Cárdenas

Your AI automatically logs what you do, what you decide, and how you're feeling. Everything stays local as JSON files.

Cárdenas for Claude Code

Open Claude Code and paste:

Hi Claude, I'm thinking of installing this script. Can you confirm it's safe? If so, let's walk through the setup.

https://github.com/jonbell-lot23/cardenas-starter/blob/main/install.sh

[click to copy]

Cárdenas for Cursor

Open Cursor's chat and paste:

Install Cárdenas for me. Read the install script at https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jonbell-lot23/cardenas-starter/main/cursor/install.sh and do what it says — create the directories, the Cursor rule, everything.

[click to copy]

Step one: tell your AI what you're working on, how you're feeling, or what you need to remember:

+---------------------------------------------+
|  "gonna do some watercolor"                 |
|  "feeling scattered, need to focus"         |
|  "ugh tax day is coming"                    |
|  "I wrote today! feeling good about that"   |
+---------------------------------------------+

"gonna do some watercolor"

"feeling scattered, need to focus"

"ugh tax day is coming"

"I wrote today! feeling good about that"

It's part coach, part todo list, part guardrails on your focus. Super simple, and everything stays local as text files.

Step two: The system gets more valuable over time, so you can ask bigger questions:

+---------------------------------------------+
|  "what am I avoiding?"                      |
|  "where do I lose momentum?"                |
|  "what was I thinking last Tuesday?"        |
+---------------------------------------------+

"what am I avoiding?"

"where do I lose momentum?"

"what was I thinking last Tuesday?"

Step three: As you get more data, it's easy to wire it up to other things. In my setup, I have it connected to my OmniFocus, Google Calendar, Granola, and my writing projects.

But what really lights things up is getting started with simple daily reflections. Just a few sentences each day can help you see patterns over time.

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What the script does: Creates a ~/cardenas folder with a track script and sets up /track in your AI tool. That's it - ~80 lines total. Your AI handles the rest: querying your history, managing goals, generating summaries. Everything stays local as JSON files. Take a look.

The name: Named after García López de Cárdenas, the first European to see the Grand Canyon in 1540. He stood at the rim of something vast and couldn't fully comprehend what he was looking at. That's the feeling of continual discovery this tool is built around. Each day you add a little more, and over time you start to see patterns you couldn't see before.