title	Variance Protocol
created	2026-09-10
updated	2026-09-10
type	kit
status	draft
dest	shared
license	MIT
copyright	Andrew Lazo / of1

Variance Protocol

Variants are fine. Canon lives in files.

A scrubbed starter for running AI assistants as a skinny router + file ledger, not a forever chat backpack.

Inspired by Interpretable Context Methodology (ICM) ideas popularized in the Van Clief / Eduba orbit — adapted here as a practical Mouth → Hands → Metal loop for Grok Bot–class assistants. This pack is not affiliated with Marvel or Disney; any TVA-flavored nicknames in your private chats stay private.

Planes

Plane	Job
Mouth	Think / draft (chat app)
Hands	One bounded tool step (Bot)
Metal	Of-record files (your disk / home server)

Chats and experiments are variants. The ledger (Metal) is of-record. Do not call it a “Sacred Timeline” in public docs — that mark isn’t yours, and the metaphor implies pruning. You want a ledger, not a prune police.

What’s in the box

• icm/ — stage contracts + shared rules (stop / verifier / round ≠ effect)
• templates/ — leave-behind frontmatter, ticket stub, hire card stub, ask.md
• docs/HOW_WE_WORK.md — shop law lite
• LICENSE — MIT © Andrew Lazo / of1

What this is not

• Not your private vault, clients, or credentials
• Not a dual-model control plane (steal contracts; don’t nest vendor runtimes on day one)
• Not a promise that any one chat product has “New Chat” or clear-CTX APIs

Quick start

1. Copy this tree to your own disk (or fork the public repo when published).
2. Create a skinny router Bot: one job = route; state = files.
3. Open icm/AGENTS.md → load only the named CONTEXT.md + listed inputs.
4. Write the artifact to Metal → stop → human gate.
5. Add seats only when a ticket needs a named lane.

Credit

Copyright © Andrew Lazo / of1. MIT License. ICM conceptual debt acknowledged to the Van Clief Interpretable Context Methodology tradition; this pack’s wording and plane names are Andrew’s adaptation.