PAI Personal Data Template

A template for storing your PAI personal data in a separate, version-controlled repository.

Why Separate Your Data?

PAI stores personal data in several directories within ~/.claude/. When PAI updates, these could be overwritten or cause merge conflicts. By storing your data in a separate repo and symlinking back, you get:

• Update safety - PAI updates never touch your data
• Version control - Full git history of your learnings and configurations
• Backup - Push to your private GitHub repo
• Portability - Clone to any machine, run setup, done

The "Move Out, Link Back" Pattern

This template uses symlinks to keep your data in this repo while PAI sees it in its expected locations:

Your Repo (source of truth)          PAI Directory (symlinks)
========================             ====================
~/my-pai-data/MEMORY/       <-----   ~/.claude/MEMORY
~/my-pai-data/USER/         <-----   ~/.claude/USER
~/my-pai-data/WORK/         <-----   ~/.claude/WORK
~/my-pai-data/CORE_USER/    <-----   ~/.claude/skills/CORE/USER
~/my-pai-data/skills/_FOO/  <-----   ~/.claude/skills/_FOO

Quick Start

# 1. Clone this template
git clone https://github.com/ecielam/pai-personal-data.git ~/my-pai-data
cd ~/my-pai-data

# 2. Run setup (creates symlinks)
./setup.sh

# 3. Set your remote to your own PRIVATE repo
git remote set-url origin git@github.com:YOUR_USERNAME/YOUR_PRIVATE_REPO.git
git push -u origin main

Directory Structure

your-pai-data/
├── README.md              # This file
├── setup.sh               # One-command setup script
├── link_skills.sh         # Helper to symlink personal skills
├── .gitignore.template    # Template (copied to .gitignore on first run)
│
├── MEMORY/                # Learning, research, session history
│   └── .gitkeep
│
├── USER/                  # Personal configuration overrides
│   └── .gitkeep
│
├── WORK/                  # Active work sessions
│   └── .gitkeep
│
├── CORE_USER/             # CORE skill user overrides
│   └── .gitkeep
│
└── skills/                # Personal skills (_ALLCAPS naming)
    └── .gitkeep

What Goes Where

MEMORY/ - Learning & Research

Everything PAI learns and remembers:

Subdirectory	Contents
LEARNINGS/	Patterns and insights from sessions
PAISYSTEMUPDATES/	Session documentation and changelogs
RESEARCH/	Archived research and investigations
SIGNALS/	Rating and sentiment data

USER/ - Personal Configuration

Your customizations that override PAI system defaults:

File	Purpose
ASSETMANAGEMENT.md	Your websites, domains, deployment methods
CONTACTS.md	Contact directory
DAIDENTITY.md	AI personality customization
TECHSTACKPREFERENCES.md	Preferred technologies and tools
PAISECURITYSYSTEM/	Personal security patterns

WORK/ - Active Sessions

Scratch space for ongoing work. Contains scratch/ subdirectory for temporary files (git-ignored).

CORE_USER/ - CORE Skill Overrides

The CORE skill auto-loads at every session start. This directory contains your personal overrides:

Subdirectory	Contents
TELOS/	Your goals, projects, life direction documents
RESPONSEFORMAT.md	Custom response format preferences
Other .md files	Any CORE-level customizations

Important: If you already have content in ~/.claude/skills/CORE/USER, you must move it here manually before running setup.

skills/ - Personal Skills

Personal skills use the _ALLCAPS naming convention (e.g., _BLOGGING, _MYWORKFLOW). These are private and never sync to the public PAI repo.

