team-sheet

Every part of you is on the same team.

Your mind is made up of parts: the Achiever that drives you, the Critic that cuts you down, the Soother that numbs when things get hard. IFS (Internal Family Systems) is a widely-used therapeutic framework built on this insight — that inner conflict is not a flaw to fix, but a system of parts to understand. team-sheet maps your inner system as it grows more detailed over time, session by session.

🗺️ Try the live demo (no download needed)

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Most self-help tools treat the mind as a single agent to be optimised. team-sheet recognises that each of us have a system of “parts”, each trying to help using its own history, perspective, values, fears, and skills.

team-sheet allows you to map this internal territory, to understand and connect with all parts of you on a deeper level. Free flow or structured journalling with or without an AI can be used to populate a local .html file. You can then edit fields directly in the app to continually refine your map with new insights. No prior IFS experience needed.

After a few sessions you’ll have:

🔒 Private by default. A single .html file. No server, no accounts, no telemetry. Your data is a local file you own — nothing leaves your device unless you choose to send it. If you journal with an AI, check their privacy settings (see ai-privacy-guide.md for a full breakdown).

🤖 Works with any AI. Any AI that supports project knowledge (Claude Projects, ChatGPT Projects, Gemini Gems) works. Prefer no AI? Edit everything directly in the app.

🚧 Early work in progress. Feedback welcome: open an issue or start a discussion.

Setup

Follow these steps for your first session:

  1. Download team-sheet.html and instructions.md: click each link, then the download icon (top right).
  2. Create (or open) your AI project: e.g. claude.ai → New Project.
  3. Upload instructions.md to project knowledge: Project sidebar → Add content → Add files.
  4. Paste the quickstart prompt below and start talking.
  5. At the end of your session, ask: "Update my data based on our conversation."
  6. Add data.json to project knowledge: same as step 3. (If updating: remove the old version first, then upload the new one.)
  7. Import your data into the app: open team-sheet.html, click ↑ (top right), paste the JSON, Import.

No AI? Download and open team-sheet.html, go to the Parts tab, and click “+ Add part”. Fill in what you notice about each part — what it does, what it fears, when it shows up. The Map tab updates as you go.

Quickstart prompt

I'm setting up team-sheet, a personal IFS mapping app. I've attached instructions.md which explains the data format and how to work with me.

Start by asking me what's been on my mind lately, what I've been noticing internally, any recurring patterns, tensions, or inner conflicts. Keep it conversational, ask one thing at a time, and follow the thread. Don't introduce IFS language until it becomes useful.

Once you have a reasonable picture, generate my initial data.json using the format in instructions.md. We can fill in the gaps over time.

Each session

Follow these steps for subsequent sessions:

  1. Export your data: if you made any changes within the app, hit the ↓ EXPORT button first.
  2. Start a new chat in your AI project. Check your latest data.json is in the project knowledge.
  3. Journal: brain dump freely, or name a mode to start with (see below).
  4. End the session: ask your AI to “Update my data”.
  5. Replace data.json in project knowledge: remove the old version, upload the new one.
  6. Sync the app: click ↑ IMPORT, paste the JSON from step 4, hit Apply.

Session modes

Name any mode at the start of a session to direct the conversation.

Mode Trigger phrase Best for
First-time setup "let's do first-time setup" Building your initial parts map from scratch
History "let's fill in history" Exploring when and why a part emerged; adding key events to the timeline
Check-in "let's check in on today" Which parts were active? How was the day led?
Challenge "let's challenge the map" Are parts correctly identified? Should any be merged or split?
Part focus "let's focus on [part name]" Deep work with one part, using the 6 Fs sequence

The 6 Fs: working with a part

When focusing on a specific part, your AI will use the 6 Fs as a loose guide. You do not need to know these in advance — the AI will lead naturally. They describe a direction of inquiry, not a rigid script.

  1. Find: locate the part; where do you feel it in your body?
  2. Focus: turn attention toward it without trying to change it
  3. Flesh out: get to know its shape, age, and what it’s doing
  4. Feel toward: what arises in you when you look at it?
  5. Befriend: what does the part want you to know? What has it been trying to do?
  6. Fear: what is it afraid would happen if it stopped doing its job?

Tabs at a glance

Tab What it shows
Map A visual overview of your parts as nodes, sized by prominence, connected by relationship edges
Parts The full roster of your parts: role, overview, wants, fears, skills, and relationships
Self The 8 Cs and 5 Ps of Self-energy; a log of Self-led moments
Journal Session entries: what was explored, which parts were active, what shifted
Timeline A chart showing when each part emerged and how the balance between parts and Self has shifted over time

What is IFS?

Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a model of the mind developed by psychologist Richard Schwartz in the 1980s. It is one of the most widely-used frameworks in contemporary psychotherapy, with a growing evidence base for treating trauma, anxiety, depression, and other conditions. The core insight is simple but far-reaching: the mind is not a single unified voice. It is a system of parts, each with its own perspective, values, needs, emotions, fears, and intentions.

You have probably already met some of yours: the part that wants to get things done and the part that just can’t start. The part that longs for connection and the part that pushes people away. The voice that says you’re not good enough, and the quieter voice that knows that isn’t true. IFS is a framework for understanding yourself and your inner conflicts on a deeper level, and for developing a genuine relationship with each of these parts.

The three types of part

Managers are proactive protectors. They run things before pain has a chance to arrive. They plan, achieve, control, optimise, and people-please. A manager’s logic is: if I stay on top of everything, nothing bad can happen. Managers are often responsible for your most productive and also your most exhausting traits.

Firefighters are reactive protectors. They step in after pain has already been triggered, when something has gotten through the managers. Their job is to douse the fire by any means necessary: scrolling, drinking, overeating, rage, withdrawal, numbing. Firefighters are not the enemy; they are crisis responders doing the only thing they know how.

Exiles are the parts that carry the original pain: old shame, fear, grief, or wounds from the past. Managers and firefighters exist in large part to keep exiles locked away, because their pain feels too much to bear. IFS therapy involves, carefully and with professional support, getting to know exiles and helping them carry less.

Self

Self is not a part. It is not a voice or an agenda. It is your natural ground state: the calm, curious, connected presence that remains when parts step back. IFS describes Self through the 8 Cs (Calm, Curiosity, Clarity, Compassion, Confidence, Courage, Creativity, Connectedness) and the 5 Ps (Presence, Patience, Perspective, Persistence, Playfulness). You cannot lose Self; you can only lose access to it when parts are running things.

The aim of IFS is not to eliminate parts or become “part-free”. Parts are protective strategies that formed for good reasons. The aim is to build a relationship with each part from Self, to understand what it has been trying to do, and to help it carry less so it can play a freer role.

IFS and professional therapy

IFS is widely practised by trained therapists and is one of the few approaches recognised by the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) as an evidence-based treatment. If you are dealing with complex trauma, significant mental health challenges, or distressing material, IFS therapy with a qualified practitioner offers depth and safety that self-guided tools cannot provide.

team-sheet is a reflective tool, not a replacement for therapy. Use it alongside professional support, or as a way of mapping your inner world and preparing for sessions. If you are looking for a qualified IFS therapist:

Outside the US and UK, search for “IFS therapist” with your country or city, or filter by “Internal Family Systems” on your national therapist directory.

Do I need to know IFS first?

No. The quickstart prompt is designed to let you journal freely about what’s going on, and your AI will introduce IFS concepts only when they become useful. You do not need to read anything before starting.

If you want to go deeper before or alongside using the app:

To listen first:

To read first:

To go further:

Privacy and security

Your data stays on your device. The copy-paste JSON workflow is not just a technical convenience — it is the privacy model. Nothing is transmitted automatically. You decide what leaves your machine and when.

Set a password in Security (top-right gear icon) to encrypt your data at rest in the browser.

Full journalling threat model — a detailed breakdown of privacy risks across every journalling approach.

Files

File What it is
team-sheet.html The app. Open in your browser.
instructions.md Upload to your AI project knowledge. Defines the data format and all session guidance.
alex-example-data.json Example data so you can see what a mapped system looks like.
journalling-threat-model.md Privacy risk breakdown across all levels of AI journalling.
ai-privacy-guide.md Full provider comparison: training policies, retention, ZDR options, local model setup.

Customising

team-sheet is free and open source. The app and instructions are both designed to be modified. IFS is a rich model and no two people’s inner worlds look the same.

Contributions welcome: if you adapt the instructions in a way others might find useful, or build something new into the app, open a pull request or share it in issues.

Support

team-sheet is free and always will be. If it’s been useful to you, you can sponsor the project on GitHub.

Why I built this

IFS gave me a genuinely useful framework for understanding my inner world, but keeping track of this understanding as it grew more complex over time became difficult. Insights from one therapy session were often forgotten by the next. I found it helpful to regularly check in with my parts between sessions, as IFS creator Richard Schwartz recommends, but this became far easier when it contributed to a growing, evolving map.

I also noticed some parts were craving something more external and objective — clear evidence that I was “on the right track” — to help recognise and appreciate the growth and healing that other skeptical parts tended to dismiss. team-sheet became that place for me, and I hope it can benefit others too.

Companion to character-sheet, a gamified life dashboard built on the same local-first, AI-optional architecture. If team-sheet is a cozy management game like Animal Crossing for understanding and befriending your inner world, character-sheet is an intense RPG like Skyrim where you are the main character: for when you need accountability, encouragement, and a quest log to help you lock in, level up, and tackle the external world.