Overview

AI Business OS is the AI model-agnostic business operating system that allows you to use any AI agent on your local business file system. The OS is designed specifically for knowledge based professional work, for businesses of one and upwards providing you with a framework and methodology for AI deployment in your business. This page describes version 3.0.2 of the AI Business OS core. Once installed, you get a structured workspace specifically designed to help you manage projects and client and supplier relationships related to those projects. You can use any AI agent or agent harness you wish with the AI Business OS, including Claude Code, Codex, Hermes Agent and OpenCode, and even local open weight models through Ollama.

AI Business OS is the base of the product family. You install PRIMA Project Management, PRIMA Memory and PRIMA CRM into an AI Business OS workspace, while PRIMA Scholar also runs on its own. How the Products Fit Together explains what each one adds.

How It Works

Your workspace is a folder of plain markdown and JSON files on your own computer, tracked with git. You open the folder in VS Code and work with your AI agent in its own panel or terminal. Claude Code reads .claude/CLAUDE.md and the rule files in .claude/rules/ at the start of every session, so the instructions are in place before you type anything.

Most other AI agents look for a file named AGENTS.md instead of CLAUDE.md, and that is why the workspace carries one at its root and in every domain and project folder. Each AGENTS.md sends the agent to the same instructions Claude Code reads, so Codex, OpenCode or a local model finds the same rules, company files and project register. CLAUDE.md and AGENTS.md Files explains how these pointers work.

Caution

AI Business OS is built and tested with Claude Code, and these pages describe a Claude Code installation. Another agent can work in the workspace, although some commands, hooks and skills may behave differently with it. If you use one, tell GenAI Skills Academy what works and what does not through Getting Help, because that feedback is valued.

The workspace itself holds everything Claude needs. Your organisation’s details sit in the company context files, and each project has its own instructions file. The register of your projects is a single JSON file. When Claude finishes a piece of work, the result is a file in the workspace, and git keeps the history of every change.

What Is in the Workspace

Part	What it gives you	Read more
Folder structure	One home for every piece of work, with seventeen numbered business domains	Folder Structure and Domains
Company context	Six files that describe your organisation, its people, audiences, voice, brand and industry	Company Context Files
Instructions files	A master CLAUDE.md, one for each domain and project, and AGENTS.md pointers for other tools	CLAUDE.md and AGENTS.md Files
Commands	Twelve slash commands, from /setup and /day to /night and /update	/setup and the pages after it
Skills	Seven reusable workflows, such as drafting documents, meeting notes and processing PDFs	client-setup and the pages after it
Agents	Two helpers that work in a separate context, one for long documents and one for research	document-processor and research
Rules	Ten rule files that set how Claude behaves, including when it acts and when it asks you first	How Rules Work
Hooks	Scripts that stop Claude editing critical engine files or running the most destructive commands	Hooks Overview
Project tracking	A project register at .claude/state/state.json, with a validation script that checks it after every write	State Files and Validation
Templates	Starting points such as the PRD template that /newproject fills in	Templates

Your Files and the Engine’s Files

AI Business OS separates the files you own from the files the engine owns. The engine files are the rules, skills, commands, agents, scripts and guides that come with the product. The engine manifest at .claude/engine-manifest.json lists every one of them. Your files include .claude/CLAUDE.md, the six company context files, the project register, .claude/config/integrations.json and every domain CLAUDE.md.

/update changes engine files only and never touches yours. If you have edited an engine file, the update first backs up the old copy and then merges your change with the new version where it can. The Configuration page lists which file holds which setting.

The Working Day

The commands give each day a shape.

1. Run /day at the start of the day for a briefing on your projects and the priorities Claude recommends.
2. Run /save during a long session to capture your progress before the conversation fills up.
3. Run /night at the end of the session to record your work against your projects and push it to your remote repository.

/status gives you an overview of every project at any time, and /resume picks up a previous session. Your First Day walks through a first session from start to finish.

How It Treats You and Your Data

PHILOSOPHY.md at the root of your workspace sets out the product’s design principles. A few of them shape how Claude behaves every day.

• You decide on matters of substance. The autonomy levels let Claude fix trivial problems on its own. Claude stops and asks before anything that affects scope, money, client-facing work or external communications. See Autonomy Levels.
• Your work stays yours. Your documents, project records and configuration are files in a git repository that you control. If you stop using Claude, every file you created stays on your computer.
• The workspace does not depend on one tool. State is plain JSON and procedures are plain markdown, so the records look the same whatever wrote them. The CLAUDE.md and AGENTS.md Files page explains how other AI tools find their instructions.

When Claude works on a request, the content it reads goes to Anthropic so the model can respond. Anthropic’s own data policies apply to that content, and any other service you connect has its own policies too. Another agent sends what it reads to its own provider under that provider’s policies, while a local open weight model runs on your own computer.

What You Need

AI Business OS is built for Claude Code inside VS Code, with git installed. Its maker builds and tests it on macOS. It may run on Windows through the Windows Subsystem for Linux, but Windows is not directly supported. The Requirements page has the full list.

Where to Go Next

1. Follow Installing AI Business OS to put the workspace on your computer.
2. Run /setup to fill in the details of your organisation and your workspace.
3. Read Folder Structure to see where each kind of work goes in the workspace.
4. Read Projects, Workspaces and Repositories to learn the three terms these pages rely on.

If something does not behave as described, start with Troubleshooting.