Claude Chief Of Staff

Claude Code Chief of Staff

How I turned Claude Code into a persistent AI chief of staff: the full architecture, from CLAUDE.md to scheduled background scripts.

Built with Claude Code by @loganinthefuture. Last updated October 2026 (what changed).

Install it as a plugin

The core of this is installable in one command. In Claude Code:

Restart Claude Code, then run /chief-of-staff:setup. It interviews you and scaffolds your own persistent memory + daily-brief system. No coding required. The plugin lives in plugins/chief-of-staff/, and everything it creates is plain Markdown on your machine.

The Three Layers

Most people are already at Layers 1 and 2. The unlock is Layer 3.

Layer 1: Knowledge (Vault). A markdown vault Claude Code reads and writes. Start with the examples/CLAUDE.md template. That's the smallest viable version of this entire system, and it works the moment you drop it in a folder you claude from.

Layer 2: Active (you + Claude Code). Live work, live decisions. Already running if you have Claude Code installed.

Layer 3: Autonomous (scheduled jobs on the same Mac). Background scripts that pull email, calendar, and meeting transcripts, process them, and send me what matters. They run as launchd jobs on my one laptop. Results reach me by email, and the rare urgent thing comes as an iMessage. See architecture.md and notifications.md.
What changed: this used to say "an old laptop on my desk, posting to Discord." I retired the second machine in July and Discord in September, because I'd stopped looking at either. One machine and one inbox turned out to be the version I actually keep using. More in what broke.

Cost: I run on Claude Max ($200/month). Most of this works on Max 5x ($100/month) too. See getting-started.md for the plan breakdown and…