To add a personal skill:

1. Create a directory: skills/_MYSKILL/
2. Add at minimum: skills/_MYSKILL/SKILL.md
3. Run ./link_skills.sh or ./setup.sh

Migrating Existing Data

If you already have PAI data, follow these steps to migrate:

Step 1: Clone This Template

git clone https://github.com/ecielam/pai-personal-data.git ~/my-pai-data
cd ~/my-pai-data

Step 2: Move Your Existing Data

# Move main directories (setup.sh handles this automatically with backups)
# But for CORE_USER, you must do it manually:

# Check if you have existing CORE/USER data
ls ~/.claude/skills/CORE/USER

# If it exists and has content, move it:
mv ~/.claude/skills/CORE/USER/* ~/my-pai-data/CORE_USER/
rmdir ~/.claude/skills/CORE/USER

# For personal skills, move them too:
mv ~/.claude/skills/_MYSKILL ~/my-pai-data/skills/

Step 3: Run Setup

./setup.sh

The setup script will:

1. Create any missing directories
2. Backup existing PAI directories (MEMORY, USER, WORK)
3. Create symlinks pointing back to this repo
4. Link CORE_USER if the PAI location is empty
5. Link any personal skills in skills/

Step 4: Verify

# Check symlinks are correct
ls -la ~/.claude/ | grep -E "MEMORY|USER|WORK"
ls -la ~/.claude/skills/CORE/

# Check skills are linked
ls -la ~/.claude/skills/ | grep "^l"

Environment Variables

Variable	Default	Description
PAI_DIR	~/.claude	PAI installation directory

Security Notes

This repository contains personal data. Keep it private.

• Make your GitHub repo private
• Review commits before pushing - check for accidental secrets
• The .gitignore excludes common secret patterns
• Never commit API keys, credentials, or tokens
• CORE_USER may contain personal goals and life information

What's Excluded by Default

The .gitignore.template excludes:

• .env files and credentials
• scratch/ directories (temporary files)
• node_modules/ in skills
• Common secret file patterns

Maintenance

Regular Backups

cd ~/my-pai-data
git add -A
git commit -m "Session update: $(date +%Y-%m-%d)"
git push

New Machine Setup

git clone git@github.com:YOU/your-pai-data.git ~/my-pai-data
cd ~/my-pai-data
./setup.sh

Adding a New Personal Skill

cd ~/my-pai-data
mkdir -p skills/_NEWSKILL
cat > skills/_NEWSKILL/SKILL.md << 'EOF'
---
name: _NEWSKILL
description: Description of what this skill does
---

# _NEWSKILL

Your skill documentation here.
EOF

# Link it
./link_skills.sh

Troubleshooting

Symlinks Not Working

# Verify symlinks exist
ls -la ~/.claude/ | grep -E "MEMORY|USER|WORK"

# Re-run setup
./setup.sh

CORE_USER Shows Warning

If setup.sh shows a warning about existing CORE_USER directory:

# Move your existing data first
mv ~/.claude/skills/CORE/USER/* ~/my-pai-data/CORE_USER/
rmdir ~/.claude/skills/CORE/USER

# Then re-run setup
./setup.sh

Skills Not Linking

# Check skills directory has actual skill folders
ls -la skills/

# Make sure link_skills.sh is executable
chmod +x link_skills.sh

# Run it directly
./link_skills.sh

PAI Can't Find Data

# Check PAI_DIR matches your installation
echo $PAI_DIR  # Should be ~/.claude or your custom path

# Verify the symlinks resolve correctly
realpath ~/.claude/MEMORY
realpath ~/.claude/USER

Full Symlink Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                     Your Personal Data Repo                         │
│                      ~/my-pai-data/                                 │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  MEMORY/          USER/           WORK/                             │
│  CORE_USER/       skills/_FOO/    skills/_BAR/                      │
└────────┬─────────────┬──────────────┬──────────────────────────────┘
         │             │              │
         │ symlinks    │              │
         ▼             ▼              ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                         PAI (~/.claude/)                            │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  MEMORY → ../my-pai-data/MEMORY                                     │
│  USER   → ../my-pai-data/USER                                       │
│  WORK   → ../my-pai-data/WORK                                       │
│  skills/                                                            │
│    ├── CORE/                                                        │
│    │   └── USER → ../../../my-pai-data/CORE_USER                    │
│    ├── _FOO → ../../my-pai-data/skills/_FOO                         │
│    └── _BAR → ../../my-pai-data/skills/_BAR                         │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

---

Template for PAI (Personal AI Infrastructure)