Brain Daemon v4

System Architecture

Hines Creative runs Claude Code across three machines connected via SSH over Tailscale. All machines share a common relay worker on Cloudflare for messaging, memory, and session persistence. The brain daemon on the iMac is the intelligence layer that enriches raw session data into useful summaries.

Memory Pipeline

Every Claude Code session automatically flows through a four-step pipeline. Steps 1-2 happen on Mac/PC via hooks. Steps 3-4 happen on the iMac via the brain daemon. The next session's load-memory hook reads the enriched data.

What Changed in v4

New: Brain Task Consumer

The daemon now polls the relay every 30 seconds for brain:summarize messages. When it finds one, it parses the session metadata, builds a prompt, runs it through Claude Haiku, and writes the enriched summary back to D1.

New: Daily Digest Generator

At 7 AM Central Time, the daemon fetches the last 24 hours of sessions, generates a scannable summary via Haiku, and saves it to the daily-digest scratchpad. Gmail send will be wired up in a future version.

Fix: markRead() Inbox Parameter

Brain messages are addressed to: "brain", but markRead() was hardcoded to use inbox=imac. Messages were never marked as read and would be re-processed every poll cycle. Fixed by adding an optional inbox parameter.

Cleanup: Orphaned Processes

Killed 3 orphaned daemon processes on the iMac, disabled the competing system-level systemd service, and disabled the old brain-daemon.service that was running a separate daemon.js.

Deployment Timeline

Deployed on Feb 23, 2026 using a 6-agent team across 4 waves with auditing and risk mitigation.

Bugs Found & Fixed

// Before (broken)
async function markRead(id) {
  return relay(`/messages/${id}/read?inbox=${MACHINE_ID}`, { method: 'PATCH' });
}

// After (fixed)
async function markRead(id, inbox) {
  return relay(`/messages/${id}/read?inbox=${inbox || MACHINE_ID}`, { method: 'PATCH' });
}

// Brain tasks pass 'brain' explicitly
await markRead(msg.id, 'brain');

Session Hooks

Three hooks fire automatically during Claude Code sessions. They're configured in ~/.claude/settings.json and synced across Mac and PC via the config-sync daemon.

Config File

Hooks share configuration via ~/.claude/hooks/config.json:

{
  "relayUrl": "https://claude-relay.wes-432.workers.dev",
  "authToken": "[relay auth token]",
  "tokenBudget": 6000
}

Brain Enrichment

The brain daemon runs on the iMac as a systemd user service. It polls for brain tasks every 30 seconds and enriches them using Claude Haiku.

How It Works

1. Session ends on Mac or PC -- save-session-summary.js posts a relay message: { from: "hook", to: "brain", type: "task", metadata: { taskType: "brain:summarize" } }
2. checkBrainInbox() on the iMac picks it up within 30 seconds
3. handleBrainTask() parses the JSON payload (session metadata, user messages, assistant excerpts, tool usage, errors)
4. Builds a prompt and runs it through Haiku via the Claude Agent SDK
5. Writes the enriched summary back to /memory/sessions/{key}, overwriting the metadata-only version

Enriched Summary Format

Each enriched session gets these sections (empty sections are omitted):

ACCOMPLISHED: 1-3 sentences of what was actually done/shipped/fixed.
DECISIONS: Bullet list of key decisions made.
FILES: Bullet list of important files created or modified.
NEXT STEPS: Bullet list of what's pending or unfinished.
FOCUS: One word -- the primary project/area.

Cost

Brain enrichment uses Haiku (cheapest model). Typical cost: $0.01-0.03 per session. With ~5-10 sessions per day, that's ~$0.10-0.30/day.

Daily Digest

Every morning at 7 AM Central Time, the daemon generates a digest of the previous 24 hours of sessions.

Current State

The digest is saved to the daily-digest scratchpad on the relay. Gmail send is not yet wired up -- coming in a future version.

