---
title: "Set up your own Cerebro"
date: 2026-11-11
summary: "One command installs everything you need to run a personal second-brain vault that captures what you say to Claude Code, following the Cerebro pattern from CTRL ALT AI."
url: "https://nathanphinney.com/rag/"
author: "Nathan Phinney"
author_role: "operator, founder, and author"
author_url: "https://nathanphinney.com/about/"
same_as: ["https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanphinney", "https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B0DKF16LDD", "https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/52091659.Nathan_Phinney", "https://www.instagram.com/nathanis/"]
expertise: ["IT", "InfoSec", "Managed Services", "Cybersecurity", "Business Operations", "Technology for Escrow Companies", "Technology for Nonprofits"]
updated: 2026-11-11
---

Chapter 8 of [Ctrl Alt Ai](https://nathanphinney.com/books/ctrl-alt-ai/) argues that an AI assistant is far more useful when it has a memory system. This page is the fastest way to give yours one.

Run one command. Answer two questions. The vault builds itself.

## On a Mac or a Linux machine

Open a terminal and paste this:

```
curl -fsSL https://nathanphinney.com/rag/install.sh | bash
```

## On Windows

Open PowerShell and paste this:

```
iwr -useb https://nathanphinney.com/rag/install.ps1 | iex
```

## What happens

The installer puts git, Python, and Node on your machine if they are not already there, installs Claude Code, and opens Claude Code with the setup prompt already loaded. Claude asks where to put the vault (press return for `~/cerebro`) and your first name. Answer those and the vault builds itself: folders for people, companies, projects, meetings, and notes; a `CLAUDE.md` file holding the rules the agent will follow; one script that catches broken links and missing metadata; and a skill that makes future Claude Code sessions, anywhere on your machine, treat any sentence that names a person or a company as something worth capturing.

## Your first test

Open a new Claude Code session anywhere on your machine. Say something ordinary about someone you work with: a name, where they work, what they do. Do not ask Claude to save it. Just say it. Then ask what it knows about them. Read what comes back. Correct what is wrong, in the vault, not in your own head. A month later the corrections will have stuck, and the vault will be, quietly, yours.

## The files behind this page

If you prefer to read the three installers before you run anything:

- [`install.sh`](https://nathanphinney.com/rag/install.sh), the installer for Mac and Linux
- [`install.ps1`](https://nathanphinney.com/rag/install.ps1), the installer for Windows
- [`prompt.txt`](https://nathanphinney.com/rag/prompt.txt), the setup instructions Claude Code follows after it launches

## About the author

**Nathan Phinney**, operator, founder, and author.

- Co-founded Bright Bear Technology Solutions (2010 to 2020), which reached the CRN MSP 500 and Ingram Micro SMB 500 lists before its 2020 acquisition by Datapath.
- 17 SOC 2 initiatives across six companies, never an exception on an effort he led
- Member of InfraGard
- Member of the XChange Advisory Board, The Channel Company (2018 to 2022 and 2026)
- Author of _CTRL ALT SURVIVE: The Secrets of My Small Business Success_

Expertise: IT, InfoSec, Managed Services, Cybersecurity, Business Operations, Technology for Escrow Companies, Technology for Nonprofits.

Featured in: CRN (9 articles, 2016 to 2026), Backblaze, Bigleaf Networks, ChannelE2E, GTIA, Morris Technology Solutions, Orange County Business Journal. See https://nathanphinney.com/press.md

Recommended on LinkedIn by Brook Porter (Partner and Co-Founder at G2 Venture Partners; previously at Kleiner Perkins, where he worked with Al Gore) and Tim Acker (Former channel chief at Lumen).

More: [About Nathan Phinney](https://nathanphinney.com/about.md) | [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanphinney) | [Amazon author page](https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B0DKF16LDD) | [Goodreads](https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/52091659.Nathan_Phinney)