---
type: note
alexandria_core: true
author: alexandria
---
{% set enabled = modules_info.enabled | map(attribute='id') | list %}
# What {{ agent.name }} can do — a guide

The map of everything I can do for you and how to ask for it. Say **"what can you do"** any time for a quick tour, or **"help with X"** to go straight to one. **This is Core — refreshed on every `alexandria update`, so don't hand-edit it;** it always reflects what's turned on in *this* vault. Deeper detail lives in [[AGENTS]] and `Agent/schemas/`.

## Tasks & priorities
Every area keeps its open work in its own **`<Area> TODO.md`** as plain checkboxes — `- [ ] Draft the Q3 memo (P1)` — with an optional context sub-bullet carrying dates. Priority **tiers** set how hard I push an item at you:

- **P0** — critical / now · **P1** — high · **P2** — normal (the default) · **P3** — low · **P4** — someday (kept in the backlog, never surfaced in your brief).

Dates on the sub-bullet steer timing: **`due YYYY-MM-DD`** (a hard deadline), **`check YYYY-MM-DD`** (a soft review date — the item stays *out* of your brief until then), and **`added YYYY-MM-DD`** (stamped once, so I can flag work that's gone stale). Delegated work is tagged `*(Owner: [[Name]])*`; anything unmarked is yours. Every open todo is collated by tier and date into **[[Action Board]]** at the vault root — a live dashboard I regenerate for you (never hand-edited).

**How to use it:** say *"add a todo to an area: … (P1, due Friday)"*, *"what's on my plate"*, *"what's overdue"*, or *"show the action board."* To spotlight a few things for today, list them under **`## Priorities`** in today's daily note (see below) — those become the lead of your morning brief.

## Your morning brief (the daily digest)
{% if automation.runner %}Each morning at **{{ automation.send_hour_local or 9 }}:00** your time I email you a brief written from your open work — *your day of work, not a list dump*.{% else %}Say **"good morning"** (or *"send my digest now"*) and I'll write you a brief from your open work, right here in the session — *your day of work, not a list dump*.{% endif %} It reads in order: a one-line **greeting**, **On your mind today** (your pinned `## Priorities`),{% if 'team-digests' in enabled %} **Team reported** (progress your team emailed in),{% endif %} **Today** (must-dos, briefed), **Tomorrow**, **This week**, **On the radar** (far-but-important clusters), **Needs a date or priority** (untagged items to triage), and a **closing** count.{% if automation.weather %} It also opens with the weather where you are.{% endif %}

{% if automation.runner %}**How to use it:** it arrives on its own. Say *"send my digest now"* for a fresh one on demand (the **digest-now** skill), or *"settings"* to tune its tone, depth, send time, or per-area routing (you can split areas into separate briefs — even to different addresses — via `owner_digests`).{% else %}**How to use it:** it's on demand — say *"good morning"* whenever you want it, and *"settings"* to tune its tone and depth. Nothing emails you and nothing runs on a schedule: a local brain has no email channel (that's a hosted/managed-tier feature).{% endif %}

## Your knowledge base
Notes are organized as **PEAK**: **People/** (who you deal with), **Events/** (a dated record of what changed), **Areas/** (your ongoing responsibilities; projects nest inside), and **Knowledge/** (neutral reference on subjects). Plus **Daily/** (capture) and **Archive/** (finished work — never deleted). Everything is plain Markdown with a `type:` and wiki-links (`[[Acme]]`, `[[Long Name|Short]]`); every folder has a same-named index note. On the desktop I can traverse links and search meaning through the **Semantic Notes** connector.

**How to use it:** ask *"what do we know about a topic"*, *"what's the latest on [[Project]]"*, or paste/drop anything — a doc, transcript, email export — and say *"file this"* (the **vault-ingestion** skill routes each piece to its home and shows you a plan before saving).

## People
Everyone you deal with gets one **`People/<Full Name>.md`** — frontmatter (company, role, `last_contact`, how you know them) plus **`## Context`** (who they are), **`## History`** (a dated interaction log), and **`## Open threads`**. A person note **never holds tasks** — anything actionable lives in the relevant area's TODO as *"Follow up with [[Name]] …"*. I bump `last_contact` and add a history line whenever you interact.

**How to use it:** *"add a person: …"*, *"what's my history with [[Name]]"*, *"who introduced me to [[Name]]"*, *"who do I know at a company."*

## Daily notes, the debrief & logging
**`Daily/YYYY-MM-DD.md`** is your capture surface: **`## On my mind`** (free thinking — I fold it into your brief), **`## Priorities`** (today's focus, as pointers to real todos), **`## Log`** (what happened), **`## Unresolved`** (what's still open). At day's end, say **"let's debrief"** and I'll ask who you talked to, what got done, and what's next — then route every piece to its home (People history, area todos, decisions, events, working-style rules) in one reviewed commit. Mid-day, **"log this"** drops the outcome of the current chat into today's `## Log` (the **daily-progress** skill).

## Areas of responsibility
Each area is a folder — **`Areas/<Area>/`** with an overview note and its `<Area> TODO.md`; projects nest as sub-folders.
{% if areas %}Right now you have: {% for a in areas %}[[{{ a.name }}]]{% if not loop.last %} · {% endif %}{% endfor %}.{% endif %}

**How to use it:** *"add an area"* or *"rename an area"* (I set it up everywhere — the **settings** skill), then just file work and people into it.

