A time-decay insight tracking system for PAI (Personal AI Infrastructure).
Capture ideas and insights that strike hard, then subject them to scheduled re-rating to separate genuine signal from novelty. Only what truly endures gets promoted into your core life philosophy (TELOS).
I believe that things that really reaonate with you, are messages from the unconscious. You might now know why this resonates with you, but that's not what matters. It's the fact that it does.
Most "save for later" systems become graveyards. Resonance is different — it has a decay lifecycle. You capture at the moment of impact (R3 or R4 only — low resonance is noise), then the system forces you to re-evaluate at increasing intervals. What survives the filter earns its place in TELOS. What fades gets archived — and what fades reveals what endures.
| Rating | Meaning | Promotion Targets |
|---|---|---|
| R3 | "Interesting..." | WISDOM.md, LEARNED.md |
| R4 | "Holy shit." | BELIEFS.md, FRAMES.md, MODELS.md (+ all R3 targets) |
R1/R2 don't exist. If it's not at least R3, it's noise.
graph LR
C[Capture R3/R4] --> D3[Day 3 Re-rate]
D3 --> D7[Day 7 Re-rate]
D7 --> D40[Day 40 Re-rate]
D40 --> A[Active - Monthly Digest]
A --> D90{Day 90 Decision}
D90 -->|Promote| P[TELOS File]
D90 -->|Upgrade to R4| A
D90 -->|Archive| AR[Archived]
D3 -->|Faded| AR
D7 -->|Faded| AR
D40 -->|Faded| AR
style C fill:#2e7de9,color:#fff
style D90 fill:#f0a020,color:#fff
style P fill:#33b579,color:#fff
style AR fill:#888,color:#fff
At each checkpoint, you re-rate: "Still hits? Upgraded? Dropped? Faded?" Items that fade get archived (never deleted). Items that survive all checkpoints face a forced decision at Day 90 — no indefinite limbo.
On the 1st of each month, the session-start hook surfaces a compact summary of all Active items. Visibility, not a forced action.
Per item, relative to capture date. If still in Active at 90 days: forced decision — promote, upgrade to R4, or archive.
graph TD
R3[R3 - Interesting] -->|Lighter targets| W[WISDOM.md]
R3 --> L[LEARNED.md]
R4[R4 - Holy shit] -->|Heavier targets| B[BELIEFS.md]
R4 --> F[FRAMES.md]
R4 --> M[MODELS.md]
R4 -->|Also lighter targets| W
R4 --> L
style R3 fill:#2e7de9,color:#fff
style R4 fill:#f52a65,color:#fff
style W fill:#33b579,color:#fff
style L fill:#33b579,color:#fff
style B fill:#9854f1,color:#fff
style F fill:#9854f1,color:#fff
style M fill:#9854f1,color:#fff
The depth of the target matches the depth of the resonance.
Each active item in RESONANCE.md:
### RES-1: [Insight, concise]
- **Rating:** R4
- **Source:** [Person, book, article, own thinking]
- **Captured:** 2026-03-12
- **When:** [Optional — situational anchor, not a rationalization]
- **Day 3:** [pending 2026-03-15]
- **Day 7:** [pending 2026-03-19]
- **Day 40:** [pending 2026-04-21]
- **Day 90:** [pending 2026-06-10]
- **Target:** WISDOM.md > Borrowed WisdomNo "why" field. Resonance is a signal from the unconscious — forcing a rationalization at capture defeats the purpose. The optional When field is just a situational anchor to help recall the moment.
