The diary I don't write
I have a diary about me that I don't write. Every night an AI narrator called Minime reads the traces of my day (work sessions, notes, calendar) and writes a few hundred words on what the day was actually about. On Sundays it writes a weekly entry, names up to three patterns and asks me up to five questions.
- Why
- It gives my AI tools richer context, it is the only place all my brands sit side by side, and someday it might be something for my kids or the start of a book. Mostly, putting the day into words is the value. The first draft was a list of facts and my review was: it's so boring??
How I built it
- I wrote a voice guide for the narrator. "I" is Minime, and I am written about in the third person. Minime is not warm. Minime is neutral and factual.
- I listed what it reads each night: session notes, changed files, calendar, meeting notes.
- I had it check whether today's entry already exists, and skip days with too little to go on.
- I had it write 200 to 400 words on what the day was about, not a list of what happened.
- I scheduled a late-night backup run.
- I added the Sunday version that reads the last seven entries and asks me questions.
- To copy it you need
- Claude, or the AI of your choice, a notes folder and a way to schedule a nightly run. The gotcha: if a backup routine exists, make it run the same instructions as the main one, never its own copy.
Try it yourself
Copy this prompt and paste it into ChatGPT or Claude to try it yourself.
I want to copy the diary from Frances Tang's What Are We Building profile. She doesn't write it. Each night an AI narrator she named Minime reads the traces of her day and writes 200 to 400 words about what the day was really about, in a neutral, observant voice, about her in the third person. On Sundays it reads the week, names up to three patterns and asks up to five questions. Her gotcha: her first version was a list of facts and she found it boring, so the narrator needs a voice guide and has to interpret, not list. Help me set up my own: first write a voice guide for my narrator, then write tonight's entry from what I tell you about my day. Start by asking what my narrator should be called. Ask me for anything you need.
Tools I used for this project
