Tier: Personal (Free, Open Source)
License: MIT
Status: ✅ Beta (Released: February 17, 2026)
Version: 0.2.0-beta
Your Strategic Direction Guide and Career GPS
ADVISOR is a personal knowledge management and strategic planning system built on the AAI 5-floor library architecture (inspired by Rell's Darklight Chambers from Stonecrest).
Think of it as your personal methodology library that helps you:
- 📊 Track career advancement and skills development
- 📝 Document investigation methodologies and workflows
- 🗺️ Map stakeholder relationships and organizational dynamics
- 🎯 Set and track long-term strategic goals
- 📚 Organize professional knowledge using a 5-floor framework
ADVISOR organizes your knowledge like a circular library with 5 floors:
Your operational foundation
What lives here:
- Career planning & advancement roadmap
- Skills inventory & competencies
- Daily operations & responsibilities
- Past project case studies
Example files:
career-master.md- Track goals, promotion criteria, evidenceskills-inventory.md- Technical skills, certifications, proficiency levelsdaily-operations.md- Recurring tasks, monitoring routinesproject-archive/- Past investigations and learnings
Your frameworks and mental models
What lives here:
- Investigation methodologies
- Communication templates & standards
- Quality criteria & checklists
- Learning frameworks
Example files:
investigation-template.md- Reusable problem-solving frameworkcommunication-standards.md- Email templates, documentation formatsqa-standards.md- Your criteria for "done right"glossary.md- Domain terminology
Your stakeholder map and strategic positioning
What lives here:
- Organizational network maps
- Stakeholder relationship tracking
- Personal vision & positioning
- Professional narrative
Example files:
stakeholder-map.md- Who matters, communication strategiespersonal-vision.md- 12-month roadmap, career trajectoryprofessional-background.md- Your story, how past informs present
Your tactical playbooks and execution guides
What lives here:
- Domain-specific workflows (state research, data investigation, etc.)
- Decision trees for complex problems
- Training curricula & knowledge transfer guides
- Workload analysis frameworks
Example files:
investigation-decision-tree.md- When to escalate, what to investigatetraining-curriculum.md- How to onboard othersworkload-analysis.md- Capacity planning, time allocation
Your long-term thinking and strategic direction
What lives here:
- Personal philosophy & thinking patterns
- Strategic response plans & scenarios
- Enterprise scaling strategies
- Personality frameworks (how you think, decide, communicate)
Example files:
personal-philosophy.md- Your thinking patterns, blind spotsscaling-strategy.md- Path to organizational impactstrategic-scenarios.md- Response plans for key situations
📁 Complete Template System:
- ✅ 10 core document templates (ready to fill)
- ✅ 5-floor structural organization
- ✅ Hub Index for navigation
- ✅ Markdown-based (no dependencies, works anywhere)
- ✅ Version control friendly (Git-ready)
📚 Documentation & Guides:
- ✅ Setup guide (get started in 30 minutes)
- ✅ Example hub (anonymized, shows what's possible)
- ✅ Video walkthrough (15-20 minutes)
- ✅ Best practices guide
🔧 Templates Included:
- Hub Index - Central navigation dashboard
- Career Master - Goal tracking, promotion readiness
- Skills Inventory - Competencies, certifications, evidence
- Daily Operations - Recurring responsibilities
- Project Investigation Template - Reusable methodology
- QA Standards - Quality criteria & checklists
- Stakeholder Map - Relationship tracking
- Personal Vision - 12-month roadmap
- Session Notes - Daily/weekly documentation
- Methodology Library - Frameworks & approaches
💾 Storage:
- Local markdown files (no cloud required)
- Works with any text editor (VS Code, Obsidian, Typora, Notepad++)
- Sync via Git, Dropbox, OneDrive, or any file sync tool
Start here if you're unsure how templates work together.
