Show HN: Patina, an AI that learns your judgment, not just your tasks

An AI that learns you — the longer you use it, the less you need to tell it.

Your cognitive ceiling isn't set by your intelligence. It's set by your cognitive load. Patina is a persistent extension of your cognition: it holds your context, tracks your beliefs about your world, mirrors your judgment, and improves with every interaction.

Day 1: Export your Slack. In 5 minutes, see everything you've missed, forgotten, or let slip.
Day 30: It knows your priorities, drafts in your voice, and dismisses noise automatically.
Day 90: It predicts what you'd do, catches contradictions across conversations, and operates silently.

Quick Start

# Install
uv tool install patina

# Initialize
patina init

# Ingest from a Slack export (immediate value)
patina ingest --from-export ~/Downloads/slack-export.zip

# See what needs your attention
patina catch-up

# See everything ranked by priority quadrant
patina priorities

What It Does

# Priority + judgment
patina catch-up                    # unified view: needs action / new / waiting
patina priorities                  # grouped by quadrant (Q1-Q4)
patina dismiss <id>                # dismiss noise, trains the model
patina objectives add "Ship v2" --keywords "release,deploy"

# Style + drafting
patina style build                 # build communication profiles from sent messages
patina style show <name>           # view patterns for a person
patina draft --to <name> --context "follow up on the timeline"

# Belief graph
patina extract                     # extract beliefs from observations via LLM
patina beliefs --type person       # entities with claim counts
patina stale                       # decayed beliefs below confidence threshold
patina contradictions              # conflicting claims
patina relationships --top 20      # trust level + activity map

# Graduated autonomy
patina autonomy status             # current level, accuracy, anti-patterns
patina approve <id>                # approve a proposed action
patina reject <id>                 # reject (freezes advancement, stores anti-pattern)
patina autonomy set-level <N>      # manual override (0-6)

# Live adapters
patina connect slack --token "xoxb-..."
patina ingest                      # fetch from configured adapters

# Heartbeat (background tasks)
patina heartbeat once              # ingest + decay + escalation check
patina heartbeat start --interval 30

# Interactive conversation (Claude Agent SDK)
patina chat

# HTTP server for gateway integration
patina serve --port 8321

# Telegram gateway (talk to your agent from your phone)
patina gateway

How It Works

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Tier 3: Frontier LLM (Claude, GPT-4o)           │ Synthesis, drafts, contradictions
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Tier 2: Local LLM (Qwen 3.x, Ollama)            │ Entity extraction, classification
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Tier 1: Deterministic (no LLM)                  │ Scoring, decay, graph queries
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
        ↓ all tiers feed ↓
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Belief Graph (SQLite)                           │
│ Entities → Relationships → Claims               │
│ Confidence decay · Provenance · Contradictions  │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

The system is fully functional at Tier 1 alone (zero LLM calls). Each tier adds capability but never load-bears. Local-first: all data stays in ~/.patina/store.db.

What Makes This Different

Persistent belief model with decay — not a message archive, a living world model
Judgment learned from your decisions — not universal rules, YOUR priorities
Graduated autonomy earned by accuracy — not configured, proven
Local-first, model-agnostic — runs offline, no vendor lock-in
Deterministic core — the intelligence is math and graphs, not LLM calls
Day-one value from export — no warm-up period

MCP Server

Patina runs as an MCP server for conversational use from Claude Code, Cline, or any MCP host. 21 tools including session_checkpoint for graceful context handoff and recent_messages for conversational continuity across stateless sessions.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "patina-core": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run", "patina-mcp"],
      "cwd": "/path/to/patina"
    }
  }
}

Configuration

All config lives in ~/.patina/config.yaml. Credentials never leave your machine.

owner:
  user_ids: ["U0ABC123"]
  name: "Your Name"
adapters:
  chat:
    - provider: slack
      token: "xoxb-..."
heartbeat:
  enabled: true
  interval_minutes: 30

Development

git clone https://github.com/Sanctum-Origo-Systems/patina.git
cd patina
uv sync

# Generate demo data and start chatting
uv run python scripts/generate_demo_export.py --output demo-export.zip
uv run patina init
uv run patina ingest --from-export demo-export.zip
uv run patina extract --model sonnet  # re-run if it times out — skips already-processed
uv run python scripts/seed_decisions.py  # demo only — simulates user behavior for trust scoring
uv run patina style build              # build communication style profiles from sent messages
uv run patina chat

# Try asking:
#   "What needs my attention?"
#   "Who do I trust most?"
#   "What do we know about Jordan?"
#   "Draft a message to Alexis about the Atlas timeline"
#   "Any contradictions in my beliefs?"

# Run tests + evals
uv run pytest
uv run pytest eval/deterministic/

# Lint
uv run ruff check && uv run ruff format

License

Apache 2.0

GitHub - Sanctum-Origo-Systems/patina: A persistent cognitive backend with belief graph and earned autonomy