Memory and reference
The long-term brain (gbrain distiller and recall), every environment knob, and the troubleshooting list.
Long-term memory
The board is working memory. Durable knowledge (decisions, results, notes,
questions, review handoffs, task outcomes, reopen feedback) is additionally
distilled into a per-project brain by a detached background worker. The brain
is powered by the AISquare gbrain CLI (a separate, optional tool, not the
unrelated gbrain package on public npm). It never runs on the hot path, and
when gbrain is not installed the layer simply stays off; nothing else
changes.
aisquare recall "what did we decide about auth?" # search the brain
aisquare team distill # drain the pipe into it now
aisquare team distill --all # backfill from the beginning
aisquare doctor # includes brain health + lagrecall drains any undistilled backlog before searching, so the first recall
on a busy project initialises the brain and takes a few seconds; after that it
is instant. Brains are created with embeddings off; set
AISQUARE_BRAIN_EMBED=1 if you want distilled pages embedded (uses your
OPENAI_API_KEY, only at distill time).
Environment knobs
The orchestrator is configured per session through the environment, nothing else:
| Variable | Effect |
|---|---|
AISQUARE_ROLE | role for this session; also activates orchestration for the repo |
AISQUARE_TEAM=0 | master off switch (hooks and commands no-op) |
AISQUARE_TEAM_HUB | pin sessions from several repos onto one shared board |
AISQUARE_TEAM_DELTA=0 | mute per-prompt teammate deltas for a heads-down session |
AISQUARE_TEAM_LEASE_MIN | claim lease in minutes (default 120) |
AISQUARE_BRAIN=0 | disable the gbrain layer entirely |
AISQUARE_BRAIN_EMBED=1 | allow embedding of distilled pages |
AISQUARE_SERVE_CLIENT / AISQUARE_SERVE_ROLE / AISQUARE_SERVE_PORT | identity and port for aisquare serve |
Command map
aisquare team on · status · focus <text> · role <name> · log · distill [--all]
aisquare task add · list · show · next · claim · review · reopen · done
block · drop · release (all accept --as <session>)
aisquare note "<text>" [--task T] [--to ROLE] [--kind decision|question|result]
aisquare board [-w] · aisquare recall "<query>"
aisquare serve [--stdio | --port N] [--show-token]
aisquare agents connect claude-code [--config-dir DIR]Every command honours --json for scripting.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Cause and fix |
|---|---|
| Board says "quiet here" | You are in a different project than the sessions. Export AISQUARE_TEAM_HUB in this shell, or run from the repo the team was launched in. |
| Sessions never appear | Hooks load at Claude startup: relaunch sessions started before agents connect. aisquare doctor confirms hook health per config dir. |
| Doctor: "hooks are missing or outdated" | An older install predates some lifecycle hooks. Re-run aisquare agents connect claude-code (per --config-dir if you use several). |
| A session shows stale | It has not heartbeat in 30+ minutes. Its claims self-release when the lease expires; the row disappears once it ends. |
| An agent says done but the task is in review | Saying is not doing: a task closes only when aisquare task done actually runs. Check aisquare team log; if there is no task_done event, tell the agent to execute the command, not narrate it. |
recall says the brain is unavailable | gbrain is not on PATH, or another distill holds the brain briefly. Install gbrain, or retry in a few seconds. |