v3.1.0 — The One That Can Migrate Your Old Second Brain Like Kenjaku (and fixes Node compatibility)

👥 Who is this for?

This release lands differently depending on where you start from — here's the takeaway for each:

• 🌱 New here — you've never installed a second brain. Nothing to migrate: just install and you get a private, local, RAG-powered second brain out of the box. The import feature below simply doesn't apply to you yet — you start fresh.
• 🔄 You already run a second brain from an earlier version (pre-/around v3.0). Install (or update to) 3.1.0 and use import to bring all your existing notes into the new one. You keep your content and move it onto the latest engine — no starting over.
• 📁 You built your own notes by hand, as a plain Obsidian vault (a folder of Markdown). import brings that vault in, so your existing notes instantly gain everything this second brain offers — semantic search / RAG, the skills, the constitution — without rewriting a single note.

In short: first-timers install and go; everyone who already has notes (a previous brain or a self-made Obsidian vault) uses import to bring them in and unlock the full RAG-powered experience on top of them.

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✨ New — bring a previous brain's notes over (import)

Migrate the notes of an older second brain (or any Obsidian-style vault) into this one — safe, opt-in, non-destructive. No special vocabulary: just ask in plain language, in any language, and a native folder picker opens so you can point at your former brain (no path to copy-paste). Examples:

• "migrate my previous second brain" — (you'll be prompted to pick the location of your former second brain)
• "import my old notes"
• "recover / bring over the notes from my old brain"
• 🇫🇷 "importe / migre / rapatrie mes anciennes notes"
• "import my old notes from <path>" — (give the path directly, if you'd rather type it than use the picker)

It shows a plan first (zero writes), waits for your explicit yes, then copies only your content — never the old engine, .git, .claude or .env. It skips demo notes, never overwrites a name collision, preserves subfolders and accented names, then reindexes so your imported notes are immediately searchable. When indexing finishes, an OS notification lets you know — no waiting blind.

🧬 We nickname it the Kenjaku move — transplanting a mind into a new vessel. (Pure lore; you trigger it with ordinary words.)

🐛 Fixes

• Node compatibility — install no longer refuses a recent Node (24/25/26); too-old (< 20) fails early with an actionable message telling you what to switch to. (ADR 0020)
• SQLite native self-heal — on a multi-Node machine, the search engine now detects a better-sqlite3 ABI skew (binary built under one Node, loaded by another) and rebuilds itself once, transparently — no more "native module broken" at first start. Works on macOS, Windows and Linux. (ADR 0021)

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Already have a brain installed? Update its engine with the update-engine skill (opt-in; never touches your notes, .env, constitution, settings or custom skills).