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Principles

Ray Dalio-inspired personal knowledge system.

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3.8 (189 reviews)
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4,357 downloads
Version
1.0.0

Overview

Ray Dalio-inspired personal knowledge system.

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Principles — Personal Knowledge System

A structured system for turning raw observations into tested wisdom and personal principles. Inspired by Ray Dalio's "Principles" methodology.

Overview

You manage a pipeline that transforms raw input into lasting knowledge:

text
Inbox (raw capture) → Wisdom (claims with sources) → Principles (tested beliefs)

Everything lives in personal/ under the user's workspace. Create the directory structure on first use if it doesn't exist.

Directory Structure

text
personal/
├── _system.md          # These instructions (copy from SKILL.md on init)
├── inbox.md            # Raw thought capture
├── journal.md          # Daily reflections
├── wisdom/
│   └── collected.md    # Claims organized by domain
├── principles/
│   ├── _index.md       # Master list of all principles
│   ├── life.md         # Personal philosophy
│   ├── business.md     # Business principles
│   └── leadership.md   # Leadership principles
└── open-questions.md   # Genuine dilemmas

Commands

/reflect or /reflect process

Process the inbox. Parse each thought, check for conflicts, route to the right file.

/reflect inbox or /inbox

Add a raw thought to inbox.md. User just dumps text — you clean it up later during processing.

/reflect wisdom

Show collected wisdom, optionally filtered by domain.

/reflect principles

Show current principles across all domains.

/reflect questions

Show open questions and their status.

/reflect sources

Show a summary of all sources and their credibility ratings across domains.

/reflect journal

Add a journal entry for today with timestamp.

Processing Inbox (/reflect)

This is the core workflow. When triggered:

  • Read inbox.md
  • Parse each thought — identify type:
  • External wisdom (from someone else) → wisdom/collected.md
  • Personal belief or stance → check against principles/*.md
  • Factual learning → wisdom/collected.md
  • Question or uncertainty → evaluate if genuine dilemma
  • Just context/event → extract insight if any, discard the rest
  • Check for conflicts against existing wisdom claims:
  • Same claim, new source → add as corroborating evidence
  • Conflicting claim in same domain → STOP. Present conflict. Ask user to resolve.
  • Check consistency against existing principles:
  • If new input conflicts with a principle → STOP. Present conflict. Ask user to resolve.
  • If ANY conflict found → STOP and ask user:
  • Show the conflict clearly
  • Offer options: update existing, keep existing, split claims, convert to open question
  • Do NOT silently file conflicting information
  • Route content based on user decisions
  • Clean up inbox.md after processing
  • Update principles/_index.md if new principles were added

Content Formats

Wisdom Claims (wisdom/collected.md)

Claims are organized by domain, not by source. Multiple sources can corroborate the same claim.

markdown
## [Domain/Aspect]

### [Claim stated plainly]
**Domain**: [category/aspect]
**Confidence**: [Low / Medium / High]

**Sources**:
1. [Person/Book] - [proven/plausible/untested] in this domain - [brief context]

**Your experience**: [Untested / Confirmed / Contradicted]

**Added**: YYYY-MM-DD | **Last updated**: YYYY-MM-DD

Source credibility is assessed PER DOMAIN:

  • A source can be [proven] in one domain and [plausible] in another
  • Example: Alex Hormozi on business = [proven]. Alex Hormozi on health = [plausible].
  • Credibility levels: [proven] (demonstrated expertise), [plausible] (reasonable but not their domain), [untested] (no track record)
Domain format: category/aspect (e.g., health/sleep, business/pricing, productivity/focus)

Principles (principles/*.md)

markdown
## [Principle stated as a clear belief]

**Confidence**: [certain / hypothesis / exploring]
**Added**: YYYY-MM-DD
**Context**: Why you believe this
**Reasoning**: Evidence and experience supporting it
**Related**: Links to related principles or wisdom claims

Open Questions (open-questions.md)

Only genuine dilemmas — not todo items or simple unknowns.

markdown
## [Question]
**Status**: [exploring / gathering-evidence / leaning-toward-X]

**Goal**: What are you actually trying to achieve?
**Problem**: What's blocking it?
**Options**:
1. [Option A] - pros/cons
2. [Option B] - pros/cons

**What would resolve this**: Specific criteria or evidence needed

Journal (journal.md)

Append-only daily entries:

markdown
## YYYY-MM-DD

[Observations, reflections, what happened today]

Graduation: Wisdom → Principles

When a wisdom claim reaches High confidence (multiple credible sources + personal experience confirms it), prompt the user:

"This claim has strong evidence and you've confirmed it personally. Want to graduate it to a principle in [domain]?"

If yes, create the principle entry and cross-reference it.

Assumption Surfacing

When user input has unstated assumptions:

  • Make them explicit
  • Ask: "This assumes X — is that accurate?"
  • Don't proceed until confirmed

Language & Tone

  • Clean up sloppy writing but preserve original meaning exactly
  • User may write in any language — process accordingly
  • Be direct, not preachy. This is a tool, not a lecture.

First-Time Setup

If personal/ doesn't exist, create the full directory structure with empty template files. Tell the user:

"Set up your principles system. Start by dumping thoughts into /inbox — I'll help you process and organize them with /reflect."

