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brain is the command-line tool of the open-source Agent Registry project. This section covers only how to use it with Atlan Agent Registry. For brain itself, see the open-source project’s documentation. brain reaches Atlan Agent Registry through the Atlan adapter, a signed module Atlan releases separately from brain. With the adapter, brain can:
  • install skills from any workspace you can see in your organization;
  • publish skills to a workspace as new versions;
  • send your coding-agent sessions to Atlan as traces.
For Atlan, brain with the adapter replaces the deprecated atlanai CLI.
Brain is also the name of an area in Atlan Desktop. These pages are about the command-line tool.

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If you use Atlan Desktop

Atlan Desktop sets up brain for you. When it starts, it:
  • moves an earlier registry setup over to brain;
  • installs brain if it’s missing, or updates it when it’s older than the oldest version Atlan supports;
  • adds ~/.brain/bin to your shell’s PATH.
Once you sign in to Atlan Desktop, it also:
  • installs the Atlan adapter if it’s missing. After that, brain keeps the adapter up to date itself;
  • signs brain in to each organization you belong to, using your Atlan Desktop sign-in;
  • turns off atlanai once brain is signed in to all your organizations.
See Move to brain for exactly what the app changes. You can run brain in a terminal on the same machine. It uses the accounts Atlan Desktop signed in. Run brain auth list to see them.

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If you use the command line only

You install brain and the Atlan adapter yourself, and nothing moves you off atlanai. Set it up yourself:
  1. Use brain with Atlan: install the Atlan adapter, sign in, install skills, and publish.
  2. Move to brain: if you used atlanai, stop it and map your commands to brain.
  3. Capture traces: send Claude Code and Codex sessions to Atlan.

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Where each topic is documented

This site doesn’t copy the brain documentation. It covers only what is specific to Atlan.