Remember what matters. Choose what becomes lasting knowledge.

An explainer from KeepsCounsel, the product described here. The experience below is fictional and illustrates the current workflow, not a customer testimonial or an actual AI transcript.

Start with something about yourself

Suppose you have been agreeing to extra work before checking your calendar. One weekend, you take on another project and feel stretched. You want to remember the decision you made afterwards, not turn one difficult weekend into a permanent label about your personality.

You might write: “I felt stretched after accepting the weekend project. Please remember that I want to check my existing commitments before agreeing to another one.”

A later question could be: “I have been offered another project. What did I want to consider before saying yes?” Useful saved context gives the response somewhere specific to start. It cannot decide how much time you actually have today, or whether this new opportunity is worth taking.

Choose whether this conversation can change lasting knowledge

Select Durable when you want useful information from a conversation to become part of your knowledge bundle. KeepsCounsel can create or update the relevant knowledge, including the Self record. Durable is permission to update that bundle, not a promise that every sentence will be retained.

Select Session only when you want to think something through without changing the durable bundle. Session-only history is kept in the running process rather than added to lasting knowledge, and is excluded from later Durable requests. It is not an offline or no-provider mode. Your AI provider still processes the relevant information needed to respond.

The choice is about recording scope. It does not guarantee an exact response, replace the provider’s policies, or make the hosted service end-to-end encrypted.

Save, inspect, then return with a question

• Choose Durable and say what you want recorded. Make your own observation distinct from a guess about its cause.
• After a successful update, review the relevant knowledge, especially the Self record for information about you. Check that its wording reflects what you meant.
• If a detail or interpretation is wrong, explain the correction in a Durable message and review the resulting knowledge again. Do not treat an AI summary as authoritative merely because it was saved.
• Later, ask a specific question. Refer to the experience, goal or decision you want to revisit. Check the answer against the saved context and your current circumstances.

A readable knowledge bundle, not a transcript of everything

The bundle is a collection of Markdown documents with headings, links and small metadata sections. Your canonical Self document is people/self.md. Other people and your relationships have their own records when there is relevant material to track.

This is organised knowledge rather than a guarantee of a verbatim archive of every chat or original diary entry. Summaries can leave details out, and an interpretation may need correcting. Keep a separate original record if exact wording matters to you.

Here is a fictional body excerpt showing the ordinary Markdown heading-and-paragraph format used in a Self document. It is not a complete export: generated metadata, source information and links are omitted. The headings and wording vary with the material you save.

## Current understanding

I want to check my existing commitments before agreeing to another project.

## Recent experience

I felt stretched after taking on an extra weekend project. I have not yet established whether this is a recurring pattern.

The readable format matters because you can examine the account of your life rather than rely only on a chat response. The excerpt above illustrates formatting, not a required template or a promise that the AI will generate these exact sentences.

Memory should remain open to correction

“I felt stretched that weekend” is an observation. “I always take on too much” is a much broader conclusion. A useful account keeps that distinction visible. Add exceptions, changes of mind and later experiences when they matter. Your saved knowledge should not become a fixed verdict about who you are.

AI can misread ambiguous language, miss context or suggest a pattern that the evidence does not support. Ask what recorded details support an answer and what remains uncertain. KeepsCounsel is for everyday reflection, not diagnosis or a substitute for professional advice.

Privacy and taking a copy with you

Hosted bundles are encrypted at rest, but the service decrypts them when needed for your account. Relevant prompts and knowledge are sent to the AI provider you use. This is not end-to-end encryption. Only share information you are comfortable processing under those arrangements.

Hosted bundle download becomes available after the first successful paid invoice has been confirmed. It is not available during an unpaid trial. Review the current plans and cancellation information before starting.

Read how your information is handled.

See the FAQ for plans, trial, download eligibility and deletion requests.

Try a small review before adding more

You do not need a complete life history to begin. Start with one experience about yourself and one question you may want to return to. If you already have journal notes, try the practical review guide first, with or without an AI tool.

How to review your journal and notice patterns in your life.

Create a KeepsCounsel account.