# Navigate to examples directory
cd examples/alex_thompson_data_analyst/
# Read these files in order:
1. README.md - Understand the case study
2. 00_Hub_Index_Simplified.md - See navigation structure
3. 01_Career_Master_Alex_Thompson.md - Career planning example
4. 02_Skills_Inventory_Alex_Thompson.md - Skills tracking example
5. 03_Daily_Operations_Snippet.md - Daily workflow example
6. 06_Project_Investigation_Example.md - Complete project exampleWhat you'll learn: How templates are filled out realistically, how they link together, what level of detail to include.
Use this once you understand the structure from examples.
# Create your personal ADVISOR directory
mkdir ~/my-advisor
cd ~/my-advisor
# Copy the 10 templates
cp templates/Hub_Index_Template.md ./00_Hub_Index.md
cp templates/Career_Master_Template.md ./01_Career_Master.md
cp templates/Skills_Inventory_Template.md ./02_Skills_Inventory.md
cp templates/Daily_Operations_Template.md ./03_Daily_Operations.md
cp templates/Project_Investigation_Template.md ./06_Project_Investigation_Template.md
cp templates/Network_Map_Template.md ./07_Network_Map.md
cp templates/Decision_Tree_Template.md ./08_Decision_Tree.md
cp templates/Communication_Standards_Template.md ./11_Communication_Standards.md
cp templates/Research_Subject_Template.md ./12_Research_Subject_Template.md
cp templates/Reference_Library_Template.md ./14_Reference_Library.md
# Optional: Add SOP Library and Glossary
cp templates/SOP_Library_Template.md ./13_SOP_Library.md
cp templates/Glossary_Template.md ./10_Glossary.md
# Open Hub Index to start
code 00_Hub_Index.mdStep 1: Hub Index (5 minutes)
- Open
00_Hub_Index.md - Fill in "Most Used" section with links to your top 3 templates
- You can refine this later - start simple
Step 2: Career Master (10 minutes)
- Open
01_Career_Master.md - Answer these minimum questions:
- What role do I have now?
- What role do I want in 1 year?
- What's my biggest career goal for this quarter?
- Leave the rest blank for now
Step 3: Skills Inventory (10 minutes)
- Open
02_Skills_Inventory.md - List your top 5 technical skills
- Rate each: Developing / Proficient / Advanced / Expert
- Note 1 skill you want to improve this quarter
Step 4: Daily Operations (5 minutes)
- Open
03_Daily_Operations.md - List 3 recurring tasks you do weekly/monthly
- Note today's top 3 priorities
- This becomes your daily touchpoint
✅ Done! You now have a functional foundation. Everything else can be added as needed.
Day 1-2: Foundation (Hub, Career, Skills, Operations) - START HERE
Day 3-4: Add one project using Project Investigation Template
Day 5-6: Add Network Map if you're working on visibility/promotion
Day 7: Weekly review - what worked? What do you actually need?
Pro Tip: Don't try to fill out all templates at once. Add templates when you have a real need, not "just in case."
