Recently a lot of excellent community discussion around how to ICM. Having experienced rapid growth in my past, one of the hardest things to do is keep language and definitions aligned. If I say the Agent did this, where does your brain go? Lines get crossed because you have so many levels of understanding and perspective. Some people are coming from non-technical backgrounds and have learned through corporate ai marketing. Others coming from corporate environments where language is defined for them by the management and designers building their infrastructure. Mini cultures with their own language. One of the brilliant aspects of ICM is it's commonality with almost anyone on a computer. It's just a folder, from that foundation we can all get on board. What's difficult is what happens next. I had this conversation with claude during a planning session. Claude asked me did I want agents or roles? I responded back by did he mean an agent like claude or codex, which is really an LLM, a purpose built agentic piece of software that the market tells me is an agent that does stuff? Or a folder acting as an agent with a specific role. I didn't know what the underlying meaning implied, how to answer? So I asked here was the response. 1. Engine — the LLM brand (Claude, Codex, Kimi, Minimax). Raw cognition, rented capacity, the electrons. Interchangeable. 2. Agent — the ICM folder. Persistent shaped context: identity + rules + reference + memory + boundaries. A standing operator that exists on disk and endures across sessions. This is your "folders hold attention" — an agent is where attention lives. 1. Role — a lens/hat: a function performed at one step of a process. It exists only in the doing. Where attention points right now.

This is an update on my first post here https://www.skool.com/cliefnotes/icm-for-teams-my-understanding-to-onboarding-coworkers-to-a-shared-content-pipeline?p=03813a63. And thanks to solid inputs by @Curtis Hays, i decided to do an update. This is a more robust and scalable way to run a shared ICM content system with multiple people. It works especially well for teams. Why This Approach? - Everyone has their own private workspace, so there is no risk of stepping on each other's drafts. - There is still one source of truth for the shared framework, rules, and client info. - Merge conflicts are much less likely. - It is easy to pick up someone's work if they are absent. Overall Structure The use two types of repositories. 1. Shared Repo (one for the whole team) Contains: - Framework, rules, prompts, and stages - Client information and brand guidelines - Shared logs Does not contain personal ideas or drafts. 2. Personal Repo (one for each person) Contains: - Your own `stage folder e.g 01-ideas`, `02-drafts`, `03-formats`, and working content Fully private to you. Step by Step Setup Guide For You (The Person Who Built the Original System) Step 1: Create the Shared Framework Repo 1. Create a new private GitHub repository e.g `marketing-content-framework`. 2. Copy only the framework files into it: - `agent.md` / `CLAUDE.md` - `context.md` - Core stages and context contracts - Brand guidelines, rules, templates - Any shared client projects or logs folder 3. Add a `.gitignore`. Example: ```gitignore # Ignore personal content folders 01-ideas/ 02-drafts/ 03-formats/ *.local.md ``` 4. Push it to GitHub. Step 2: Create Your Personal Repo 1. Create another private repo e.g `yourname-content-workspace`. 2. Clone the shared framework into it, or copy the structure. 3. This becomes your main working folder.