Everything Second Brain Can Do Right Now
We just shipped a new version. Here’s the full list of what’s in the app today.
I’ve written a lot about why we built Second Brain and what problems it solves. But I keep getting the same question: “What exactly does it do?” Not the philosophy. Not the vision. The actual features, right now, in the current version.
So here’s the full breakdown. Everything that’s in the app as of today.
Your local database
Second Brain runs on a local database on your machine. No cloud. No subscription server. Your data sits in a file on your computer that you fully own and control.
The dashboard shows you what’s in your database: how many records, how much space it takes, and shortcuts to the main sections. You can browse every table in the database directly from the app, search across all your data from one search bar, and edit or delete individual records without touching any code.
When you first open the app, a short onboarding walks you through the basics. The app checks for updates automatically and tells you when a new version is available.
Contacts and CRM
This is where most of your data comes together. You get a full contact management system with search and filtering across names, emails, phone numbers, and organizations.
Each contact has a detail page with everything linked to them: identity info, email addresses, phone numbers, social profiles, physical addresses, company affiliations, newsletter subscriptions, billing records, calendar events, notes, and a timeline of all activity. You can see lifetime revenue per contact when payment data is imported (stripe, paypal).
Need a list? The CSV export lets you pick which columns to include, applies whatever filters you’ve set. That’s your email campaign list, or your outreach segment, built from real data in seconds.
21 import sources
We built parsers for the tools people actually use, so you can bring existing data into the database without reformatting anything.
Payments and billing: Stripe subscriptions, Stripe transactions, PayPal subscriptions, PayPal transactions, and bank statements (CSV). Each one scoped per company. Bank statements use a column mapping step so you can import from any bank’s CSV export format.
Email: Email suppression lists (bounces, unsubscribes, spam reports, blocks) and full email archives.
Contacts: A universal CSV importer with column mapping that works with any CRM or spreadsheet export, plus dedicated parsers for Google Contacts and survey responses.
Calendar: Google Calendar event imports.
Publishing: Substack archive imports with author attribution for articles.
Notes and knowledge: Notion (Markdown and CSV), ChatGPT conversation exports, Evernote (.enex files), OneNote (multiple formats), Obsidian vaults, Logseq graphs, and general knowledge files (PDFs, Word docs, text files, ZIP archives with 200+ documents at once).
Project and task tools: Asana tasks, Jira issues (all fields), Trello boards, and Todoist backups.
Every import that supports it has a dry run mode. You can preview exactly what will be created or changed before anything gets written to your database. Background imports show progress in real time with status updates and logs, and you can cancel mid-import if something looks wrong.
Database management
You can browse every table in your database. Edit any row directly. Delete individual records or bulk delete. Deletion shows you exactly what will be affected before you confirm.
The maintenance tools handle the cleanup work that databases need over time. There’s a cleanup tool that removes junk contacts (disposable email domains, spam-pattern names), tags suppressed emails, and refreshes database indexes. You can customize the blocklist of disposable domains and define your own junk name detection rules.
Backup and restore is built in. Export your entire database as a backup file.
Live automations
Three integrations that keep your database current while the app is running.
Hexomatic. Connect your API key, pick a scraping workflow, and map it to a company and a target field in your database. Hexomatic runs on its schedule, and the results flow into your local database automatically. No manual downloads. You can pause and resume sync, view activity logs, and manage multiple workflow mappings.
Stripe. Enter your secret key per company, and Second Brain syncs your payment data automatically. Pause, resume, or trigger a manual sync anytime. When Stripe automation is active, the manual Stripe CSV import on the Import page is disabled to avoid conflicts.
PayPal. Same setup. Client ID and secret, live or sandbox mode, pause and resume, manual sync.
Claude Desktop connection
This is what turns a database into a working AI tool.
Second Brain generates the MCP configuration snippet that connects your local database to Claude Desktop (watch this video to learn how to connect to Claude Desktop). One setup step, and Claude can read from and write to your local knowledge base directly inside a conversation.
The app also generates a starter Skill file, a markdown document that teaches Claude how to work with your data safely. Permission-first rules: Claude can read anything, but writes only happen when you explicitly ask. The Skill explains how it works, and you can customize to your specific needs. See more skills here.
Claude Desktop’s free plan works with this connection. You don’t need a paid Claude subscription to start using your database as context.
Settings and profile
Your owner profile holds your email addresses, phone numbers, companies and roles, social profiles, and other details. This is the context Claude uses when it needs to know who you are.
You can manage multiple owner companies, which is how imports, automations, and contact scoping all stay organized when you run more than one business.
CRM settings let you define your own relationship types for contact imports and customize field labels for column mapping, so your import workflow matches your business terminology.
What’s new in this version
We ship updates regularly. The latest version includes stability improvements across import pipelines, better error handling on large datasets, and refinements to the database management tools. If you’re on an older version, download the latest build.
Try it
Download Second Brain at brain.hexact.io. 7-day free trial, no credit card required.
Start with one import. Whatever data you already paste into AI conversations manually. Get it into the database, connect Claude, and ask a question you couldn’t answer before.
That’s usually enough to see whether this changes how you work.
Want a walkthrough first? Book a free 15-minute demo.
