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Connect the Brain

The Brain is where Larry's method answers come from: a live map of 181 thinking methods, built from 20 years of real teaching. It is part of what installs - a fresh install connects on its own. This page is the manual path: get your own key, connect it by hand, and fix the common snags.

The job this does

When you want Larry's guidance to be as sharp as it can be, you want to to connect the teaching intelligence without exposing your data, so you can you get better methodology while your work stays on your machine.

In plain terms

Here is the whole idea in one picture. Your machine does the thinking and holds your data. The Brain is a library of methods, not a store of your work. Methods flow IN to help you. Your data never flows OUT. That one-way street is the entire security model.
YOUR MACHINEyour roomsyour decisionsyour datalocal does the thinkingTHE BRAINmethodology onlyno user data, evermethod indata never leaves

Step 1: Get your key

  1. 1
    Go to mindrian-os.com/brain-access.
  2. 2
    Click "Sign in with Google." One click, no credit card.
  3. 3
    A free trial starts instantly. Copy your key from the dashboard.

Step 2: Connect the key

Three ways, depending on where you run MindrianOS.

Inside Claude Code (recommended)

/mos:setup brain

Paste your key when prompted.

With a .env file

Add this line to your project's .env:

.env
MINDRIAN_BRAIN_KEY=your-key

Claude Desktop or Cowork

Edit claude_desktop_config.json and add the server, then restart Claude Desktop:

claude_desktop_config.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mindrian-brain": {
      "url": "https://mindrian-brain.onrender.com/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Troubleshooting

First request is slow (30 to 60 seconds).

The Brain server sleeps after 15 idle minutes. Waking it on the first call is normal. The next calls are fast.

401 invalid API key

Check the key for typos. If it expired, sign in again at the brain-access link to refresh.

Resource exhausted errors

Remove the local MCP config and restart:

rm -f .mcp.json

No working key? Larry says so instead of pretending.

Without a Brain connection, Larry does not quietly switch to a look-alike. He tells you the Brain is unreachable, refuses to invent method answers, and points you to a key. Your rooms, files, and graph stay intact the whole time. A refusal is signal, not failure.
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