The me.md File: Never Introduce Yourself to an AI Again

Key Takeaway: me.md is a personal context file for AI: one plain text file that says who you are, how you work, and how you want to be advised. Every AI tool I use reads mine before anything else. Write it once and you never introduce yourself to a machine again.

You Have Introduced Yourself a Hundred Times

If you have used ChatGPT or Claude more than a few times, you know the ritual. New chat, blank box, and before you can ask for anything useful, you type the same paragraph again. What your business is. Who your customers are. How you like to sound. "Keep it short. No exclamation points."

Then the chat ends and all of it evaporates. Next session, the machine is a stranger again.

If that ritual made you conclude these tools are goldfish, that is an accurate observation, not you falling behind. Most AI chats forget you the moment you close the tab, and the tools that do offer memory keep it locked inside their own product. Leave the product, lose the memory.

You should never have to re-explain who you are to a machine. One file ends that.

One File Ends the Ritual

My fix is one plain text file.

I keep one plain text file on my own computer called me.md. The .md is just a plain text format; yours could be a .txt file and lose nothing. It says who I am and how I want to be worked with, and it is the first thing every AI tool I use reads: the keystone file of the AI second brain I wrote about.

A brand-new session starts already knowing me, not because the tool remembered, but because the file did.

Credit where due: the me.md idea comes from Nick Milo. You do not need his system or mine to get the benefit. You need one page.

Because I own the file, it works in every tool and outlives all of them. Swap one AI for a better one next month and the introduction comes along. The tool is rented. The file is mine.

What Goes in a me.md (and What Stays Out)

Everything in mine falls into a few plain categories:

• Who I am and what I do. The honest two-sentence version, not the brochure version.
• Values. The lines I will not cross, so no tool ever drafts something that crosses them.
• Voice. How I sound in writing, and what I never sound like.
• How to advise me. Options or a recommendation? Blunt or gentle? This section earns its keep daily.
• Working preferences. The small mechanical stuff: formatting, length, pet peeves.

Just as important is what stays out. Two hard rules.

No secrets, ever. No passwords, no account numbers, nothing you would panic about seeing pasted somewhere public. Secrets belong in a separate encrypted store built for that job; an identity file is not that job.

No tool-specific rules. How one particular app behaves belongs with that app, not in the file every tool reads. me.md is who you are, not how one product works. That is also why it changes rarely: a business shifts slowly, and identity shifts slower.

Two Real Lines From Mine

Categories are easy to nod at, so here is proof. A real line from my me.md:

"Lead me with a ranked recommendation. Give me your pick first, labeled 'my pick,' then the reasoning. Do not hand me an unranked menu."

That sentence follows me into every tool. Instead of seven options with pros and cons, I get a pick and the reasoning. I wrote it once.

And a shorter one: "Call me Joseph."

Small, almost silly, and every session opens like a conversation with someone who knows me. The little lines do more than you would expect.

The Rule That Keeps It Honest

One caution, because this file is your identity in writing: never let an AI rewrite it on its own. Any tool of mine can propose a change; I approve or reject it. Every change is saved and reversible, like a document's edit history, so nothing is silently lost and every tool reads the same truth. The AI drafts. The human stays the editor.

That is not paranoia. It is the same instinct that told you to be careful with your data in the first place, pointed at your own words.

Write Yours in 20 Minutes

You do not need my file or anyone's template. Open any plain text editor and answer these, a few honest sentences each:

1. What do you do, and who do you serve? The version you would tell a sharp new hire on day one.
2. What do you refuse to compromise on? Discounts you will not give, promises you will not make.
3. How do you sound? One sentence you would actually say to a customer, and one you would never say.
4. How do you like advice delivered? One pick or a menu? Direct or diplomatic? Short or thorough?
5. What should an AI never do in your name? Quote a price, promise a date, contact a customer directly. Draw the lines in writing, now.

Then add one last line naming what does not belong: passwords, customer data, anything private. Writing the boundary down keeps you honest later.

Save it. Keep it on your own computer. Paste it at the top of any new AI chat, or point a tool at it if it can read files. That is the whole system. Twenty minutes, and you have written the introduction you will never give again.

Notice what this did not require: code, a course, technical anything. I have written before that you do not need to understand AI, you need to understand your business. A me.md is that idea in file form: knowing yourself clearly enough to write it down once.

You Do Not Have to Write It Alone

Your first draft will be rough. That is fine. It improves the way anything honest improves: by being read by someone else. Saying your "how I like advice delivered" answer out loud is worth three quiet rewrites at a desk.

That is exactly what we build together inside The Vibe Circle, my community for owners learning AI at their own pace: a live 90-minute call with me every two weeks, a feed for questions in between, $99 a month, cancel anytime. Bring a blank page. Leave with the introduction you will never give again.

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Joseph Philip Savino is the founder of Savino Marketing, based in Hazlet, NJ. He teaches startups and small businesses to adopt AI safely, with 9% of all proceeds going to charity. Files like this one get written together, live, every two weeks inside The Vibe Circle.