Design Third Brain

A shared, file-based design memory for teams. Plain Markdown in a synced folder, driven by an AI assistant you talk to in plain language.

A personal brain is a productivity tool. A team brain is a distribution problem. You solve it with a folder, a gate, and a champion.

What this is

• A shared design memory — patterns, research, decisions, project artifacts, and starting-point templates
• Plain Markdown files in a folder synced by your team's existing drive
• Driven by an AI assistant in Cursor (or any editor that reads RULES.md)
• No commands to memorize — describe what you want in plain language

What this isn't

• Not a replacement for Figma or your design system — it sits next to them and reads from them
• Not a dumping ground — everything you draft stays private until you explicitly publish
• Not a product — no backend, no plugins, no dependency on any one AI editor

Three layers

Folder structure

Design Third Brain/
  RULES.md                  ← the assistant reads this on every run
  README.md                 ← you are here
  design-system/            ← TRUTH: astryx.md, tokens.md (proxy), guidelines
  apps/studio/              ← STUDIO: Next.js + Astryx prototypes (npm run dev)
  patterns/                 ← KNOWLEDGE: cross-team reusable UX solutions
  research/                 ← KNOWLEDGE: cross-team insights
  prompts/                  ← CRAFT: 8 copy-paste jobs (one per designer job)
  onboarding/               ← setup guide, scorecard, troubleshooting
  web-platform/             ← example DOMAIN
    usage-dashboard/        ← example PROJECT
      charter.md
      research/  decisions/  explorations/  prototypes/  status/
  sources/contributors/     ← personal namespaces
  private/                  ← yours; never synced (git-ignored)

Get running (10 minutes)

Shared Drive: Open folder on Google Drive · see _system/SHARE.md for upload/sync steps

1. Get access to the shared drive (or upload _system/dist/design-third-brain-shareable.zip and extract).
2. Open the folder in Cursor: File → Open Folder.
3. Say "help me get set up" — a short pick-list gets you started.
4. Edit three lines in RULES.md if your design system path or domain names differ.

See onboarding/onboarding.md for the full guide.

Project kickstart (the demo that converts people)

Split-pane flow: pick-list interview on the left, sitemap + page layouts on the right.

• Interactive UI: kickstart/kickstart-flow.html — open in a browser
• Cursor skill: .cursor/skills/kickstart-project/SKILL.md — say "I'm starting a new project for X"
• Example outputs: web-platform/usage-dashboard/explorations/

Six hours to under two.

The eight jobs

Say any of these in plain language — you never need to open the prompt file.

Golden rules

1. private/ is yours. Never shared, never synced. Draft messily.
2. Publish on yes only. Nothing leaves private without an explicit "yes" and a shown diff.
3. Design-system-first. Production UI uses Astryx (design-system/astryx.md, apps/studio/). HTML proxy uses tokens.md. Never invent.
4. 4–5 directions before one UI. Diverge first, converge when you pick.
5. Adoption is the metric. Five things used by ten people beats forty things used by one.

Vocabulary

Full vocabulary: onboarding/onboarding.md

Your first hour

1. Open the brain in Cursor → say "help me get set up"
2. Say "what has the team done in web-platform?"
3. Say "I'm starting a new project for usage dashboard"
4. Build a prototype with real design-system components
5. Say "save and publish this" → review the diff → say yes

Track your progress: onboarding/scorecard.md

Stuck? onboarding/troubleshooting.md

Tonight

Ten minutes: the folder skeleton is already here. Read RULES.md and edit the three lines about your design system.

This week: name three people. Run one kickstart with one of them. Publish one artifact through the gate and watch what they say when they see the diff.

When the first thing a teammate says isn't about the brain but about the thing they built with it — that's the signal.