Directive Handbook Kit · start here
One install.
One sentence.
Then it guides you.
Know what leaves your computer. Install the one free program. Put the folder somewhere permanent, open it in your assistant and send a single message. Everything after that is a conversation.
Work through the setupBack for the first message?
Handbook Kit is coming soon. Read this to see exactly what it will ask of you.
01 Before you begin
Your files. Your say.
The kit keeps its work on your computer. Your assistant may still send what it reads to its model provider. Know the difference before you choose a single document.
The documents and the handbook.
Your originals, the pages built from them, the evidence and the history live in your folder. The handbook desk opens on your own machine and is not a way to publish anything.
Only what you choose.
Claude Code or Codex may send the text it reads to Anthropic or OpenAI, on your account and your settings. Files stored locally does not mean a model running locally.
Check what you are allowed to include. Follow your organisation's policy for confidential, regulated or personal information. Leave passwords, API keys, private keys and recovery codes out of the folder entirely.
What gets sent to Directive?
Nothing automatically. The journey uses no connector and sends us no telemetry, no pages and no document text. If you ever need a support bundle, it carries no document text, no excerpts and no file paths; you look at it and decide whether to send it.
The handbook desk listens only on 127.0.0.1, an address that means this computer. It never serves your original documents, only the pages built from them.
02 What you need
One assistant.
One free install.
Use the assistant you already pay for. The same ten steps and the same checks apply to both.
- Your assistant
Claude Code or Codex
Either one, in its desktop app, with access to a folder on your computer. If you have not set one up yet, the assistant guide walks you through it.
Set up your assistant - The free program
Node.js 24 LTS
Node runs the checks and the handbook desk. Install the current LTS release from nodejs.org, or
winget install OpenJS.NodeJS.LTSon Windows andbrew install node@24on a Mac. Quit and reopen your assistant afterwards so it can find it. Version 24 or newer is the floor, and the kit refuses to process anything below it. - A home for the work
A permanent, private folder
Somewhere you can find again and back up, and not inside OneDrive, Dropbox or Google Drive: a sync client copying files while a build is being swapped into place will corrupt it. If you keep it in GitHub, the repository must be private.
03 Get the kit
Unzip it once.
Give it a home.
At launch your customer library offers a zip and a private GitHub template. Either way you finish with the kit in a folder on your computer.
Download the folder.
- Open your library and download the kit.
- Extract the zip, then move the extracted folder somewhere permanent. Do not work inside the zip; that is the most common first stumble on Windows.
- Rename it after your business if you like. Keep
AGENTS.mddirectly inside it.
Make a private copy.
- Connect GitHub from the library and accept the invitation.
- Choose Use this template and make the new repository private.
- Clone your copy, or download its zip and extract it somewhere permanent.
AGENTS.mdThe instructions your assistant reads firstPROGRESS.mdWhere it keeps your place between sessionsknowhow/Your documents, the handbook, the evidence and the history
04 Open the folder
Point your assistant
at the kit.
Choose the folder you just extracted, then start a conversation inside it.
In the Claude desktop app
- Open Code and choose Local.
- Open your permanent kit folder.
- If it asks whether you trust the folder, check that it is the one you extracted, then confirm. It asks once more about a small server that ships inside the folder; that is the handbook answering questions, and saying yes is optional.
In your desktop app
- Open Codex and add the folder as a local project.
- Start a task inside that project.
- Keep Local selected.
06 Bring a little to begin
One useful question.
A few good documents.
Start with material you can lawfully use: one process, one decision, and the notes that explain why. You can always add more.
Word, PowerPoint, PDF, Markdown and plain text are read.
The original is never touched. A citation into a deck names the slide and a citation into a PDF names the page, so you can check it in ten seconds.
Spreadsheets and scans are held back, with a reason.
They are listed and fingerprinted, never quietly dropped. Export the report or the figures you rely on and bring that in instead. A scanned PDF has no text to cite, so it asks you for a text copy.
Getting documents out of OneDrive or Drive.
Copy them into the folder yourself. The kit holds no password and no token for anything, and has no connector to your storage.
Keep credentials out. If the scan finds something that looks like a password or a key, the work stops for your decision without ever printing the value.
07 From here, the kit guides you
Ten steps.
Your place kept.
Work through them in order. Close the laptop whenever you need to; the next session picks up where you stopped.
- 01
Tell it about your setup
Which assistant, how much you want explained, and where the material you choose can go. It checks the machine before anything else.
- 02
Say what the handbook is for
The questions you want it to answer, and what must stay out of it. You approve that in writing before it reads anything.
- 03
Choose the documents
It lists what it found, what it can read and what it cannot. You accept or exclude each one, with a reason, and that decision survives the next scan.
- 04
Agree the shape
It proposes the pages and how they connect. You approve the map before a word is written.
- 05
Let it write
The whole handbook is drafted away from anything you already have, and checked there. A failed build changes nothing.
- 06
Work through what it flagged
Approve, correct, reject, mark unknown or put off. Something you put off stays visible rather than quietly disappearing.
- 07
Open the desk
The handbook on your own computer: the pages, the documents behind them, what still needs you, and a map of how it all connects.
- 08
Ask it five questions
Every answer either shows you the lines it came from or says it does not know. This is the step that tells you whether you have something worth keeping.
- 09
Change one thing
Add a document or say what changed, then rebuild. You finish the first session having already done the thing that keeps a handbook alive.
- 10
Read the receipt
Exactly what was processed, what is still uncertain, what failed, and how to come back. It never says the work is finished while something is still blocking.
If you get stuck
Something not going to plan?
Tell your assistant what is on the screen first. It can talk you through most of it, and it has a help skill of its own for the rest.