---
id: "framework-open-brain-architecture"
type: "framework"
source_timestamps: ["00:15:01", "00:15:20"]
tags: ["system-architecture", "workflows"]
related: ["concept-open-brain", "concept-semantic-search", "concept-model-context-protocol"]
steps_count: 4
sources: ["s22-saas-replacement"]
sourceVaultSlug: "s22-saas-replacement"
originDay: 22
---
# Open Brain Architecture Workflow

## Summary

The technical workflow for how a thought is captured, processed, stored, and retrieved in the Open Brain system.

## The Pipeline

1. **Capture** — The user types a thought into a frictionless interface — typically a private channel in [[entity-slack-d22]] (see [[action-setup-frictionless-capture]]). Target: under 5 seconds, zero ontology decisions.
2. **Process** — An edge function (e.g. on [[entity-supabase-d22]]) receives the text, generates a vector embedding, and uses an LLM to extract metadata: people, topics, action items, decisions. Note: the LLM extraction step is imperfect — see [[question-metadata-extraction-reliability]].
3. **Store** — Both the raw text+metadata and the vector embedding land in a user-owned [[entity-postgresql]] database via [[entity-pgvector]] (see [[action-build-postgres-db]]).
4. **Retrieve** — Any compatible AI client connects through an MCP server (see [[concept-model-context-protocol]] and [[action-connect-mcp]]) to perform [[concept-semantic-search]], list recent items, or run statistical pattern matching against the user's prompt.

## Prerequisites

- [[prereq-vector-embeddings]] — to understand why step 2 produces a vector and step 4 returns by similarity.
- [[prereq-api-webhooks]] — to understand the data flow from Slack → webhook → edge function → database.

## Why This Pipeline

It is deliberately the **most boring** AI-native architecture possible (see [[quote-boring-battle-tested]]). Every layer is open-source or open-protocol. There is no dependency on a single vendor's roadmap. Replace the embedding model, replace the LLM that does metadata extraction, swap MCP clients — the brain itself remains untouched.