runway-check

name	runway-check
description	Compute current runway, burn trend, and forecast end-of-runway. Use when boss or bookkeeper is asked for runway, on a scheduled monthly check, or before any fundraising conversation.

Runway check

A founder should know their runway in months, not "uhhh we have a few months". This skill makes the answer reliable and current.

When this skill fires

• Boss asks "how's our runway?"
• Pre-fundraising conversation prep
• Monthly scheduled check (1st of each month)
• After any major hire or significant expense

The shape

1. Pull bank balance:

   • If Xero MCP wired: xero_accounts get_balance
   • Else: read most recent wiki/finance/<year>/<month>/bank-balance.md
   • Else: ask the founder to provide it

2. Compute trailing 3-month average burn:

   • Sum monthly burn for last 3 months from wiki/finance/<year>/<month>/burn-summary.md
   • Divide by 3
   • If trend is clearly increasing or decreasing, note it

3. Compute runway:

   • runway_months = bank_balance / monthly_burn
   • Express as both months AND end-of-runway date

4. Surface a tighter view:

   • "If burn stays flat at $32K/mo, runway is 7.5 months (out by 2027-01-10)"
   • "If we hire 1 more engineer (+$10K/mo), runway shortens to 5.8 months"

5. Surface levers:

   • "Current biggest expense category: payroll (60%)"
   • "Cheapest fast-impact lever: deprioritise the $4K/mo SaaS subscriptions we'd consolidate"

6. Write to wiki/finance/<year>/<month>/runway-check.md with frontmatter kind:runway-check

7. Flag if runway < 6 months — boss should know

Anti-patterns

• Reporting runway without showing the burn assumption (always show both)
• Optimistic projections that assume a fundraise will close
• Ignoring upcoming known expenses (e.g. quarterly tax payments)
• Pretending we have data we don't ("our burn is around $30K" when it's actually unmeasured)