Knowledge lifecycle
The lifecycle of a brain: from create to retire
Every brain moves through stages: create, connect sources, index, share, update, and eventually retire. Here is what happens at each stage and how to manage a brain across its life.
Build your first knowledge brain
Create a brainA brain is not a static file - it moves through a lifecycle. Understanding the stages, from creation to retirement, helps you manage knowledge deliberately: knowing when a brain is ready to share, when it needs updating, and when it has served its purpose and should be retired.
The six stages
Create, connect, index
The first three stages set a brain up. You create it by defining its scope and description, connect its sources, and let it index so the content becomes retrievable. Getting the scope and description right here pays off at every later stage - it is what makes the brain routable and maintainable.
Share, update, retire
Once a brain is built, you decide who can query it: keep it private, share it org-wide, or publish it. From then on the main work is updates - keeping sources current so answers do not drift. When a brain has served its purpose, retire it: unpublish or remove it so it does not linger as stale knowledge an assistant might still reach.
Retiring a brain is a real stage, not a failure. Knowledge that is no longer accurate is a liability - removing it is part of keeping the whole knowledge base trustworthy.
Build your first knowledge brain
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Create a brainFrequently asked questions
What are the stages in a brain’s lifecycle?
Create (define scope and description), connect (add sources), index (make them retrievable), share (private, org-wide, or published), update (keep sources current), and retire (remove when no longer needed). Most of a brain’s life is spent in the update stage.
When should I retire a brain?
When its knowledge is no longer accurate or the workflow it served is gone. Stale knowledge an assistant can still reach is a liability, so unpublishing or removing an obsolete brain is part of keeping the overall knowledge base trustworthy.
Which stage takes the most work?
Updating. Creating and connecting a brain happen once, but keeping its sources current is ongoing - and it is what determines whether the brain stays useful over months and years rather than quietly going stale.