DecisionProduct notes.md · 11:42
Keep Cortex local-first. Cloud sync should remain optional, encrypted, and explicitly enabled.
✦Open source · Local-first · Yours to shape
Give every AI tool your memory and taste.
Cortex turns your notes, decisions, preferences, and AI history into one reviewed, cited layer on your Mac—so every assistant remembers what matters and makes choices that feel like you.
macOS 13+No account neededWorks offline
Cortex
Local engine
Review inbox
7 pendingApprove its memory. Shape its taste.
Direct, warm, technically credible.
Ready to reviewVerify the release update feed.
Ready to review
Claude
ChatGPT
Cursor
Windsurf
Zed
Any MCP clientHow Cortex works
Remember once. Bring your taste everywhere.
Memory carries what you know. Taste carries how you choose. Cortex makes both visible, reviewable, and portable.
01
Connect your sources
Import notes, AI chat exports, and the folders where your work already lives.
Files · exports · local folders02
Review memory and taste
Approve facts, decisions, preferences, and style signals before Cortex trusts them.
Human-reviewed by default03
Apply it anywhere
Give every approved AI tool the context and taste it needs to work the way you would.
Claude · ChatGPT · Cursor · MCPMemory and taste, shaped around the work
Your domain has a way of thinking.Shape Cortex around it.
Start with the same private, reviewed vault—then decide what Cortex should remember, which preferences it should follow, and how it should make subjective choices for the work you do.
Give coding agents the decisions and engineering taste behind the code—not another undifferentiated transcript.
01
Architecture taste and decisions
Let Cursor or Claude retrieve why a system is shaped this way, which patterns you prefer, and what made the final choice win.
Bring inADRs · pull requests · planning notes
Cortex keepsDecision · rationale · trade-offs
02
Incident continuity layer
Carry symptoms, experiments, fixes, and follow-ups across an incident so a fresh session can continue the investigation without starting over.
Bring inRunbooks · logs · incident notes
Cortex keepsWhat changed · what worked · open risks
03
Cross-tool project handoff
Move from ChatGPT to Cursor to Claude with the active branch, conventions, unresolved questions, and next actions still intact.
Bring inChats · repository notes · task docs
Cortex keepsWorking set · conventions · open loops
Turn a growing source library into reviewed evidence—and preserve your judgment about what is rigorous, relevant, and worth pursuing.
01
Living literature map
Keep approved claims, methods, disagreements, and source passages connected as the reading list grows.
Bring inPapers · annotations · reading notes
Cortex keepsClaim · citation · contradiction
02
Experiment ledger
Remember hypotheses, parameters, unexpected results, and next steps across runs without flattening the history into a summary.
Bring inLab notes · datasets · analysis chats
Cortex keepsSetup · result · interpretation
03
Cited synthesis partner
Assemble only reviewed evidence into outlines and drafts, with every recalled idea linked back to its original source.
Bring inApproved memories · source excerpts
Cortex keepsEvidence · provenance · confidence
Keep the small decisions, product taste, and recurring signals that disappear between customer calls, planning, and fundraising.
01
Customer signal memory
Connect interviews, support threads, and product notes so recurring pain points can be recalled with the exact conversations behind them.
Bring inInterviews · support · product notes
Cortex keepsSignal · frequency · source
02
Company decision room
Preserve product, hiring, and operating decisions with owners, rationale, and revisit dates instead of losing them in chat.
Bring inMeeting notes · strategy docs · chats
Cortex keepsDecision · owner · revisit trigger
03
Fundraising continuity
Keep metrics, milestones, narrative taste, and investor questions consistent across decks, emails, and follow-up conversations.
Bring inDecks · updates · investor notes
Cortex keepsNarrative · evidence · objection
Build a private learning model around what you understand, what still feels unclear, and which explanations fit the way you learn.
01
Personal study model
Let an AI tutor remember mastered concepts, recurring misconceptions, and explanations that clicked—after you review them.
Bring inClass notes · study chats · quizzes
Cortex keepsMastery · misconception · useful explanation
02
Course knowledge vault
Connect lectures, readings, and assignments by concept so every new session starts with the right course context.
Bring inLectures · readings · assignments
Cortex keepsConcept · prerequisite · example
03
Research coach
Keep citations, promising questions, and incomplete arguments available across writing tools without inventing missing sources.
Bring inBibliography · outlines · feedback
Cortex keepsCitation · question · next revision
Give creative tools continuity without letting the model quietly rewrite the taste, voice, or rules of the project.
01
Voice and taste vault
Store approved references, tone rules, preferred language, and the things a project should never sound like.
Bring inDrafts · references · style notes
Cortex keepsVoice · rule · anti-pattern
02
Long-project continuity
Keep characters, scenes, design decisions, and unresolved threads coherent across weeks of work and many AI sessions.
Bring inManuscripts · boards · project chats
Cortex keepsCanon · decision · open thread
03
Reference recall
Find not only the reference you saved, but why it mattered and which part of the project it was meant to influence.
Bring inImages · links · annotations
Cortex keepsReference · intent · application
Choose your sourcesTeach your tasteSet review rulesScope permissions
Every workflow is inspectable and yours to change.Build your own memory + taste workflow
Cited memory. Applied taste.
Judgment you can trace back.
Cortex uses only approved facts, preferences, and decision patterns, explains why they matched, and refuses to invent context or taste when the evidence is not there.
Read about CMPYou
How should the launch announcement sound?
Cortex3 sources
CortexLead with the local-first promise. Keep the voice direct, warm, and technically credible—and avoid inflated AI claims.
1 Voice guide2 Edited launch draft3 Messaging decision
Built around trust
Your memory and taste stay yours.
Cortex is designed for private context and subjective preferences: local storage, explicit approval, visible sources, and permissions you can revoke.
Local by default
Your context, preferences, and taste stay on your Mac and work offline.
Reviewed, not assumed
Nothing becomes trusted memory or taste until you approve it.
Cited or abstained
Every recalled fact or applied preference points to a source—or Cortex stays quiet.
Permissioned per tool
Read, save, export, and repair are separate, revocable controls.
Cortex.vault
Your memory and taste, in a vault you can open.
Facts, decisions, preferences, and style live in plain Markdown with a rebuildable index—all stored on your Mac and portable like an Obsidian vault.
Cortex.vault~/Library/Application Support
- ⌄decisions14
- ⌄taste-and-style8
- ⌄open-loops6
- ⌄sources23
MIT licensed
Open source, all the way down.
Inspect the SwiftUI app, the local FastAPI engine, the vault format, how taste is applied, the retrieval quality gate, and every permission boundary.
SwiftUIFastAPISQLite-vecMCP
Build from sourcecortex-app
# native macOS app
./macos/build.sh
# local engine + tests
python3 -m pytest backend/tests
# retrieval quality gate
python3 scripts/retrieval_eval.py Public repository · community auditable
Built atUniversity of Waterloo
ResearchFaculty of Engineering
Sponsored byComposio
LicenseMIT · Open source
Cortex for macOS
Your AI should know what you know—and how you choose.
Memory and taste, private on your Mac, reviewed by you, and open source for everyone.