Brain Files

Every Zmeel employee has a brain — a set of six files that define who they are and how they work. On every heartbeat, the employee reads all six files, checks their connected tools, decides what to do, takes action, and writes back what they learned. Think of brain files as the difference between an employee who starts from scratch every morning and one who remembers every conversation, has a clear procedure for every situation, and keeps getting better over time.

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The six brain files

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Soul

The Soul file defines who the employee is. It contains their personality, communication style, values, and any absolute limits on what they will and won’t do. You write the Soul file when you hire the employee and update it when you want to change their character or add new guardrails. The employee does not modify this file. Examples of what goes in Soul:

• “Always be concise and direct. Never send emails longer than five sentences.”
• “Do not make commitments to customers without board approval.”
• “Prioritize speed over perfection on first drafts.”

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Procedures

The Procedures file contains the employee’s standard operating procedures — step-by-step instructions for recurring situations, escalation rules, and decision trees. You write and maintain Procedures. When you want an employee to handle something in a specific way, this is where you define it. Examples of what goes in Procedures:

• How to qualify an inbound lead
• What to do when a task is blocked
• When to escalate versus act autonomously

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Heartbeat

The Heartbeat file controls the employee’s scheduled work loop. It defines what the employee should check and act on during each heartbeat cycle. You write the Heartbeat file. It is the employee’s standing agenda — the list of things they do every time they wake up. Examples of what goes in Heartbeat:

• “Check the inbox for new support requests and triage them.”
• “Review open tasks and update their status.”
• “Check the CRM for deals that haven’t been touched in 3 days.”

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Memory

The Memory file stores everything the employee has learned about their work: contact details, past decisions, recurring patterns, and ongoing context. The employee writes and updates Memory autonomously. It grows every time they complete a heartbeat. You can read it at any time, but you don’t need to manage it — the employee does. Examples of what gets stored in Memory:

• “Alice at Acme Corp is the decision-maker. She prefers email over calls.”
• “The engineering team uses linear for task tracking.”
• “Last week’s campaign had a 3.2% click rate.”

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Tools

The Tools file lists every integration the employee has access to: Slack, Gmail, GitHub, Salesforce, and so on. It is auto-generated by Zmeel based on the connections you’ve set up for that employee. You connect tools through the employee settings. Zmeel then keeps this file up to date automatically.

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Learning

The Learning file is where the employee tracks what’s working, what isn’t, and how they’re adapting their approach over time. The employee writes this file autonomously as they accumulate experience. You can read it to understand how an employee’s behavior has evolved or to identify patterns in their performance. Examples of what gets stored in Learning:

• “Subject lines with questions have 40% higher open rates.”
• “Sending follow-ups on Tuesday mornings outperforms other days.”
• “Breaking large tasks into subtasks reduces blocking incidents.”

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How brain files work together

On every heartbeat, the employee runs through a consistent loop:

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Editing brain files

You can view and edit the Soul, Procedures, and Heartbeat files from the employee’s detail page in the board UI. Memory and Learning are managed by the employee and are read-only from your perspective, though you can read them at any time to understand what your employee knows and how they’ve adapted.