Aslam

A personal assistant for the family.

What is this?

This is a centralised repository of knowledge, thoughts, and information for the family. It exists to solve a simple problem: life accumulates information across too many places—email, docs, notes, browser bookmarks, memory—and none of it is searchable, organised, or transferable.

Why?

• Gmail is identity, not knowledge. 10+ years of email is a graveyard, not a resource.
• Shared docs are flat. A Google Doc works for lists, but not for interconnected knowledge.
• Memory is unreliable. Things get forgotten. Context gets lost.
• Continuity matters. If I die tomorrow, what do people need to know?

What goes here?

• Thoughts & ideas — things worth remembering, half-formed or complete
• Projects — what I'm working on, why, and where things stand
• Assets & accounts — passwords, credentials, important accounts (encrypted)
• Contacts & relationships — people, context, history
• Documents — important files, records, references
• Decisions — why certain choices were made
• Instructions — how to do things that only I know how to do

Principles

1. Searchable — if you can't find it, it doesn't exist
2. Structured — tagged, categorised, linked
3. Secure — sensitive data encrypted at rest
4. Simple — easy to add, easy to retrieve
5. Shareable — family can access what they need
6. Durable — outlives any single service or platform

Installation

Prerequisites

• Go 1.21+
• SQLCipher (sudo apt-get install -y sqlcipher)
• Brave Search API key (free tier: 2000 queries/month)

Setup

# Clone
git clone git@github.com:asim/aslam.git
cd aslam

# Create encryption key
mkdir -p ~/.aslam
openssl rand -base64 32 > ~/.aslam/.key
chmod 600 ~/.aslam/.key

# Create .env file
cat > .env << EOF
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...
GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID=...
GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET=...
GOOGLE_REDIRECT_URI=https://aslam.org/auth/callback
ALLOWED_EMAILS=your@email.com
BRAVE_API_KEY=your-brave-api-key
EOF
chmod 600 .env

# Build and run
go build -o aslam .
./aslam

Systemd Service

sudo cp scripts/aslam.service /etc/systemd/system/
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable aslam
sudo systemctl start aslam

Email Setup (Optional)

To enable the assistant's own email inbox:

1. Create a Google Workspace user (e.g., assistant@yourdomain.com)
2. Enable 2FA on that account
3. Generate an App Password (Security → App Passwords)
4. Add to .env:

   GMAIL_USER=assistant@yourdomain.com
   GMAIL_APP_PASSWORD=xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx
   

5. Add to systemd service or restart

First Run

1. Visit your domain and log in with Google
2. Go to /admin to document your service accounts
3. Add any additional admins (family members)
4. Start chatting or send an email to the assistant

Tools

The assistant has access to these tools:

• fetch - Fetch URL content and save to memory
• recall - Search memory/knowledge base
• remember - Save notes to memory
• reminder - Search Islamic sources (Quran, Hadith)
• wikipedia - Search Wikipedia for factual information
• www - Web search via Brave Search API
• email_check - Check assistant's inbox (assistant@aslam.org)
• email_send - Send email from assistant's address

Trust Model

The assistant operates on a levelled trust model. Access to personal accounts is earned over time as the system proves reliable and secure.

Level 0: Sandbox (Current)

• Assistant has its own identity (assistant@aslam.org)
• Own email inbox, cannot access user accounts
• Users forward emails to assistant when they want it involved
• Safe to experiment - assistant can't touch your stuff

Level 1: Read Calendar (Future)

• Assistant can read your Google Calendar (read-only)
• Can answer "What's on my schedule today?"
• Cannot create, modify, or delete events
• Requires: OAuth consent with calendar.readonly scope

Level 2: Read Email (Future)

• Assistant can read your Gmail inbox
• Can summarise emails, find information, track threads
• Cannot send, delete, or modify emails
• Requires: OAuth consent with gmail.readonly scope
• Requires: Prompt injection defenses, audit logging

Level 3: Act As You (Future)

• Assistant can send emails as you
• Can create calendar events
• Full delegation of digital identity
• Requires: Explicit confirmation flows ("Send this email? Y/N")
• Requires: Rate limits, scope limits, comprehensive audit trail
• Requires: Battle-tested prompt injection defenses

Security Requirements (Before Advancing)

• Input sanitisation and validation
• Output validation (assistant can't leak data)
• Audit logging (every action logged with context)
• Confirmation flows for destructive actions
• Rate limiting
• Scope limiting (e.g., only last 7 days of email)
• Regular security review

Purpose

This exists for two reasons:

1. A second brain while alive

• Searchable, organised knowledge
• Things that would otherwise be forgotten
• Decisions documented, context preserved

2. A digital estate when gone

We live in a purely digital world. When someone dies, their family must navigate:

• Multiple email accounts
• Cryptocurrency wallets and keys
• Subscriptions and services
• Documents scattered across cloud storage
• Passwords and credentials
• Digital assets with real value

This system aims to be the map. Not just a list of accounts, but the knowledge of how to access them, what matters, what can be ignored, and what needs to be done.

"When a man dies, his deeds come to an end except for three: ongoing charity, beneficial knowledge, or a righteous child who prays for him." — Prophet Muhammad ﷺ (Sahih Muslim)

This is the knowledge left behind.

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A second brain, a family vault, a digital estate.