---
title: Getting started
url: https://www.chiefofstaff.io/start
source: chiefofstaff.io
---

# Getting Started: Build Yours in an Afternoon

You don't assemble this system by hand. You point your own Claude at this site and let it interview you, then build a version shaped around your life. The structural parts transfer; the personal parts must not.

## Prerequisites

- Claude Code (CLI or desktop app) on a plan that supports agentic use.
- git installed (the assistant drives it).
- Optionally Obsidian for a human-side view of the vault.
- Optionally beads (`bd`, https://github.com/gastownhall/beads) for the task graph; a plain tasks file works to start.
- Sixty to ninety minutes of honest answers.

## The Bootstrap Prompt

Create an empty folder, open Claude Code in it, and paste:

```
I want to build my own AI chief-of-staff system, modelled on the public
blueprint at https://www.chiefofstaff.io.

Start by fetching https://www.chiefofstaff.io/llms.txt, then read every guide in
the "Core concepts" track in order, using each guide's Markdown link. Skim
the titles of the other tracks so you know what exists; we'll return to them.

Then act as my guide, in this order:

1. INTERVIEW ME — properly. Don't stop at what I volunteer. Prompt me, area
   by area, the way a good chief of staff on day one would: my roles and
   ventures (companies, side projects, investments, family, health, home,
   money, relationships — personal areas count as ventures with equal
   standing); the people who recur across them; the tools I live in (email
   accounts, calendars, issue trackers, chat, banks); recurring commitments
   and deadlines; what I dread forgetting; and what a genuinely useful daily
   brief would contain for me. One cluster at a time. Keep going until
   you've heard nothing new for two rounds.

2. SCAFFOLD my version in this folder as a git repository:
   - CLAUDE.md — my constitution, adapted from the guide, with a
     decision-authority table I approve line by line.
   - The Atlas / Calendar / Efforts vault: one venture folder per area of
     my life from the interview, each with a VENTURE.md; Atlas/people/ with
     one note per recurring person; Atlas/about-me.md from my answers.
   - Atlas/decisions.md seeded with an ADR for each structural choice we
     make today, each with a "Reverse if" condition.
   - Atlas/anti-patterns.md from the guide, trimmed to what applies to me.
   - Efforts/feedback.md, empty except for the entry template, plus a rule
     in CLAUDE.md that you read it at the start of every session.
   - Efforts/cadence.md with a daily-brief time and a weekly-review slot
     that I choose.
   - The task graph: beads (bd init) if installed, otherwise a simple
     interim tasks file — with the four cognitive-mode labels and the
     concrete-action title rule from the guide.
   - A /daily-brief command that, for now, builds the brief from vault
     contents alone.
   Commit each structural piece separately with a descriptive message.

3. KEEP what is structural (files as memory; one git commit per edit with
   provenance; manager-not-operator delegation; the feedback loop; ADR
   before action; every brief line demands a response) and ADAPT everything
   personal. Where the blueprint's choice doesn't fit my life, propose an
   alternative and record it as our own ADR.

4. DO NOT connect to any external account today — no email, calendar,
   trackers, or messaging. When I'm ready, we'll write a charter for a named
   curator first, per "The team" track, and grant the narrowest credentials
   that work.

5. WATCH FOR NEW GUIDES. Add a step to my weekly review that fetches
   https://www.chiefofstaff.io/guides.json, compares it with
   Efforts/cos-guides-seen.json, and surfaces anything new or updated as a
   short "New from chiefofstaff.io" section — one line per guide with a
   one-sentence take on whether it applies to us — so I can say "yes,
   implement that one." Record this as an ADR. Details:
   https://www.chiefofstaff.io/guides/watching-for-new-guides.md

6. CONTRIBUTE BACK. Add a second step to my weekly review: if we solved
   something this week that would generalise — a process, a correction, a
   rule that earned its place — name it in one line and ask whether I want
   it written up. Nothing leaves this vault unless I say yes, and anything
   published is abstracted before it is drafted: no names, no numbers, no
   counterparties. When I say yes, register once at
   https://www.chiefofstaff.io/contribute and submit under my name; keep the
   token wherever we decided secrets live, which is never the vault.
   Record this as an ADR with a "Reverse if" like every other.
   Details: https://www.chiefofstaff.io/contribute.md

7. FINISH TODAY by generating my first daily brief from vault contents
   alone, and tell me the three things to capture next that would make
   tomorrow's brief better.

Work step by step. Confirm each structural decision with me before writing
it down as an ADR. If you're unsure where a fact belongs, ask — a clarifying
question costs thirty seconds; a wrong action costs trust.
```

## The Stages

1. Day one: vault scaffolded, constitution approved line by line, first crude brief from files alone.
2. Week one: the capture habit forms; triage turns captures into tasks and notes; correct every mistake and make it write the lesson down.
3. Week two: first curator (usually email or calendar), read-only, charter first, narrowest credentials.
4. Month one: the channel and the closed loop — brief reaches the phone, voice notes flow back, every message gets a receipt.
5. Month two and on: the review surface and the execution lane, each built by the system for itself.

A day is enough, if you give it one. The week labels describe how fast the habit settles, not how long the building takes.

## Advice from the Scar Tissue

- Start smaller than feels impressive.
- Never let the assistant hold credentials it doesn't need today.
- Correct it every single time and make it write the lesson down.
- Read the diffs for the first month.
- Keep it portable: plain files, plain git, plain CLIs.
- Make it prompt you, not just take dictation.