founder-skills

Adversarial idea interrogation followed by structured business modeling — in one chained pipeline.

Every existing startup skills repo is generative: you bring an idea and it helps you fill it out. This repo starts by trying to kill the idea first, then builds out the survivors.

Existing repos:   Interrogate OR Model
This repo:        Interrogate THEN Model

The Key Differentiator

/verdict — a synthesis skill that reads all prior outputs and returns an explicit BUILD / KILL / PIVOT judgment with structured reasoning. No other skills repo has this.

Pipeline

[/problem-discovery] ──> [/problem-statement] ──> /pressure-test ──> /customer-archetype ──┬──> /founder-fit
   (optional, if no                                    ↑                                    ├──> /scope-mode ──> /startup-canvas ──> /unit-economics
    specific idea yet)                          ⚠ run in fresh                              │                          │
                                                 conversation                               ├──> /market-size ─────────┤
                                                 to avoid bias                              │                          ├──> /regulatory-risk (regulated industries)
                                                                                            │                          ├──> /battle-cards
                                                                                            │                          └──> /assumption-map ──> /pretotype
                                                                                            └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                                                                                                                                                  ↓
All outputs ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────> /verdict
/verdict (BUILD) ──┬───────────────────────────────> /build-brief → coding agent
                   ├───────────────────────────────> /pitch-deck, /investor-lens, /elevator-pitch, /objection-map
                   └───────────────────────────────> /gtm-plan, /oneliner, /cold-outreach, /content-strategy
/verdict (KILL/PIVOT) ─────────────────────────────> /pivot-paths

⚠ Bias warning: /problem-discovery and /problem-statement help shape the problem — they are not adversarial. After running them, switch to a fresh Claude Code conversation before running /pressure-test. Otherwise the agent that just helped you frame the problem will be biased toward validating it, undercutting the adversarial review. This is a fundamental limit of LLM self-review, not a Claude-specific issue.

Every skill writes a structured output file to ./founder-outputs/. Downstream skills read those files. /verdict reads all of them.

Quick Start

1. Install the plugin (see below)
2. Open a project in Claude Code
3. Say "I have an idea" or run /pressure-test
4. Follow the pipeline — each skill recommends the next step

Installation

As a Claude Code plugin (recommended)

claude plugin add /path/to/founder-skills

Multi-platform install

The setup script auto-detects installed coding agents and installs the appropriate format for each:

git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/founder-skills.git
cd founder-skills
./setup --auto     # detect and install for all found agents

Or install for specific platforms:

./setup --claude global   # Claude Code — symlink to ~/.claude/skills/
./setup --claude local    # Claude Code — symlink to ./.claude/skills/
./setup --codex           # Codex CLI — generate AGENTS.md
./setup --cursor          # Cursor — generate .cursorrules
./setup --kiro            # Kiro — copy SKILL.md to ~/.kiro/skills/
./setup --opencode        # OpenCode — copy SKILL.md to .opencode/skills/
./setup --windsurf        # Windsurf — generate .windsurf/rules/
./setup --all             # install for every supported platform

Supported Platforms

Platform	Format Generated	Install Location
Claude Code	SKILL.md (native)	~/.claude/skills/ or .claude/skills/
Codex CLI	AGENTS.md (plain markdown)	project root
Cursor	.cursorrules (markdown)	project root
Kiro	SKILL.md (copied)	~/.kiro/skills/
OpenCode	SKILL.md (copied)	.opencode/skills/
Windsurf	.windsurf/rules/*.md	project root

Skills Reference

Skill	Purpose	Reads	Writes
/problem-discovery	Surface candidate problems when no specific idea exists yet	—	problem-discovery-output.md
/problem-statement	Polish a vague problem into a precise JTBD statement	problem-discovery (optional)	problem-statement-output.md
/pressure-test	Adversarial interrogation — kill bad ideas early	problem-statement (optional)	pressure-test-output.md
/customer-archetype	Force precise customer definition + buying committee mapping	pressure-test	customer-archetype-output.md
/founder-fit	Assess founder-market fit and unfair advantage	pressure-test, archetype	founder-fit-output.md
/scope-mode	Calibrate ambition: EXPAND / SELECTIVE / HOLD / REDUCE	pressure-test, archetype	scope-output.md
/market-size	Bottom-up TAM / SAM / SOM	pressure-test, archetype	market-size-output.md
/startup-canvas	Business model + value proposition	pressure-test, archetype, scope	startup-canvas-output.md
/unit-economics	CAC / LTV / payback / gross margin — viability math	canvas, archetype, market-size, gtm-plan	unit-economics-output.md
/regulatory-risk	Compliance exposure and licensing requirements	canvas, archetype, market-size	regulatory-risk-output.md
/battle-cards	Competitive intelligence + switching costs +