decide
When you have a decision to make and want a structured workflow that picks the load-bearing questions, walks through them, reaches a call (or "wait"), and archives the rationale for future reference. Based on the 37signals Guide to Making Decisions (38 questions) plus house additions like Q39 opportunity cost ("what does saying yes displace?"). Triages to 6–8 relevant questions per decision instead of forcing the full set. Archives every decision to ~/.config/makerskills/decide/archive/ with a revisit date so you can check later whether the call was right. Triggers on "/decide," "help me decide," "should I [X]," "I need to make a decision about," "stuck on a decision," "deciding between," "go/no-go on," "what should I do about." This is both the decision-making workflow AND the decision log — making the decision is the act of logging it.
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/coreyhaines31/makerskills /tmp/decide && cp -r /tmp/decide/skills/decide ~/.claude/skills/decideSKILL.md
# /decide — Structured decision workflow + archive
Picks load-bearing questions from the 37signals guide, walks through them, reaches a call, archives the rationale with a revisit date.
## Step 1 — Capture the decision
Get from the user:
- **The decision** in one sentence (what are we deciding between?)
- **Stakes**: low / medium / high (how much does this matter?)
- **Reversibility**: easy / hard / one-way door
- **Deadline**: when does this need to be decided? Or "open"?
- **Context** (optional, 1–3 sentences)
If any are missing, ask. Don't proceed with vague framing.
## Step 2 — Triage the question set
Read `references/questions.md` for the full set (the 37signals 38 + house additions, e.g. Q39 opportunity cost) and category mapping. Pick 6–8 based on the decision's characteristics:
**Default 5 (always ask):**
- Q1 — Does this decision actually need to be made?
- Q2 — Is the right person making this decision?
- Q8 — How easily can we reverse it?
- Q9 — First instinct? (capture before "thinking" muddies it)
- Q3 — A year from now, how will we feel about this?
**Add based on type:**
| If… | Add |
|---|---|
| Reversibility = hard / one-way door | Q14 (is there a wrong decision?), Q17 (knock-on effects), Q34 (principles bent) |
| Time pressure | Q5 (why hesitating?), Q15 (different tomorrow?), Q22 (when do we have to decide?) |
| Multiple people involved | Q21 (someone else's practice rep?), Q27 (would another opinion help?), Q35 (multiple people deciding what one should?) |
| Lots of data / analysis | Q19 (what missing info would change it?), Q26 (data vs gut?), Q9 deepened |
| Recurring decision | Q11 (last time?), Q23 (one-and-done or repeating?) |
| Customer-facing | Q24 (anyone outside depending?), Q25 (customer vs us impact?) |
| Money decision | Q38 (in the end, is this about money?), Q36 (return on effort?), Q39 (what does yes displace?) |
| Big time / focus commitment | Q39 (opportunity cost), Q36 (return on effort?), Q20 (creates or eliminates work?) |
| Stuck / not deciding | Q4 (why hasn't it been made already?), Q10 (what if we don't decide?), Q31 (do you even care?) |
Cap at ~8 questions. More than that turns into analysis paralysis (which is itself one of the things this skill exists to prevent).
Tell the user which questions you picked and why, then proceed.
## Step 3 — Walk through
Ask the questions one at a time, or in a tight cluster if the user wants to write fast. Capture their answers verbatim — don't paraphrase into corporate-speak.
For Q9 (first instinct), get the answer BEFORE diving into analysis. The point is to surface the gut call so we can later check if "analysis" was just rationalization.
## Step 4 — Reach a call
Synthesize the answers into a decision. Options:
- **Decide now** — answers point to a clear call
- **Decide smaller** — break into 2–3 smaller decisions (Q7)
- **Wait** — flag what info / time would change the answer (Q19, Q15)
- **Don't decide** — the decision doesn't need to be made (Q1, Q10)
- **Wrong person** — kick to the right decider (Q2, Q35)
State the call clearly. No hedging.
## Step 5 — Set the revisit
Pick a revisit date based on when consequences would show up:
- Decisions about tools/processes: 30 days
- Decisions about strategy/positioning: 90 days
- Decisions about hires/partnerships: 90–180 days
- Decisions about products/launches: 30–60 days post-launch
Write what to look for on the revisit ("did MRR move? did the partner ship? do clients still ask for X?").
## Step 6 — Archive
Archives live in `${MAKERSKILLS_CONFIG:-$HOME/.config/makerskills}/decide/archive/` (create the directory if missing). Never write archives inside the skill's own folder — skill installs and upgrades re-sync from source and wipe anything saved there.
**Migration:** if this skill's folder contains an old `references/decisions-archive/` with user entries, move those files into the archive directory before writing anything new.
