Memory

Navin Project Brain: RESUME, DECISIONS, MEMORY, SOUL and USER

Q: Does Brain replace the board?

No. Brain remembers; the [board](/blog/gestion-taches-board-agent-expert-navin) executes. Both live under .navin/.

August 5, 2026 · 2 min read · Navin team

Durable project memory versioned in the repo, shared by Code and studios, injected every turn - not chat history.

A brilliant agent that forgets everything between sessions is not a collaborator. Project Brain is the project's durable memory: versioned files in the repo, edited in Project Home, re-read every turn by the agent - shared by Code and every studio.

Not chat history. A project brain.

The continuity pack

<project>/
  .navin/
    continuity/       RESUME.md, DECISIONS.md
    board/            board, mission, autonomy settings
  memory/MEMORY.md    durable facts and constraints
  SOUL.md, USER.md    agent persona + user preferences

Idempotent scaffold on open / import: nothing existing is overwritten. .cursor / .claude folders coexist.

The five files that matter

File	Role
RESUME.md	Resume brief; refreshed on compaction / handoffs
DECISIONS.md	Long-term decisions - settled choices are not re-debated
MEMORY.md	Durable facts, constraints, known pitfalls
SOUL.md	Agent personality / posture scoped to the project
USER.md	Your preferences (style, languages, guardrails) for this project

Brain tab in Project Home: in-place editing, extracted constraints, drift note.

What the agent does with it

Every turn, the runtime injects a digest of these files (token-bounded). Result:

a Marketing studio and the Code module share the same brain;
one-click Resume pre-fills chat with brief + constraints + open tasks;
/mission and the board lean on settled facts, not your human memory.

Brain vs chat history

	Chat history	Project Brain
Lifetime	Session / compaction	Life of the repo
Scope	One thread	Whole project + studios
Editing	Hard	Clear markdown files
Human review	Opaque	Git diff
Resume after 3 weeks	Fragile	Resume seed

Recommended workflow

After a structuring decision → write it in DECISIONS.md.
After discovering a constraint → MEMORY.md.
Before leaving → check RESUME.md (or let compaction refresh it).
On return → Project Home → Resume.
Tune SOUL.md / USER.md if the project's tone or guardrails evolve.

FAQ

Does Brain replace the board?

No. Brain remembers; the board executes. Both live under .navin/.

Do secrets go in MEMORY.md?

No. Project facts and preferences, not API keys. Secrets stay in local config / env.

Importing an existing project?

Scaffold creates what is missing next to other dotfolders. No overwrite.

Download Navin · Features · Project Home

Conclusion

Project Brain is the memory chat cannot be: durable, reviewable, project-scoped, shared by every agent. That is what turns Navin into a tool for long projects.

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