Add LITE-START.md — vault-only mode for any AI tool

[lmanchu]

Summary

Adds a low-barrier entry point for non-technical users, inspired by Vault for Founders.

• LITE-START.md: Vault + Persona + Memory in 10 minutes, works with any AI tool (Claude, GPT, Cursor, Copilot)
• README.md updated: Offers Lite vs Full paths upfront with a decision table

Why

The current QUICK-START.md requires macOS + Claude Code + Node.js and takes 30-90 minutes across 8 phases. Many potential users want the memory benefits without the full automation stack. CW Lin's Vault-for-Founders showed that a vault-only approach resonates with non-technical founders.

What LITE-START.md includes

1. Tool-agnostic AI preamble — any AI can read and execute it
2. 3-step setup: Create vault → Build identity & persona → Initialize memory
3. Two-layer memory baked in — index + topic files from the start
4. Usage instructions for Claude Cowork, Claude Code, Cursor, ChatGPT
5. Clear graduation path to QUICK-START.md phases 3-8

Relationship to Vault-for-Founders

We also submitted a PR to Vault-for-Founders suggesting a memory scaling guide based on our experience. The two projects complement each other:

• Vault-for-Founders = optimized for Obsidian + Git workflow
• Iris System Lite = optimized for AI-first setup (AI creates everything)

Test plan

• LITE-START.md is self-contained and works without reading other files
• README.md decision table routes users to the right guide
• Requirements section separates Lite vs Full dependencies
• End-to-end test: give LITE-START.md to Claude Cowork and verify it creates a working vault

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[gemini-code-assist]

Code Review

This pull request introduces LITE-START.md, a guide for setting up a portable AI knowledge vault for non-technical users, and updates the README.md to include this Lite Mode option. The review feedback identifies a contradiction regarding terminal usage, suggests using POSIX-compliant shell commands for directory creation, and corrects the configuration file requirement for Claude Code to ensure proper instruction loading.

[gemini-code-assist]

There is a contradiction between the claim "No terminal... required" and the instructions in Step 1 (lines 59-62), which provide a bash command for directory creation. For users using AI tools without terminal execution capabilities (like standard web interfaces), this step will fail unless they create the directories manually. Consider adding a note that directories can be created manually via a file explorer if the AI cannot execute commands.

[gemini-code-assist]

The use of brace expansion ({...}) in the mkdir command is a non-POSIX feature specific to shells like bash and zsh. If the AI assistant executes this in a basic sh environment, it will create a single directory with a literal name containing the braces and commas. Using explicit paths ensures compatibility across all shell environments.

Suggested change

	mkdir -p "$VAULT"/{identity,context,memory/decisions,projects}
	mkdir -p "$VAULT/identity" "$VAULT/context" "$VAULT/memory/decisions" "$VAULT/projects"

[gemini-code-assist]

Claude Code specifically looks for a file named CLAUDE.md to load project-specific instructions and rules. It does not automatically treat README.md as a system instruction file. Suggesting README.md as an alternative for this purpose may result in the AI not following the intended persona and memory rules automatically.

Suggested change

	1. Create a CLAUDE.md in your vault (or use the existing README.md)
	1. Create a CLAUDE.md in your vault