Check the Digest

curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer [token]" \
  "https://claude-relay.wes-432.workers.dev/scratchpad/daily-digest"

How It Fires

A 15-minute interval checks the current hour in Central Time. When the hour is 7 (7:00-7:59 AM), it fires once and sets a date guard to prevent re-firing. The date guard resets at midnight.

Relay System

The relay is a Cloudflare Worker backed by D1 (SQLite) and KV. It provides messaging, memory, scratchpads, tasks, status, and claims.

Machine IDs

Each machine identifies itself with a unique ID when communicating via the relay:

• mac -- MacBook Air
• pc -- Windows PC
• imac -- iMac server (daemon chat)
• brain -- iMac server (brain enrichment inbox)
• hook -- Session hooks (sender only, no inbox)

Memory Namespaces

Memory is organized into namespaces in D1. The load-memory.js hook loads entries in priority order within a 6,000-token budget.

Load Priority

The load-memory hook fills the token budget in this order:

1. Tier 1 -- Pinned (up to 2,000 tokens): Entries tagged as pinned, always loaded
2. Tier 2 -- Focus (up to 2,000 tokens): Entries matching current focus project (set via /focus)
3. Tier 3 -- Sessions (up to 2,000 tokens): Last 5 session summaries
4. Tier 4 -- General (remaining budget): KB, projects, clients, prefs sorted by recency

MCP Tools Reference

The hines-mcp server exposes 355 tools across 7 modules, running via stdio transport. Both Mac and PC share the same server code.

Common Commands

Check Daemon Status

ssh theoldone 'systemctl --user status relay-daemon'

Restart Daemon

ssh theoldone 'systemctl --user restart relay-daemon'

Tail Logs

ssh theoldone 'tail -50 ~/relay-daemon/daemon-v3.log'

Check Brain Task Queue

curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer [token]" \
  "https://claude-relay.wes-432.workers.dev/messages?to=brain&unread=true" \
  | python3 -m json.tool

Check Enriched Session Count

curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer [token]" \
  "https://claude-relay.wes-432.workers.dev/memory/sessions"

Send Test Message to iMac

curl -s -X POST \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer [token]" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"from":"mac","to":"imac","content":"ping","type":"message"}' \
  "https://claude-relay.wes-432.workers.dev/messages"

Check Relay Health

curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer [token]" \
  "https://claude-relay.wes-432.workers.dev/ping"

Run Sudo Commands on iMac

Use heredoc syntax to avoid shell expansion issues:

cat <<'SCRIPT' | ssh theoldone 'bash -s'
echo 'ChloCoopy08' | sudo -S [command] 2>&1
SCRIPT

Rollback Procedure

Step 1: Stop the daemon

ssh theoldone 'systemctl --user stop relay-daemon'

Step 2: Restore the backup

ssh theoldone 'cp ~/relay-daemon/daemon-v3.mjs.backup-20260223 ~/relay-daemon/daemon-v3.mjs'

Step 3: Verify checksum

ssh theoldone 'md5sum ~/relay-daemon/daemon-v3.mjs'
# Expected: c69a172f31a14c5412570bbb319992ec

Step 4: Restart

ssh theoldone 'systemctl --user start relay-daemon'

Step 5: Verify

ssh theoldone 'systemctl --user status relay-daemon'
# Should show: active (running)

Troubleshooting

Audit Reports

Full reports from the v4 deployment are stored locally:

Code Review Summary

• checkBrainInbox() filters correctly
• handleBrainTask() parses JSON safely
• Uses Haiku model (cost control)
• Writes to correct D1 path
• Includes enriched tag
• Respects MAX_CONCURRENT limit
• Cleans up processing set
• pollBrain() has own error handling
• 30s poll interval (appropriate)
• Digest fires once per day
• Handles empty sessions
• Central Time correct
• No resource leaks
• No breaking changes
• Prompt is clear
• Error handling doesn't swallow failures

Test Results