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How do I get started with an AI that remembers?

Facts as of October 17, 2026

In three steps: install the app, set up connectors, create a local knowledge store. The easiest way is the guide on this site, which you give to your own AI. It walks you through and changes nothing without your OK.

In detail

This way of working has three steps:

  1. The app. Claude or ChatGPT, as a desktop app on your computer.
  2. The connectors. They connect the AI to the programs and data you work with every day. Read-only at first, one at a time at first, with harmless data at first. Email and calendar come later.
  3. The memory. A folder of text files on your computer, a vault. From then on, everything you do with the AI goes in there.

Before that, you settle which data doesn't belong in the AI – see Can I put other people's data into a personal AI subscription?.

The whole path is in the downloadable guide. Here is how to use it: in Claude, open the desktop app and start a new task or a new project; in ChatGPT, create a new project. Then drag the file into the chat or upload it to the project, and paste the text below as your first message. The conversation runs over several sessions, and nobody has to adopt everything.

To copy

Read the attached file completely before you answer. It describes a way of
working with an AI assistant that Thomas J. Weiss has used daily since June
2026. You will walk me through it so that I can decide what to adopt. Until I
explicitly agree to a specific step, you do not change, install, connect or
create anything, and you do not read my mail, calendar or file storage – you
only read the file and explain. One question per message, each with your
recommendation. Start with Phase 0.

In practice

People who have used the guide so far experienced what Thomas J. Weiss experienced himself: a very steep learning curve, and quickly the sense that this is far more than a bit of searching with AI.

Sources

  • Interview with Thomas J. Weiss on onboarding, 17.10.2026
  • Guide „Mit einer KI arbeiten, die sich erinnert“, draft October 2026

Cite: Thomas J. Weiss: “How do I get started with an AI that remembers?” replicapong.de, as of October 17, 2026. https://replicapong.de/en/question/getting-started/ – CC BY 4.0

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