docs/manual-setup.md

Manual Setup Guide

No AI help needed. Do it yourself.

Steps

1. Open the brain/ folder inside the downloaded relic folder

2. Copy template files to active files (templates have .template in the name — they're blank forms):

   • SOUL.template.md → rename copy to SOUL.md
   • USER.template.md → rename copy to USER.md
   • MEMORY.template.md → rename copy to MEMORY.md

3. Open SOUL.md in any text editor (Notepad, TextEdit, VS Code — anything works) and fill in at least the "Core Mission" section

4. Open USER.md and fill in your preferences

5. (Mac/Linux only) Lock the files to prevent accidental changes:

   chmod 444 SOUL.md USER.md
   

   This locks the files against accidental modification. Unlock first if you need to edit later. Windows users skip this.

6. Point your AI tool to AGENT.md (English) or AGENT.zh-CN.md (Chinese) — it'll take over from there

The Seven Files

File	Purpose
SOUL.md	AI's soul — name, personality, mission, style
USER.md	Your info — preferred name, preferences, habits
MEMORY.md	Long-term memory — preferences, decisions, experiences (extracted knowledge, not raw chat)
SKILLS/	Skills — learned capabilities, one folder per skill
PROJECTS/	Projects — documentation for things worked on
SESSIONS/	Conversation logs — full raw chat transcripts with the AI
ARCHIVE/	Archive — old memories moved here when too long, never deleted

Connect Your AI Tool

AI Tool	How to Connect
OpenClaw	See examples/integrations/openclaw.md
Hermes	See examples/integrations/hermes.md
Claude Code	See examples/integrations/generic.md
Cursor	See examples/integrations/generic.md
Other	See examples/integrations/generic.md

All tools follow the same pattern: tell the AI to read AGENT.md, it handles the rest.

Having issues? See docs/TROUBLESHOOTING.md.