Turn a cold start into a warm one with one doc.
A single pack that tells a new session or teammate what the project is, where things live, what's decided, and the next move.
Inside: The five-question frame, a where-things-live map, a decisions digest, and one next move.
Install it in one line, or paste it in.
~/.claude/skills/ and runs automatically when it is relevant.Connect your context. Set it to your motion.
it reads the folder structure and the README so "where things live" is real, not remembered.
it pulls prior decisions and open items instead of asking you to recall them.
it lists the open items with owners and due dates, not just your best guess.
This was built for an operator juggling several projects or accounts at once. Set these to your world:
Point it at your sources. The five questions do not change. Where the answers live is yours.
| Set this | What it is | Default / Example |
|---|---|---|
| SUBJECT | the thing being packed | a projectan accounta workspace |
| CODE_HOME | where the build lives | a git repoa shared drive |
| NOTES_HOME | where decisions and notes live | a notes/wiki toola doc folder |
| TASK_HOME | where open items live | a task toola checklist |
| DECISION_WINDOW | how far back "decisions so far" reaches | last 90 days (re-tune) |
| STALE_FLAG | when the pack itself needs a refresh | 14 days since last update |
Everything the skill does, in full.
Builds one document that orients whoever picks up the work next, a new AI session, a new teammate, or you in three weeks. It answers the five questions a cold start always asks: what is this, where does everything live, what has already been decided, what is still open, and what happens next. The result is a single pack you can paste into a new session or hand to a person, so nobody re-derives context that already exists.
- 1The five questions (fixed order)
Every pack answers these, in this order, no exceptions.
- What is this one paragraph a newcomer could repeat back correctly.
- Where things live the map: build, docs, data, credentials-by-reference (never the secret itself).
- Decisions so far the calls already made, each with the one-line why, most recent first.
- Open items what is unresolved, who owns it, what it is waiting on.
- Next move the single most important thing to do next, named plainly.
- 2Where-things-live map
List the real locations, not "the usual place." A path, a link, a tool name. If a location is a guess, mark it a guess. Point to where a credential is stored, never paste the credential.
- 3Decisions-so-far digest
Pull the decisions that shaped the current state and give each a one-line reason. If a decision log exists, cite it. If not, this section is the seed of one, and the skill will say so.
- 4Open-items pass
Every open item gets an owner and a blocker if it has one. "Someone should" is not an owner. An item with no owner is itself flagged.
- 5Next-move call
End on one move, not a menu. The pack is useless if the reader still has to decide where to start.
- Nothing is written or saved anywhere without your explicit approval. The pack is drafted for you to place; it does not touch a repo, a wiki, or a task tool on its own.
- No invented locations. A guessed path is labelled a guess, not stated as fact.
- No secret in the pack. Credentials are referenced by where they live, never pasted.
- The next move is exactly one item, named, not a list to triage.
CONTEXT PACK · Northwind onboarding automation · updated today WHAT THIS IS A workflow that enriches new signups and routes them to the right owner. Runs nightly. Feeds the account list the AE team works each morning. WHERE THINGS LIVE Build a git repo, /automations/onboarding Docs a notes tool, "Northwind onboarding" space Data a shared sheet, "signups-raw" tab Secrets stored in the team vault (referenced, not pasted) DECISIONS SO FAR - Route by company size, not persona. Personas were too noisy. (last week) - Nightly, not real-time. Real-time tripled the API cost for no lift. OPEN ITEMS - Dedupe on domain still manual. Owner: you. Waiting on: a rule spec. - Owner for EU signups undecided. Owner: unassigned (flagged). NEXT MOVE Write the dedupe rule spec so the last manual step can be automated.
Where an operator takes this next.
The read is step one. Here's where an operator takes it once the manual version proves out.
You built the read once; now it runs itself.
Point a scheduled Claude task at your repo and notes tool weekly and regenerate the pack so it never goes stale past the flag window.
Require a fresh pack before any account or project changes owners, posted to Slack so the new owner starts oriented on day one.
Feed the pack straight into your new-hire or new-teammate onboarding flow so context transfer stops depending on a meeting that may not happen.
One skill is the on-ramp.
A single skill does one job. Chained into a playbook, or run as a full build, it becomes a system. Here is where this one plugs in.