cortex-mine

Original：🇺🇸 English

Translated

1 scripts

Mine Gmail history into a local flat-file knowledge base (~/.cortex/). Use when asked to "run the cortex", "mine emails", "cortex run", "cortex dry run", "set up the cortex", "cortex from DATE", or "mine my inbox". Extracts contacts, clients, communications and knowledge facts into portable JSONL/JSON files. Requires gws CLI and ANTHROPIC_API_KEY.

2installs

Sourcejezweb/claude-skills

Added on2026-03-13

NPX Install

npx skill4agent add jezweb/claude-skills cortex-mine

SKILL.md Content

View Translation Comparison →

Knowledge Cortex — Mine

Mine your Gmail history into structured flat files — contacts, clients, communications, and key facts — stored in

~/.cortex/

. No server required. Files you own.

When invoked

Read

{skill_path}/references/file-schema.md

for the storage format before any file operations.

Commands

What user says	Action
"run the cortex" / "cortex run"	Run mining pass
"cortex dry run"	Mine without writing — pass `--dry-run`
"cortex from DATE"	Mine from specific date — pass `--from YYYY-MM-DD`
"set up the cortex"	Run first-time setup

Setup (first run)

Check prerequisites:

bash

which gws || echo "MISSING: npm install -g @googleworkspace/cli"
python3 -c "import anthropic" 2>/dev/null || echo "MISSING: pip install anthropic"
ls ~/.cortex/state.json 2>/dev/null || echo "FIRST RUN"

If

gws

missing: tell user

npm install -g @googleworkspace/cli

then

gws auth setup

. If

anthropic

missing: tell user

pip install anthropic

(or

pip install anthropic --break-system-packages

on managed Python). If first run: initialise storage.

bash

mkdir -p ~/.cortex/originals
echo '{}' > ~/.cortex/contacts.json
echo '{}' > ~/.cortex/clients.json
touch ~/.cortex/communications.jsonl ~/.cortex/knowledge.jsonl ~/.cortex/files.jsonl

Write

~/.cortex/state.json

:

json

{"version":"1.0","cursors":{"gmail":null},"last_run":null,"totals":{"contacts":0,"clients":0,"communications":0,"knowledge":0,"files":0},"runs":[]}

Mining

bash

python3 {skill_path}/scripts/cortex-mine.py
python3 {skill_path}/scripts/cortex-mine.py --dry-run
python3 {skill_path}/scripts/cortex-mine.py --from 2024-01-01
python3 {skill_path}/scripts/cortex-mine.py --batch-size 25

The script prints a run report on completion. Show it to the user verbatim.

Common errors:

```
gws: command not found
```
— install gws CLI
```
AuthError
```
/
```
403
```
— run
```
gws auth setup
```
```
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY not set
```
— set env var or add to
```
~/.cortex/.env
```

ModuleNotFoundError: anthropic

—

pip install anthropic

Scheduling

Claude Code Desktop: Cowork > Scheduled > New Task >
```
Run the cortex-mine skill
```
> Daily
CLI:
```
/loop 24h run the cortex-mine skill
```

Cron:

0 6 * * * cd ~ && ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-... python3 /path/to/cortex-mine.py

Exporting data

See

{skill_path}/references/export-adapters.md

for patterns to export cortex data to Obsidian, SQLite, Notion, CRM systems, or custom APIs.

Environment

Variable	Default	Purpose
`CORTEX_DIR`	`~/.cortex`	Storage root
`ANTHROPIC_API_KEY`	—	Required for extraction
`CORTEX_BATCH_SIZE`	`50`	Threads per run
`CORTEX_OWNER_EMAIL`	—	Your email — excluded from contacts

References

File schemas:
```
{skill_path}/references/file-schema.md
```

Pre-filter rules:

{skill_path}/references/prefilter-patterns.md

Export patterns:

{skill_path}/references/export-adapters.md

cortex-mine

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content

Knowledge Cortex — Mine

When invoked

Commands

Setup (first run)

Mining

Scheduling

Exporting data

Environment

References