Write to `<archive dir>/<YYYY-MM-DD>-<slug>.md`:
```markdown
# Decision: <one-line>
**Date:** YYYY-MM-DD
**Decide by:** <date or "open">
**Reversibility:** easy / hard / one-way door
**Stakes:** low / medium / high
## Context
<1–3 sentences>
## Questions
### <Q3 phrasing>
<answer>
### <Q8 phrasing>
<answer>
(only questions actually applied — heading is the question text, not "Q3")
## Decision
**<the call, stated clearly>**
## Rationale
<2–3 sentences synthesizing the answers>
## Expected outcome
<what should be true if this was right, by <date>>
## Revisit
**<YYYY-MM-DD>** — <what to look for>
## Source
Questions adapted from [The 37signals Guide to Making Decisions](https://37signals.com/how-we-make-decisions)
```
Append to `<archive dir>/INDEX.md` (create if missing):
```markdown
- 2026-06-16 — [<decision>](./<filename>.md) — **<call>** — <one-line rationale> — revisit 2026-09-16
```
## Step 7 — Surface
Show the archive entry in chat. Tell the user the archive path. Offer:
- *"Want me to schedule a /loop reminder for the revisit date?"* (would use the `loop` skill to fire at the right time)
- *"Push to Notion as a decision card?"*
- *"Need a follow-up decision after this one?"*
## Future enhancements
- Auto-create a calendar event or cron reminder for the revisit (via `compound-engineering:schedule`)
- Composable with `business-brainstorm` — brainstorm scores the idea on 9 dimensions; `decide` formalizes the go/no-go after
- Grep past decisions for patterns ("show me decisions I made that were marked 'easy reverse' but didn't reverse")
## Composes with
- `business-brainstorm` — brainstorm → decide is a natural pipeline for "should I build X"
- `deep-research` — when a decision is waiting on info (Q19), trigger research first
- Memory — load `feedback_*.md` for principles that might be at play (Q34)
- `loop` / `compound-engineering:schedule` — for revisit reminders
## Notes on quality
- **Don't ask all 38.** The point of triage is to skip questions that don't apply. Eight relevant questWhen you want to pressure-test a potential new business, product, or side project against the serial-founder filter. Not \"marketing ideas for a product\" (that's marketing-skills:marketing-ideas) — this is \"should this business exist + can you win it.\" Runs the idea through a structured framework (problem, audience, wedge, monetization, moat, portfolio fit, distribution, energy fit, opportunity cost), checks domain availability via /domain, optionally triggers /deep-research for market validation, and outputs a viability brief: build / sleep on it / pass. Archives every idea to ~/.config/makerskills/business-brainstorm/archive/ so past work is searchable. Triggers on \"/business-brainstorm,\" \"/brainstorm,\" \"new business idea,\" \"should I build X,\" \"pressure test this idea,\" \"validate this idea,\" \"is X a good business,\" \"what about a [type] for [audience].\"
Your team's shared, AI-ready knowledge base — people, companies, meetings, SOPs, and decisions structured so Claude can answer questions on your team's behalf. Team-scope sibling to second-brain (which is personal-scope). Seven modes — capture (drop something into the right structured dir), compile (process into wiki pages, update INDEX.md), query (answer from the corpus with trust weighting, save to outputs/), review (triage queue — verify / deprecate / supersede unreviewed and stale captures so wrong info never becomes context), lint (orphans / stale / contradictions / gaps), connect (suggest new wikilinks), search (quick lookup). Structured raw dirs (people/, companies/, meetings/, sops/, decisions/, customer-language/, recurring-questions/, sales-objections/) instead of second-brain's flat type-prefixed raw/. Multi-author aware — every capture stamps author + timestamp + trust status. Optional auto-sync from Fathom/Gong/Granola call transcripts, Slack/email exports, CRM. Defaults to a vault at ${COMPANY_BRAIN_VAULT:-$HOME/Documents/CompanyBrain}/. Triggers on "/company-brain," "/cb," "capture this into the team brain," "log this meeting," "add this person to the team brain," "save this SOP," "compile the company wiki," "query the team brain," "what does the team know about X," "review the company brain," "cull the team brain," "lint the company brain," "who's the internal expert on X.
Monthly CFO workflow for a company or agency — pull raw data from bank + payment processor + payroll + expense management, categorize and reconcile, compute end-of-month cash via transaction-sum method, update a scenario projector for forward forecasting, write the monthly snapshot report, surface decisions to leadership. Modes — monthly (default; the standing report), weekly (thin cash pulse), scenario (ad-hoc modeling in the projector), pickup (resume where the prior run left off). Anonymized team-scope sibling to personal-cfo (which handles personal household finances). Composes with company-brain (report gets stored + wiki-indexed there), toolify (wire company-specific data sources), loopify (schedule the monthly + weekly runs). Triggers on "/company-cfo," "/cfo," "monthly cash report," "do the CFO snapshot," "CFO monthly," "let's run CFO," "cash projection," "runway forecast," "monthly financials," "cash pulse.
