The problem
Gift ideas, dinner suggestions, and weekly plans work better with your own context: that you're vegetarian, which Bosch washing machine you own, or which plumber you trust. ChatGPT and Claude can remember details from past conversations, with controls to review and correct what they retain. If you want the same maintained household notes available to both assistants, a shared knowledge base gives you a place to keep them.
How people use Hjarni for personal life
Keep small, durable notes about the people, preferences, and practical details that make up your life. Connect ChatGPT or Claude once, and your AI can search and read the relevant notes when a question calls for them, or when you ask. An AI instruction can encourage it to check Hjarni first. Ask it to retrieve the relevant note when you need to be sure it uses that context.
A typical personal setup
- People folder: birthdays, gift ideas, kids' names, what you last talked about
- Household folder: appliance models, paint colors, wifi details, tradespeople you trust
- Preferences note: food rules, sizes, routines, how you like plans made
- Plans folder: trips, weekends, and the running list of things to book
- AI instructions: "We're vegetarian. Weeknight dinners under 30 minutes. Never plan anything on Sunday mornings."
A concrete workflow
Sunday evening, you ask Claude: "Read our preferences and last week's meals in Hjarni, then plan our dinners for the week." Your notes say you're vegetarian and weeknights need to stay under 30 minutes. Claude can use those details to draft a plan and grocery list for you to check.
The habit that makes it work is small: after a dinner with a friend, add one line to their note. Next gift, next visit, next "what was that place they recommended?" gets easier.
Why not just use ChatGPT's memory?
ChatGPT and Claude provide controls to review, correct, and remove remembered information. Hjarni adds explicit Markdown notes you write, read, and edit, with the same notes available for connected assistants to retrieve through MCP. See Hjarni vs ChatGPT Memory for the full comparison.
Keep the details worth remembering in notes you can check and update.
What people save in Hjarni
- People: birthdays, gift ideas, and the details worth remembering between visits
- Household: appliance models, paint colors, meter numbers, and trusted tradespeople
- Preferences: food rules, sizes, routines, and brands that fit
- Recipes and meals: what you cook, what worked, and what to make again
- Plans: trips, weekends, gift lists, and things to book
- Routines: workouts, allergies, and habits you want your AI to respect