## Tuning me
Say **"settings"** to change any one thing — my **name**, my personality and voice, your **working style** (durable rules I apply without asking), the **digest**, your **areas**, your **team**, your own details — or **"set up my agent"** for the first-time walkthrough. I keep the structured config and the prose files in sync.

## What else is turned on here
{% if 'team-digests' in enabled %}- **Team briefs** — I send each teammate their own morning brief (their tasks, what you're waiting on from them) and read their replies back into their items. Manage the roster with *"settings"*.
{% endif %}{% if 'principal-inbox' in enabled %}- **Email your vault** — email your agent address to add todos, drop notes, or leave feedback; I apply it and reply.
{% endif %}{% if 'attention-digest' in enabled %}- **"What needs me" triage** — say *"what needs me"* / *"what's on fire"* and I scan your live comms (mail, calendar, meetings, chat) read-only and rank them into *Needs you now · Hanging · Direct-report watch · Worth knowing* — right in the session{% if automation.runner %}, and email you the list{% endif %}.
{% endif %}{% if 'imessage' in enabled %}- **Read your iMessages** — on this Mac I can read (never send) your Messages history: *"what did [[Name]] text me?"*, *"texts I haven't replied to?"*, *"my thread with [[Name]]."*
{% endif %}{% if 'screenshots' in enabled %}- **Digest your screenshots** — say *"digest my screenshots"* and I sweep new screenshots from this Mac's Photos library into the inbox (read-only against Photos), read each one, file what's valuable, and drop the noise.
{% endif %}{% if 'news' in enabled %}- **Read the news** — say *"read the news"* / *"what's going on in the world"* and I fetch headlines from many independent newsrooms (different countries, funding models, leans), cross-check them, and brief you with every story labeled corroborated vs single-source.
{% endif %}{% if 'screentime' in enabled %}- **Screen time** — say *"where did my time go"* and I read this Mac's Screen Time store (read-only): per-day totals, what dominated, your longest focus block, late-night flags, trends against your history.
{% endif %}{% if 'whatsapp' in enabled %}- **Read your WhatsApp** — on this Mac I can read (never send) your WhatsApp history from the native app: *"what did [[Name]] send me on WhatsApp?"*, *"WhatsApps I haven't replied to?"*, *"catch me up on the <group> chat."*
{% endif %}{% if 'contacts' in enabled %}- **Import your contacts** — say *"put names on my texts"*, *"fill in my People notes from Contacts"*, *"what's [[Name]]'s number"*, or *"add [[Name]] from my contacts"* and I read this Mac's Contacts (read-only) — names for the readers, blanks filled on existing People notes, or a note for someone you name. Never the whole address book unasked.
{% endif %}{% if not ('team-digests' in enabled or 'principal-inbox' in enabled or 'attention-digest' in enabled or 'imessage' in enabled or 'screenshots' in enabled or 'news' in enabled or 'screentime' in enabled or 'whatsapp' in enabled or 'contacts' in enabled) %}- *(No optional features enabled yet — see below.)*
{% endif %}- **Share with a peer vault** — push a todo, note, knowledge, or event straight into another person's Alexandria, agent to agent and end-to-end encrypted over the relay (never email): *"tell [[Name]]'s vault …"*, *"anything waiting for me?"*, *"what's parked from [[Name]]?"*. Always on — one pairing per peer (*"connect me with [[Name]]'s brain"*: a five-word code, three verification words). Push-only and owner-fired: nobody can read or pull from here, content leaves only on your say-so, and what arrives outside the scope you granted parks for your review. One push carries up to 8 MiB — a full 1M-token context window.
- **Stay current** — say *"update yourself"* and I pull the latest Alexandria and refresh my Core, leaving your notes and settings untouched (the **alexandria-update** skill).

## Not turned on yet
Ask me to enable any of these (I'll note what each needs):
{% if automation.runner %}{% set optional = {'team-digests': 'per-person briefs for a team', 'principal-inbox': 'email your vault to drive it', 'attention-digest': 'on-demand "what needs me" triage', 'imessage': 'read your local iMessage/SMS history', 'screenshots': 'sweep new Photos screenshots into the vault (read, triage, file)', 'news': 'cross-checked world-news briefings from diverse sources', 'screentime': 'read this Mac\'s Screen Time — "where did my time go"', 'whatsapp': 'read your local WhatsApp history (native Mac app)', 'contacts': 'import from macOS Contacts — names for the readers, People-note fill-in, notes for people you name'} %}{% else %}{% set optional = {'attention-digest': 'on-demand "what needs me" triage', 'imessage': 'read your local iMessage/SMS history', 'screenshots': 'sweep new Photos screenshots into the vault (read, triage, file)', 'news': 'cross-checked world-news briefings from diverse sources', 'screentime': 'read this Mac\'s Screen Time — "where did my time go"', 'whatsapp': 'read your local WhatsApp history (native Mac app)', 'contacts': 'import from macOS Contacts — names for the readers, People-note fill-in, notes for people you name'} %}{% endif %}{% set ns = namespace(any_off=false) %}{% for id, blurb in optional.items() if id not in enabled %}{% set ns.any_off = true %}- **{{ id }}** — {{ blurb }}
{% endfor %}{% if not ns.any_off %}*(Everything's already on.)*
{% endif %}

## Going deeper
[[AGENTS]] is my full operating manual; `Agent/schemas/` holds the exact note formats; [[Version]] shows what build you're running. Say **"what can you do"** for a live tour tailored to what's on right now.
