/onboarding — Project Intake

Structured intake process that gathers project and client context. Saves to a standardized file that all other skills (/positioning, /gtm-strategist, /sales-pitch, /design-lead, etc.) read before starting their work.

When to Use

• Starting a new client engagement or personal project
• User says "onboarding", "new project", "new client", "set up a project"
• Before running any other strategy/design/sales skill for a project that hasn't been onboarded

Process

Step 1: Initialize Project

If $ARGUMENTS provides a project name, use it. Otherwise ask:

AskUserQuestion:
  question: "What's the project name? (This becomes the folder name — use something short like 'acme' or 'solar-app')"
  header: "Project name"

Check if projects/<project>/onboarding.md already exists. If it does, ask whether to update or start fresh.

Step 2: Discovery — The Business

Ask using AskUserQuestion (group into chunks of 2-3, acknowledge answers before continuing):

Round 1 — What & Why:

• What does the company/product do? (Describe it like you would to a stranger.)
• What problem do you solve? For whom?
• What stage are you at? (Idea, pre-launch, launched, scaling, pivoting, rebranding?)

Round 2 — The Audience:

• Who is your ideal customer? Be specific — job title, company size, situation.
• What is their life like before they find you? What are they struggling with?
• What does success look like after working with you/using your product?

Round 3 — The Market:

• Who are your top 3-5 competitors? (Direct and indirect — include DIY/spreadsheet/do-nothing alternatives.)
• What makes you different from them? (Honest, not aspirational.)
• Is there anyone in your space you admire? What resonates?

Round 4 — Goals & Constraints:

• What are you trying to accomplish with this engagement? (Be specific: launch, reposition, grow, raise, sell.)
• What does success look like in 90 days? In 12 months?
• What constraints should we know about? (Budget, timeline, team size, technical limitations.)

Round 5 — Existing Assets:

• Any existing brand work? (Name, logo, colors, voice guidelines, prior strategy docs?)
• Any customer research, surveys, or testimonials available?
• Any metrics or data we should know about? (Revenue, users, NPS, churn, etc.)

After intake, summarize everything back and ask: "Does this capture it? What am I missing?"

Step 3: Save Onboarding Context

Save the gathered context to projects/$ARGUMENTS/onboarding.md with this structure:

---
project: {project-name}
client: {company/person name}
date: {YYYY-MM-DD}
stage: {idea|pre-launch|launched|scaling|pivoting|rebranding}
---

# {Project Name} — Onboarding

## Business Overview
{What they do, the problem they solve, origin story}

## Target Audience
{Ideal customer profile, their struggling moments, what success looks like}

## Competitive Landscape
{Competitors, differentiation, admired players}

## Goals & Success Criteria
{Engagement goals, 90-day targets, 12-month targets}

## Constraints
{Budget, timeline, team, technical limitations}

## Existing Assets
{Brand work, research, metrics, anything to build on}

## Open Questions
{Anything unclear or needing follow-up}

Step 4: Recommend Next Steps

Based on the intake, suggest which skills to run next:

• Need to define positioning? → /positioning
• Need to understand the customer deeper? → /client-discovery
• Need a go-to-market plan? → /gtm-strategist
• Need to figure out pricing? → /pricing-packaging
• Need design direction? → /design-lead
• Building an AI product? → /ai-product-advisor
• Need to pitch or propose? → /sales-pitch or /proposal-writer
• Need brand strategy? → /studio-brand-strategist

Output

Saves to: projects/<project-name>/onboarding.md

Next Steps

After onboarding, run the relevant skills for the engagement. Each skill reads from projects/<project>/onboarding.md automatically.