# IPCRA Method The IPCRA method is the organization system of [[Eliott Meunier]], the French creator behind [[Atomic Thinking]]. It gives your second brain five top-level folders: Inbox, Projects (Projets), Caps (Casquettes, i.e., "hats"), Resources (Ressources) and Archives. I see it as a tiny ontology for knowledge and context management: five categories, each note belongs to exactly one, and the category says what the note is FOR rather than what it is about. Strictly speaking, it's a taxonomy: it classifies notes, but doesn't define types, properties or relations (cfr [[Ontology]]). ## The five folders 1. **Inbox**: where a note lands when you don't have time to file it right away 2. **Projects (Projets)**: shorter-term efforts, current or future, such as a launch, a business idea to test, or a book to write or publish 3. **Caps (Casquettes)**: long-lived areas of responsibility, the "hats" you wear: being a father, your job, your studies. The difference between a project and a cap is duration: a project ends, while a cap lasts for years 4. **Resources (Ressources)**: notes that fit neither a project nor a cap, but that you expect to need later 5. **Archives**: projects and caps you're done with ## Filing a note The filing is a sequence of questions, and you stop at the first "yes": 1. No time to decide now? Put it in the Inbox 2. Does it help one of my projects, current or future? File it in that project's folder 3. Does it fit one of my caps? File it in that cap's folder 4. Will it serve me later? File it in Resources Eliott files a note in its project or cap as soon as he takes it, while consuming the content. This approach turns the same idea into an ordered checklist (has an end: project; permanent role: cap; reference you consult without acting on it: resource; finished: archive; anything else: inbox) and numbers the folders `0 INBOX` to `4 ARCHIVES` so that they sort in that order (the same trick as the [[Johnny Decimal system]]). ## Why by project and cap, and not by theme Eliott refuses thematic folders. According to him, they're the best way to create knowledge silos and to never reread or reuse your notes. And since a note often fits several themes at once, you forget which folder you put it in. He made the same point in [[Arrêtez d'Oublier ce que vous Lisez (book)]] (cfr [[Categories are limiting]]). Filing by project serves the [[Slow Burn Method|slow burn]] approach, a term from [[Building a Second Brain method (BASB)|Building a Second Brain]]: every idea or piece of content you capture feeds a project without extra effort. This stretches the divergence phase of the project (cfr [[Divergent thinking]]). When you finally sit down to do the work, convergence (cfr [[Convergent thinking]]) goes fast, because you start from a pile of notes instead of a blank page. ## IPCRA and AI In 2026, Eliott presents IPCRA as a five-folder system drawn from five years of research on the second brain, adapted to the AI era. His argument: the key variable for AI is context, and how that context is structured. In his full course on the AI second brain (May 2026), he sums it up as "Qualité = Capacité IA × Qualité du contexte" (quality = AI capability × quality of the context), and describes a system in three layers: storage, AI and interface. Files like CLAUDE.md and a memory file initialize the AI, as opposed to relying on the native memory of AI tools. That's very close to my own vision: a solid system for humans at the bottom, and an AI on top that understands it. Some added one short [[Project context note|context note]] per project and per cap (what it is, its status, the next action, decisions, linked people and resources), which the AI reads at the start of a session. It's the same idea as a CLAUDE.md file per folder (cfr [[Context File Hierarchy]]). It also matches two of the principles I list in [[AI-Ready Second Brain]]: a clear folder structure and naming conventions let an AI find the right context by convention, without searching the whole vault (see [[Context Engineering]]). ## How it compares to PARA IPCRA is a variant of the [[PARA method]] of [[Tiago Forte]], with two changes: - An explicit Inbox up front. PARA has no capture folder. It's the same idea as the inbox of [[Getting Things Done (GTD)]], and it only works if you empty it regularly (cfr [[Inbox Zero principle]]) - Areas become caps. The scope is the same as Tiago's areas: roles and responsibilities you maintain over time, while interests go to Resources. The new name is the useful part: "which hat am I wearing?" is an easier question than "which area is this?". In my own PARA setup, I stretched Areas to include interests (psychology, philosophy, cognitive sciences). IPCRA would push those back to Resources (see [[Areas of responsibility]]) ## IPCRA and the Obsidian Starter Kit IPCRA is a single folder ontology. In the [[Obsidian Starter Kit]], I don't use one method. I combine several systems, plus ideas of my own, into a larger one, where