AI is what blooms. Your records are the roots.
The Root System is how I run my own work with AI every day. It's a handful of plain folders and files that every AI tool reads before it does anything. I wrote it up so any nonprofit can start it without me, and the starter kit is free.
Why structure first
Tools change every few months. Structure lasts.
When your rules and facts live in one place, any AI tool can use them. Switch tools next year and you keep everything you built. Skip this part and every new tool starts from zero, guessing.
Where it came from
Built for my own work first.
I run a career platform and my client work mostly on my own, with AI doing the heavy lifting. Many of the rules in this method exist because something went wrong once. See it running.
Plain files. Any AI can read them.
Text files in a shared folder. No new software to buy.
House Rules
One file every AI reads first. Who you are, who you serve, what AI may do on its own, what it has to ask about first, and what only a person ever does.
Stops: Every staff member making up their own rules.
The Truth File
What you can say, and how you know. Every claim your organization makes in public, each with its source and how sure you are. Grant and donor writing pulls only from here.
Stops: A made-up number in a grant report.
The Records
One fact per line, with where it came from. Programs, partners, funders and referral sources. Each line says where the fact came from and when someone last checked it.
Stops: Six versions of the same spreadsheet.
The Desk
Where AI work waits for a person. Drafts land here. A person reads them and says yes or fix this. Nothing leaves the building without that yes.
Stops: AI sending things nobody read.
Routines
The checks that run on a schedule. Deadlines coming up, records that have gone stale. Routines look and report. They never act on their own.
Stops: Finding out too late.
Your AI policy, written so it actually runs.
Most AI policies are a PDF nobody opens. Here the policy is the first thing every AI reads, so it actually gets followed.
Do it, then tell us
Internal notes and first drafts that stay inside. AI handles these and leaves a note of what it did.
Ask first
Anything about the people you serve or about money. Anything the public will read. AI drafts it and waits.
People only
Sending to anyone outside, spending, changing client records, and changing the rules themselves. AI never does these.
Everything you need to start this week.
One zip file of plain text templates. No email needed. Share it with anyone, just keep my name on it.
- START-HERE.md What the kit is and the order to fill it in. About an hour to read and start.
- 1-HOUSE-RULES.md The rules every AI reads first, with the three levels of trust already written.
- 2-TRUTH-FILE.md A table for every claim you make in public, its source, and how sure you are.
- 3-RECORDS/ Starter lists for programs, partners, funders and referral sources, with source and date columns.
- 4-DESK/ Two folders, waiting and done, plus the one rule that makes them work.
- 5-ROUTINES.md A short list of checks to run weekly and monthly, and who reads the results.
- USING-IT-WITH-AI.md How to load the folder into ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot or Gemini, and the first message to send.
Free under a Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY 4.0).
I can set it up with your team.
We build it with your team, then add your first AI helpers on top.