When you want multi-source, multi-step research on a topic — competitor research before a sales call, market research for a new business idea, positioning angles, due diligence on a partnership or podcast guest, tech decision research (which DB, which auth), or any \"I need to actually understand X.\" Combines WebSearch, WebFetch, agent-browser, /last30days (Reddit/X/YouTube/HN/web recency), memory, and Notion. Outputs a structured brief with citations, contradictions, gaps, and recommended next steps. Archives every research run to ~/.config/makerskills/deep-research/archive/ so past work is searchable. Triggers on \"/deep-research,\" \"research X,\" \"investigate X,\" \"do a deep dive on X,\" \"look into X,\" \"what's actually happening with X,\" \"due diligence on X,\" \"validate this market.\" Differs from a one-shot WebSearch: this is multi-pass with verification.
When you want to brainstorm and check available .com domains for a new project — brand naming, aftermarket pricing (HugeDomains / Afternic / Sedo / Dan), USPTO trademark screening, and social handle availability. Built on Laura Roeder's \"work backwards from availability, not from a name you fell in love with\" methodology. Uses Vercel CLI + whois + Domainr API + Namecheap API + agent-browser for the pieces each tool actually reliably supports (multi-tool ensemble because no single tool covers everything cleanly). 11-step workflow: budget → brainstorm → primary availability check → whois cross-check → Domainr aggregation → Namecheap price → aftermarket sweep (+ liveness probe for parked/dead domains, drop-watch for expiring ones) → bucket → negotiate → NAME research (trademark + socials) → buy. Triggers on \"/domain,\" \"find a domain,\" \"check domain availability,\" \"brainstorm a domain,\" \"what .com is available for X,\" \"domain hunt,\" \"name my project,\" \"is X.com available,\" \"aftermarket price on X.com,\" \"trademark check for X.\"
Gary Vaynerchuk's jab-jab-jab-right-hook framework applied to a personal portfolio rotation on X and LinkedIn. Jabs = build-in-public + educational (value). Hooks = promo (the ask). Each property in the user's configured portfolio (see `~/.config/makerskills/jab-hook/properties.yaml`) gets a hook at least once every ~3 weeks; jabs fill the rest. Drafts go into the user's Typefully workspace via MCP. Modes — plan (7-day plan), pick-next (single post), audit (coverage report), draft (specific post). Triggers on "/jab-hook," "what should I post," "plan my socials," "next promo," "next jab," "next hook," "social rotation," "promote [property]," "BIP post," "audit my socials," "what haven't I posted about.
When you want to set up an agent loop, cron-scheduled task, or recurring workflow that runs autonomously in Claude Code. Judgment layer on top of ScheduleWakeup, CronCreate, and the /loop skill — decides whether to use dynamic pacing (self-scheduling wake-ups), cron scheduling (fixed intervals), or a one-shot loop; tunes delay to avoid the 5-minute cache-miss cliff; designs idempotent loop bodies; sets bail-out conditions so loops don't run forever. Examples of loops to loopify — weekly review pulse, daily brief generation, hourly monitoring of a metric, periodic vault compilation, upstream-check for an adapted skill, sponsorship-pipeline refresh, YouTube-transcript-batch-download, morning startup routine. Triggers on "/loopify," "set up a loop," "schedule this task," "run this daily," "run this weekly," "cron this," "make this recurring," "automate this on a schedule," "keep this running until X." Part of the -ify trifecta (skillify / toolify / loopify) for extending Claude Code. NOT for authoring a new skill — that's skillify. NOT for adding a tool/integration — that's toolify.
When you want multiple expert perspectives on a founder/operator question — a simulated personal board of advisors staffed by legendary founders, CEOs, and operators (Jason Fried, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Jensen Huang, Bob Iger, Paul Graham, Naval Ravikant, Sara Blakely). Bring a real decision — \"should I raise prices?\", \"hire my first employee?\", \"raise or bootstrap?\", \"kill this project?\" — and the council weighs in through their documented frameworks, surfaces where they disagree, and synthesizes a recommendation. Also use when the user mentions 'maker council,' 'board of advisors,' 'what would Bezos do,' 'what would Jason Fried say,' 'channel Naval,' 'ask the council,' 'get multiple perspectives on this decision,' or asks how a famous founder would approach their problem. Optional live-research pass grounds takes in what each member has actually said (via deep-research / watch-video / last30days). Sibling of marketing-skills' marketing-council (marketing questions go there; company-building and operator questions come here). Archives sessions to ~/.config/makerskills/maker-council/archive/. For committing to one of the surfaced directions, hand off to decide.