each system stands on its own and is integrated with the whole (cfr [[Combining PKM methods into a system]] and [[Obsidian Starter Kit - Systems]]). Many of these ideas come from [[Getting Things Done (GTD)]]. Among them: a [[Obsidian Starter Kit - System - Journaling System|journaling system]], an [[Obsidian Starter Kit - System - Action System|action system]], a [[Obsidian Starter Kit - System - Zettelkasten System|Zettelkasten system]] derived from the [[Zettelkasten method]], and a [[Obsidian Starter Kit - System - Zone System|zone system]] that combines PARA and the Johnny Decimal system. Both reject topic folders. The zone system organizes notes by function (what type of thing a note is), while IPCRA organizes them by purpose (which project or cap a note serves). For me, the type is what matters (cfr [[Organize information by type, not by topic]]). A note can be associated with many categories, projects and caps through tags, links and properties, but it has ONE type, and thus ONE physical home (cfr [[One home per note]]). With IPCRA, a note's home changes when its project ends; with types, it never does. The other differences: - IPCRA asks you to answer the filing questions for every note. In the kit, the [[Obsidian Starter Kit - System - Automatic Note Filing System|automatic note filing system]] recognizes a note's type and moves it to its folder, because the kit aims to free you of the boring parts of knowledge management, filing included (cfr [[Obsidian Starter Kit - Foundation - Design Principles]]) - Where IPCRA has caps, the kit turns ongoing responsibilities into activities, with a cadence and a standard instead of a deadline (see [[Obsidian Starter Kit - Theory - The action system]]) - The kit has several inboxes (fleeting notes, the literature inbox, voice notes) instead of one (cfr [[Obsidian Starter Kit - Reference - Folder structure]]) - In the kit, literature and permanent notes stay in flat folders by note type, and each project gets its own folder with its project note. IPCRA moves the notes themselves into the project or cap folder - Projects, activities, goals and plans are note types too, with their own metadata, lifecycle and statuses. The project note IS the context note, and the action system starts from clarity about your values, principles, goals and priorities: top down and bottom up (cfr [[Knowledge Worker Kit - 01 Clarity]]) - Both structure your notes so that an AI can use them as context. In the kit, the note types (made explicit by the [[Obsidian Starter Kit plugin for Obsidian|OSK plugin]] and [[TypedMark]]) are what the AI relies on, and the rest is the job of the [[Obsidian Starter Kit - System - AI Assistant System|AI assistant system]], built on the principle that AI augments your thinking and does not replace it (cfr [[Obsidian Starter Kit - Foundation - AI Augmentation Philosophy]]) Whichever variant you pick, keep the hierarchy flat (cfr [[LIFT principle]] and [[Avoid complex folder structures]]). ## References - Eliott Meunier's website: https://eliottmeunier.com/ - Eliott Meunier, Atomic Notes email series, email 3 (2024): introduction of the IPCRA model, the filing questions and the link to slow burn - Eliott Meunier, "Le Système IPCRA : Une Nouvelle Approche pour Organiser vos Fichiers Numériques": https://ghost.perspectives.ac/intro-ipcra/ (unreachable on 2026-11-05: HTTP 502) - Eliott Meunier, "L'IA devient simple quand on utilise ce système" (video, 2026-02-14): https://eliottmeunier.com/youtube-4ribdgu1nkg/ - Eliott Meunier, "L'IA devient simple avec un Second Cerveau IA (cours complet)" (video, 2026-05-02): https://eliottmeunier.com/youtube-iubquc9tl2w/ - Nadir Imedjoubene, "IPCRA : ranger ses notes pour que l'IA les lise vraiment": https://asknadir.com/masterclass/methode-ipcra - Christian (École Cube community), "Ma méthode pour organiser un vault Obsidian utilisable par une IA": https://community.cube.fr/forum-agents-ia/post/ma-methode-pour-organiser-un-vault-obsidian-utilisable-par-une-ia-pFZwDRMfoYyw13y - Marie-Lou Girard, "Second cerveau" (Bravo PME, 2026-05-22): https://bravopme.substack.com/p/second-cerveau ## Related - [[PARA method]] - [[Areas of responsibility]] - [[Theory behind the PARA method]] - [[Atomic Thinking]] - [[Eliott Meunier]] - [[Arrêtez d'Oublier ce que vous Lisez (book)]] - [[Atomic notes]] - [[Johnny Decimal system]] - [[Zettelkasten method]] - [[Getting Things Done (GTD)]] - [[Inbox Zero principle]] - [[AI-Ready Second Brain]] - [[Context Engineering]] - [[Context File Hierarchy]] - [[Building a Second Brain method (BASB)]] - [[Obsidian Starter Kit - Systems]] - [[Obsidian Starter Kit - Reference - Folder structure]] - [[Categories are limiting]] - [[Slow Burn Method]] - [[Capture habit]] - [[Organize information by type, not by topic]] - [[One home per note]] - [[Ontology]] - [[Project context note]] - [[Project Context Management (PCM)]] - [[Combining PKM methods into a system]] - [[TypedMark]] - [[Agentic Knowledge Management (AKM)]]