# Context library starter kit

From the Digital Now 2026 session *Engineering Patterns to Empower Your Team with AI*.

This kit sets up a **context library**: a small set of plain Markdown files that tells every AI assistant in your organization who you are, how you work, and where answers live. Any assistant (Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot) reads it through a connector your staff already use. Assistants never change it; they propose changes through an inbox, and a person approves every change.

## How it fits together

1. **Org instructions** tell every assistant: we have a library, read its rules first.
2. **`AGENTS.md`**, the rules, holds a routing map: for this kind of question, read that file.
3. **Short context files**, each with a header saying what it is, how sensitive it is, and where its facts come from.
4. **Source documents** those files point to. When they disagree, the source wins.
5. **Live data tools** (optional) for numbers that change daily.
6. **Your published content**, for quoting the real text.
7. **An inbox** where assistants propose changes and a person approves them.

## What's in the kit, in the order to use it

| File | What it is |
|---|---|
| `01-org-instructions.md` | The short block you paste into your AI tool's org-wide instructions. Start here. |
| `02-AGENTS.md` | A template of the rules file that sits inside the library: five rules, routing map, sensitivity, how changes are approved. |
| `03-file-structure.md` | An example numbered folder tree and what goes where. |
| `examples/` | Three filled-in sample files for a fictional "Example Association". |
| `04-front-matter.md` | Every header field in plain words, including `auto_update_sources`. |
| `05-inbox-note.md` | The note format and what counts as a note. |
| `06-setup-guide-for-your-agent.md` | Give this to your own AI assistant. It interviews you and walks you through setup, step by step. |

## Bonus

| File | What it is |
|---|---|
| `07-bonus-live-data-tools.md` | How to give assistants live numbers safely: the layers from source systems to scoped tools, the design rules, and a smaller path if you have no data platform. |
| `08-bonus-personal-agent-context.md` | The same pattern for one person: workspace rules, a memory index, memory files and handoffs that the agent maintains, with templates. |

## Two ways to use it

- **Do it yourself:** read 01 through 05, then copy the templates into your own library.
- **With your assistant:** give it this whole folder and say, "Read `06-setup-guide-for-your-agent.md` and help me set this up, one step at a time."

## Start small

Ten good files and a working inbox are enough to make assistants noticeably better at answering questions about your organization. Write the rest when real questions call for them.