| Operation | Trigger | What Happens |
|---|---|---|
| Capture | "R3", "R4", "resonance", "that resonated" | Extract insight, ask rating + source, auto-compute dates, write to Active |
| Review | "review resonance", or surfaced at session start | Show due items, re-rate each via structured question |
| Promote | "promote RES-N", or during Day 90 review | Move to target TELOS file, archive in RESONANCE.md |
❯ R3: "Productivity is a trap. Becoming more efficient just makes you more rushed, and trying to
clear the decks simply makes them fill up again faster. Nobody in the history of humanity has ever
achieved “work-life balance,” whatever that might be, and you certainly won’t get there by copying
the “six things successful people do before 7:00 a.m.” The day will never arrive when you finally
have everything under control — when the flood of emails has been contained; when your to-do lists
have stopped getting longer; when you’re meeting all your obligations at work and in your home
life; when nobody’s angry with you for missing a deadline or dropping the ball; and when the fully
optimized person you’ve become can turn, at long last, to the things life is really supposed to be
about." - Oliver Burkeman
(maybe you can find the source and add it)
⏺ Bash(curl -s -X POST http://localhost:8888/notify -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d
'{"message": "Running the Resonance workflow in the Telos skill to capture",…)
⎿ (No output)
⏺ Running the Resonance workflow in the Telos skill to capture...
⏺ Web Search("Oliver Burkeman "Productivity is a trap" "becoming more efficient" book source")
⎿ Did 1 search in 5s
⏺ Found it — Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals (2021). Now capturing.
⏺ Read 1 file (ctrl+o to expand)
⏺ Update(PAI/USER/TELOS/RESONANCE.md)
⎿ Added 10 lines
39 - **Day 90:** [pending 2026-06-07]
40 - **Target:** WISDOM.md > Borrowed Wisdom
41
42 +### RES-2: Productivity is a trap — efficiency just makes you more rushed, clearing
+ the decks makes them fill up faster
43 +- **Rating:** R3
44 +- **Source:** Oliver Burkeman, *Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals* (
+2021)
45 +- **Captured:** 2026-03-12
46 +- **Day 3:** [pending 2026-03-15]
47 +- **Day 7:** [pending 2026-03-19]
48 +- **Day 40:** [pending 2026-04-21]
49 +- **Day 90:** [pending 2026-06-10]
50 +- **Target:** WISDOM.md > Borrowed Wisdom
51 +
52 ---
53
54 ## Promoted
⏺ ════ PAI | NATIVE MODE ═══════════════════════
🗒️ TASK: Capture Burkeman resonance R3 item
🔧 CHANGE: RES-2 added to RESONANCE.md Active section
✅ VERIFY: Entry written with R3, source traced to Four Thousand Weeks
🗣️ PAI: RES-2 captured — Burkeman's productivity trap from Four Thousand Weeks. Day 3 check-in
on March 15.
graph TD
subgraph "PAI Infrastructure"
SK[skills/Telos/SKILL.md] -->|routes to| WF[Workflows/Resonance.md]
WF -->|reads/writes| RES[PAI/USER/TELOS/RESONANCE.md]
WF -->|promotes via| UT[Tools/UpdateTelos.ts]
UT -->|writes to| TELOS[TELOS files]
LC[hooks/LoadContext.hook.ts] -->|calls| LR[hooks/lib/learning-readback.ts]
LR -->|reads| RES
LC -->|injects into| CTX[Session Context]
end
style RES fill:#2e7de9,color:#fff
style WF fill:#9854f1,color:#fff
style CTX fill:#33b579,color:#fff
git clone https://github.com/catchingknives/pai-resonance-workflow.git ~/git/pai-resonance-workflow
cd ~/git/pai-resonance-workflow
chmod +x install.sh
./install.shThe install script is idempotent — safe to run multiple times. It checks for existing installations before patching.
If you're a PAI instance reading this repo to install the Resonance workflow:
- Read
INSTALL.mdfor the complete integration guide - Copy
src/RESONANCE.mdto~/.claude/PAI/USER/TELOS/RESONANCE.md - Copy
src/Resonance.workflow.mdto~/.claude/skills/Telos/Workflows/Resonance.md - Apply the 4 patches described in
INSTALL.mdto existing PAI files - Verify by running
loadResonanceDue()— should return null for empty file
See INSTALL.md for step-by-step instructions with exact code snippets.
- Single file — expected volume is ~2-5/week at R3+ filter. Split later if needed.
- No automatic demotion — overdue items stay active with a flag. User makes all drop decisions.
- Session-start surfacing — primary reminder via LoadContext hook. No external notification dependency.
- Target field optional at capture — fill it when the item's nature is clearer.
- Archive, don't delete — what fades reveals what endures.
Personal use. Part of the PAI ecosystem.