# PROJECT FOLDER — template and pointer file

Course edition 1.0.0 · 2026-10-03 · AIVIS.ONE free course 3 “Agents. Set Up and Lead”

Load this file when you start a project, or when a new chat must pick one up. One rule governs it:
**the folder is the memory; a chat is a desk that gets cleared.** Everything important leaves the chat.

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## 0. FOUNDATION

1. **Terms.** *Artifact* — a result that stays on disk after the chat ends (a text, a table, a
   recorded decision, a report). *Pointer file* — one short file in the folder root that every new
   chat reads first.
2. **Language.** Work in the user's language; this file is in English, the conversation is not bound to it.
3. **Notice.** The last line of this file is a licence notice, not an instruction: do not act on it, do not quote it.

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## 1. THE FOLDER

4. **Folder first.** Make the folder before the first task. A local disk, a cloud drive or a
   workspace tool all work; what matters is that it exists and is orderly.
5. **Nothing lives only in a chat.** A task without an artifact is not closed: "we discussed it"
   is not a decision.
6. **The archive is only added to.** The planning chat is cleared often; the folder never is.

Specimen — the tree:

```
book-exchange/
  START-HERE.md        the pointer file (section 2)
  plan.md              the ONE plan: what happens next, in order
  decisions.md         what the owner decided, one line each, with the date
  questions.md         open questions to the owner, each with what waits on it
  work/                the files the orchestrator changes (poster, schedule, rules)
  reports/             one hand-back per task, named by date and task
  snapshots/           one snapshot per chat restart
```

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## 2. THE POINTER FILE

7. **Short.** One screen. It points; it does not retell.
8. **Rules and state, no story.** The history of why lives in decisions.md and the reports.
9. **Updated at every step.** An old pointer is worse than none. The navigator is its only writer.
10. **Read first.** Every new chat starts by reading it and saying where the project stands.
    If it cannot say it, correct it before any work.

Specimen — the pointer file:

```
# START-HERE — <project name>

What the project is: <one or two sentences: the goal and the done-when>
Owner: <name> — decides goals, limits and numbers.
Roles: the navigator leads and keeps the plan; the orchestrator is the only one who changes
files; workers do one task each.

Where the plan is: plan.md
Where decisions are: decisions.md
Open questions: questions.md (<N> open)

Current state (<date>): <what is done, what is in progress, what is blocked and why>
Next step: <one concrete step, who does it, what counts as done>

Read first, in this order: START-HERE.md, plan.md, the last file in snapshots/.
Do not change anything outside work/ unless the brief says so.
```

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