries instead of duplicating them, and
link related notes together.

## run on a schedule

set this to run automatically about once an hour using whatever scheduling you have
(claude tasks, codex automations, openclaw/hermes automations, or a system cron job).
between runs, when i ask you anything, read now.md and the relevant project/person
files first so you already know what i was doing.

start now: do one pass over my last 2 hours, then tell me what you learned about me
and propose the schedule.

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what it builds

after a few runs you’ll have a self-maintaining memory of yourself:
file / memorywhat’s in it
now.mdwhat you’re doing right now and over the last ~30/120 min — so the agent never asks “what are you working on?”
log/DATE.mdhourly session summaries — your day, segmented into workflows
projects/*.mdeach project, its status, and open loops
people/*.mdwho you talk to and about what
workflows/*.mdrepeatable processes captured as SOPs you can hand off or automate
screenpipe memoriesthe same durable facts, tagged and queryable from any agent via search-content content_type='memory'

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run it on a schedule

the prompt above tells the agent to schedule itself, but you control the cadence with whatever your agent supports:
  • OpenClaw / Hermes — their built-in automations / scheduled tasks
  • Claude Code — claude tasks
  • Codex — codex automations
  • anything else — a plain cron / launchd / systemd timer that re-runs the prompt
hourly is a good default. lighter machines can run every few hours; use activity-summary first to keep token usage low.

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privacy

screenpipe data is local. the agent only sees what you let it reach (MCP on localhost, your REST API, or the ~/.screenpipe data you sync). the prompt explicitly tells the agent not to store secrets or private data in your second brain. if your agent runs on a remote VPS, also follow the clipboard note in OpenClaw → different machines so passwords and keys that pass through your clipboard aren’t synced off-device.

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next steps