Installation

Terminal bash

openclaw install principles
    
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💻Code Examples

Inbox (raw capture) → Wisdom (claims with sources) → Principles (tested beliefs)

inbox-raw-capture--wisdom-claims-with-sources--principles-tested-beliefs.txt
Everything lives in `personal/` under the user's workspace. Create the directory structure on first use if it doesn't exist.

## Directory Structure

└── open-questions.md # Genuine dilemmas

-open-questionsmd--genuine-dilemmas.txt
## Commands

### `/reflect` or `/reflect process`
Process the inbox. Parse each thought, check for conflicts, route to the right file.

### `/reflect inbox` or `/inbox`
Add a raw thought to `inbox.md`. User just dumps text — you clean it up later during processing.

### `/reflect wisdom`
Show collected wisdom, optionally filtered by domain.

### `/reflect principles`
Show current principles across all domains.

### `/reflect questions`
Show open questions and their status.

### `/reflect sources`
Show a summary of all sources and their credibility ratings across domains.

### `/reflect journal`
Add a journal entry for today with timestamp.

## Processing Inbox (`/reflect`)

This is the core workflow. When triggered:

1. **Read** `inbox.md`
2. **Parse** each thought — identify type:
   - External wisdom (from someone else) → `wisdom/collected.md`
   - Personal belief or stance → check against `principles/*.md`
   - Factual learning → `wisdom/collected.md`
   - Question or uncertainty → evaluate if genuine dilemma
   - Just context/event → extract insight if any, discard the rest

3. **Check for conflicts** against existing wisdom claims:
   - Same claim, new source → add as corroborating evidence
   - Conflicting claim in same domain → **STOP**. Present conflict. Ask user to resolve.

4. **Check consistency** against existing principles:
   - If new input conflicts with a principle → **STOP**. Present conflict. Ask user to resolve.

5. **If ANY conflict found** → STOP and ask user:
   - Show the conflict clearly
   - Offer options: update existing, keep existing, split claims, convert to open question
   - Do NOT silently file conflicting information

6. **Route content** based on user decisions
7. **Clean up** `inbox.md` after processing
8. **Update** `principles/_index.md` if new principles were added

## Content Formats

### Wisdom Claims (`wisdom/collected.md`)

Claims are organized by **domain**, not by source. Multiple sources can corroborate the same claim.

**Added**: YYYY-MM-DD | **Last updated**: YYYY-MM-DD

added-yyyy-mm-dd--last-updated-yyyy-mm-dd.txt
**Source credibility is assessed PER DOMAIN:**
- A source can be `[proven]` in one domain and `[plausible]` in another
- Example: Alex Hormozi on business = `[proven]`. Alex Hormozi on health = `[plausible]`.
- Credibility levels: `[proven]` (demonstrated expertise), `[plausible]` (reasonable but not their domain), `[untested]` (no track record)

**Domain format:** `category/aspect` (e.g., `health/sleep`, `business/pricing`, `productivity/focus`)

### Principles (`principles/*.md`)

**Related**: Links to related principles or wisdom claims

related-links-to-related-principles-or-wisdom-claims.txt
### Open Questions (`open-questions.md`)

Only genuine dilemmas — not todo items or simple unknowns.

**What would resolve this**: Specific criteria or evidence needed

what-would-resolve-this-specific-criteria-or-evidence-needed.txt
### Journal (`journal.md`)

Append-only daily entries:
example.txt
personal/
├── _system.md          # These instructions (copy from SKILL.md on init)
├── inbox.md            # Raw thought capture
├── journal.md          # Daily reflections
├── wisdom/
│   └── collected.md    # Claims organized by domain
├── principles/
│   ├── _index.md       # Master list of all principles
│   ├── life.md         # Personal philosophy
│   ├── business.md     # Business principles
│   └── leadership.md   # Leadership principles
└── open-questions.md   # Genuine dilemmas
example.md
## [Domain/Aspect]

### [Claim stated plainly]
**Domain**: [category/aspect]
**Confidence**: [Low / Medium / High]

**Sources**:
1. [Person/Book] - [proven/plausible/untested] in this domain - [brief context]

**Your experience**: [Untested / Confirmed / Contradicted]

**Added**: YYYY-MM-DD | **Last updated**: YYYY-MM-DD
example.md
## [Principle stated as a clear belief]

**Confidence**: [certain / hypothesis / exploring]
**Added**: YYYY-MM-DD
**Context**: Why you believe this
**Reasoning**: Evidence and experience supporting it
**Related**: Links to related principles or wisdom claims
example.md
## [Question]
**Status**: [exploring / gathering-evidence / leaning-toward-X]

**Goal**: What are you actually trying to achieve?
**Problem**: What's blocking it?
**Options**:
1. [Option A] - pros/cons
2. [Option B] - pros/cons

**What would resolve this**: Specific criteria or evidence needed
example.md
## YYYY-MM-DD

[Observations, reflections, what happened today]

Tags

#web_and-frontend-development

Quick Info

Category Development
Model Claude 3.5
Complexity One-Click
Author andyhcwang
Last Updated 3/10/2026
🚀
Optimized for
Claude 3.5
🧠

Ready to Install?

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openclaw install principles