Before digging into the topic let's briefly set the scene by providing some background context. Background In 2026-Q1 I decided to invest into a custom pc to run local AI Models. Being an IT Professional I grew increasingly concerned seeing the pc component shift heavily towards AI Business cases. PC component prices was increasing rapidly and high-end components becoming scarce or non-available. Given the overall AI development in general I realized I wanted to ensure I owned AI capability at home, and that if I want to stay current in my career I need to dive in head first into AI and AI Development. A powerful driver and motivator is that I want to see just how far I can take AI capabilities based on localhosted opensource methodology over paying a subscription/pay as you go solutions. I eventually came across Clief's YouTube videos which got me curious about ICM and I decided to join this community. Getting educated Working through the Classroom Foundational course I noticed that ICM is primarily used together with Claude. Reading Clief's thesis ( Interpretable Context Methodology: Folder Structure as Agentic Architecture - https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.16021 ) strengthened my own observation that ICM conceptually is model and tooling agnostic. As long as the AI Model can access and interpret the ICM specification files it shouldn't matter if the model itself is run on cloud services like Claude, Gemini etc. or local hosted alternatives. I decided to put this to the test and do it practically. Working through The Foundation: Module 1.2 ( https://www.skool.com/cliefnotes/classroom/036893d9?md=fdee3f73c53b46049078494c0cfb2e54 ) where we create our first ICM folder and get a quick win. I decided that since the Module 1.2 usecase is easy to start with, it makes sense to get it set up running in my own localhosted ai environment. I also wanted to proceed with a real usecase where ICM can be helpful.

Twenty-four days ago I posted about Jake's folder system video. This is what happened next. Same foundation — markdown files, orchestration prompts, clear roles. I just kept building. Fifteen named specialists. Each one with a soul file, guardrails, and a playbook. Duke orchestrates. Cash writes. Trace pulls the data. Hank runs the financials. Clint handles the MCP integrations. Behind each one is either a human counterpart doing the real work alongside them — or a role I can't afford to hire yet. Katie who's been with me for 18 years, now has her own orchestrator running the same system. Twenty-seven client folders. Twelve live MCP integrations. One shared repo. The folder system isn't replacing my agency. It becoming my agency. Jake gave me the unlock. This is how it's going.

1. Watch the intro video and introduce yourself in the intro post here 2. Start with The Foundation (free course). Concepts, folder architecture, prompting framework. Everything else builds on this. 3. Check in at the bottom of each lesson. Polls, discussion posts, other members working through the same stuff. Use them. 4. When you're ready to build real things, move to Implementation Playbooks (Level 2). When you're ready to build your own tools, Building Your Stack (Level 3). 5. Post your work. Ask questions. Help others when you can. What are you here to build?

You built your first folder. Vote below, then drop a screenshot in the comments so we can see what you came up with.

You just looked at the full Abstraction Series lineup. Vote below so we know which video you're jumping into first.