The digital brain behind ZenAI · explained interactively
Every block is a real part of ZenAI. Click one to learn what it does — or press “Play” below and follow, step by step, how a question travels through the whole brain.
▸ Under the hood: Express · TypeScript · PostgreSQL + pgvector (4 contexts: operations / finance / people / strategy) · BullMQ + Redis · provider routing Claude / Mistral / Ollama · 60+ tools via MCP + A2A · 7-layer memory (HiMeS) with sleep consolidation & reconsolidation.
Turn a part off and watch the question simulation to see what the system then lacks. You can also tap the ● switch on a block directly in the diagram.
Most AI assistants are stateless: they forget after every conversation, learn nothing, and cannot act on their own. A memory-based approach is fundamentally different — here side by side:
What that feels like day to day — an example day from morning to evening where many parts work together. Click a scene or play the day through.
A person doesn’t have one memory but many ways of remembering. ZenAI likewise — seven layers, from “what am I thinking about right now” to “what consolidates overnight”. Click a layer.
Something new first lands in working and short-term memory. If it matters, it is stored as an episode, later distilled into lasting knowledge. What is used often becomes routine, the most important is firmly pinned — and the predictive brain decides what gets protected, refreshed or forgotten.
Real brains use neurotransmitters, consolidate during sleep and protect important memories. ZenAI mirrors that (PMA — Predictive Memory Architecture). Drag the sliders and see what happens.
ZenAI is working in balance.
Every memory is stored three times — a fast, a medium and a deep copy. The fast one fades quickly, the deep one stays. Press “Time passes”.
Tip: “Recall again” refreshes the copies — just like you do when you think back to something.
When idle, ZenAI “sleeps”: it replays the most important experiences, consolidates them, links related ideas and lets unimportant things fade. Just like we do at night.
sleep-compute.ts · BullMQ-Worker · consolidation & replay when idle
As soon as a memory is recalled it briefly becomes “soft” and can be updated before it re-consolidates. That keeps knowledge current without relearning everything. A protective layer (stability guard) prevents especially important memories from being overwritten by accident — and every change can be undone.
reconsolidation-engine.ts · stability-protector.ts · priority-map.ts · stc-rescue.ts
Most AI assistants wait passively for questions. ZenAI is different: it is curious, thinks ahead, reflects on its own thinking and gets better with every use. Click a capability — or play through the learning loop.
ZenAI is not a single assistant but a team of specialists. A conductor distributes the task, the specialists work together and share a common memory. Click someone.
All agents read and write in the same memory — the researcher finds something, the writer uses it right away.
Via an open protocol, ZenAI can hand tasks to external AI agents and get results back.
So nothing gets mixed up, ZenAI lives in four strictly separated areas. What happens in one area stays there — self-contained data spaces. Click an area.
Over 60 tools across many categories make ZenAI capable of acting — it can not only talk but also see, hear and act.
Speak with ZenAI and hear the answer — real-time voice dialogue with recognition and speech output.
Upload photos or screenshots — ZenAI sees, extracts text (OCR) and understands the content.
Writes and runs code safely (Python, Node, Bash) — in an isolated sandbox with strict safety checks.
Searches the web, reads pages and remembers history & bookmarks.
Creates PowerPoint, Excel, PDF & Word — and searches your own files.
Calendar, email, contacts (CRM), finances, maps & route planning.
ZenAI uses the best model for the job — and, if needed, works completely offline on your own machine.
The main brain in the cloud — strongest at reasoning and writing.
PrimaryFast cloud backup brain in case Claude is unavailable.
Cloud backupRuns locally on your machine — works entirely without the internet, full privacy.
Local / offlineZenAI is not a closed system — it connects to the world and can be extended with your own capabilities.
Connect any external tools & servers via the open Model Context Protocol standard.
ZenAI can distribute tasks to other AI agents and merge their results.
Custom extensions run safely sandboxed.
Ten consecutive security & privacy sprints (2026) hardened ZenAI to production readiness.
Sensitive data is stored AES-256-encrypted, with regular key rotation.
Field encryptionStrict separation per area, person and organisation — no one sees others’ data.
Row-level securityAccess, export and deletion of your data at the push of a button. AI answers are labelled per the EU AI Act.
DSAR · EU AI ActFully operable on your own hardware — your data never leaves your machine.
Self-hostingZenBrain doesn’t mimic an arbitrary database but the way human memory works — how it consolidates, forgets, anticipates and protects itself. You can explore these mechanisms in detail in the Memory, Neuro-brain and Learning tabs.