✅ Knowledge Workers seeking structured career development
✅ Analysts & Researchers needing methodology documentation
✅ Consultants tracking projects and frameworks
✅ Career Advancers building evidence for promotions
✅ Professionals who want "second brain" organization
❌ People wanting automated note-taking (this requires intentional documentation)
❌ Teams (see Business tier for multi-user features)
❌ Those needing AI-powered search (see Premium tier)
ADVISOR-Premium adds:
- 🤖 AI-powered knowledge graph generation
- 🔍 Semantic search across all documents
- 📊 Progress dashboards & career analytics
- 🔗 Automated cross-referencing
- 💻 Python CLI for advanced queries
- 🎯 Template auto-population (AI fills frameworks)
ADVISOR-Business adds:
- 👥 Team knowledge hubs (shared libraries)
- 🔐 Role-based access control
- 📈 Team analytics & knowledge health metrics
- 🎓 Onboarding automation for new hires
- ✅ Compliance frameworks & audit trails
ADVISOR works standalone, but integrates beautifully with:
KERNEL - Use Kernel's 5-floor cognitive structure to inform ADVISOR organization
MEMORY - Store ADVISOR documents in MEMORY for searchability
AGENT - Use AI prompts to populate ADVISOR templates strategically
NEXUS - (Optional) Apply ADVISOR methodology to story world planning
Goal: Document capabilities for T2/senior role
ADVISOR Usage:
- Floor 1: Track past investigations (proof of capability)
- Floor 2: Document investigation methodology (transferable framework)
- Floor 3: Map stakeholders (who influences promotion)
- Floor 4: Create training curriculum (proof of leadership)
- Floor 5: Write career vision (demonstrate strategic thinking)
Result: Complete portfolio showing readiness + promotion packet
Goal: Reusable frameworks across client engagements
ADVISOR Usage:
- Floor 1: Track all client projects
- Floor 2: Extract lessons into methodology templates
- Floor 3: Document client relationship patterns
- Floor 4: Create decision trees for common problems
- Floor 5: Define consulting philosophy & approach
Result: Scalable, repeatable consulting practice
Goal: Organize learnings and technical decisions
ADVISOR Usage:
- Floor 1: Track career progression (skills, projects)
- Floor 2: Document architecture patterns & best practices
- Floor 3: Map team dynamics & collaboration patterns
- Floor 4: Create runbooks & troubleshooting guides
- Floor 5: Define technical philosophy & long-term vision
Result: Comprehensive technical knowledge base
Setup Guide: See /docs/advisor-setup-guide.md
Video Walkthrough: Coming Q2 2026
Example Hub: See /examples/anonymized-advisor/
Best Practices: See /docs/advisor-best-practices.md
Community:
- Discord: https://discord.gg/aurelion (coming soon)
- Discussions: GitHub Discussions
- Examples: Share your hub structure (anonymized) for feedback
ADVISOR is open source (MIT)! Contributions welcome:
- 🐛 Report bugs or suggest features
- 📝 Improve documentation
- 🎨 Share template improvements
- 💡 Submit example use cases
See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.
MIT License - Free forever, use for any purpose.
See ../../shared/licenses/MIT-LICENSE.txt for full text.
AURELION Hub: Documentation & Ecosystem Overview
Other Modules: Kernel | Memory | Agent | Nexus
Upgrade: Premium | Business
Documentation: Setup Guide | Tier Comparison
Contributors:
- Chase (chase-key) - Creator & Primary Developer
- z3rosl33p - Documentation & Release Engineering
Q: Is this just fancy note-taking?
A: No! ADVISOR is structured methodology documentation. It's the difference between random notes and an organized library with clear architecture.
Q: Do I need all 5 floors?
A: Start with Floor 1-2 (Foundation + Frameworks). Add floors as complexity grows.
Q: Can I customize the structure?
A: Absolutely! Templates are starting points. Adapt to your domain.
Q: How is this different from Obsidian/Notion?
A: ADVISOR provides the structure (5-floor framework). Use it with Obsidian/Notion/VS Code/any tool you want!
Q: I'm not technical - is this for me?
A: Yes! If you can edit Word docs, you can use ADVISOR. It's just markdown files.
Q: How long to set up?
A: 30 minutes for basics, 1-2 hours for comprehensive setup, ongoing 15-30 min/week maintenance.
Community Expansion (Lite Tier):
- Domain-specific career tracks (academic, creative, technical leadership)
- Industry-specific methodology templates (SDLC, design thinking, research workflows)
- Retrospective and post-mortem templates
- Skills matrix frameworks for different professions
Premium Features (Open Source - Q3 2026):
- AI-assisted career planning and gap analysis
- Automated skills tracking and evidence collection
- Visual roadmap and timeline views
Premium = MIT licensed code requiring paid infrastructure (AI APIs, vector DBs)
Have feedback or template ideas? Open a GitHub Discussion or submit an issue!
Built with 🎯 by the AURELION Project
Your strategic direction guide