---
title: The folder on your computer — with Claude Code, lesson 4
description: Every space is a folder of plain files on your computer; the watch keeps it in step with the brain, and a conflict comes as a copy beside your file.
url: https://instibrain.ai/guides/instibrain-with-claude-code/the-folder-on-your-computer
updated: 2026-11-07
site: https://instibrain.ai/llms.txt
---

lesson 4 of 8 · instibrain with claude code

# The folder on your computer.

Every space is a folder of plain files on your computer. The watch keeps it in step with the brain, and Claude reads and writes the same files.

## new words

**The watch**
The sync client's process that syncs after each change on your computer, and each change the brain tells it of.

**Conflict copy**
The brain's version of a page, put beside your file as `<name>.conflict.md` when someone else changed it too.

**The guard**
instibrain's staff member that checks every save: no secret, nothing in the wrong place.

## the lesson

The Memory button on your desktop opens `~/instibrain`. Each space you read is a folder under `spaces/`, and each page a `.md` file in it. Open one in any text editor, change it, save: the watch sends it. It syncs after each burst of changes, and asks the brain whether the space changed elsewhere; the brain holds the question up to 25 seconds, and the watch backs off to five minutes while nothing comes.

Two writers on one page do not lose work. The sync client merges no text: it puts the brain's version beside your file as a conflict copy and stops that page. Claude names every conflict copy at its next start, reads both, writes the meaning of both into your file, and deletes the copy. The next sync sends the page.

| The guard refuses a save that holds |
| A secret value, in any space |
| A card, passport or social security number, outside a sealed space |
| A link into a sealed space, from a space shared with others |
| A server login, in an open space outside `projects/` |

The refusal names the rule and the right place, and shows no part of the secret. A sealed space's files stay on your computer; your Claude Code reads them there, and no AI on the web does.

One page on two computers and the brain between them. Acme is an example.

## try it

Click the Memory button, open a page of your Personal space in any text editor, change one line, and save. Then type this and press Enter:

```
Read that page again from the brain. What did I change, and has the watch sent it?
```

## you should see

- Your new line, read back from the brain, within a few seconds of the save.
- If you also changed it in Claude: a conflict copy, named, and Claude's merge of both.

---

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