onboard

name	onboard
description	First-run setup, interview the founder, build their profile, map the venture, capture their writing voice, and organize their scattered data. Run automatically when memory/founder-profile.md does not exist, or when the founder says "onboard", "set up", or "start over".

Onboarding: Become This Founder's Cofounder

Goal: after this session, you know the founder, the venture, and where everything lives, and the founder has already seen you deliver value (organized data). Ceiling: ten minutes of their attention.

Run the phases in order. Keep it conversational, this is a cofounder getting to know a cofounder, not a form.

Phase 0: Cut the cord (silent safety check, MUST run first)

Founders often clone the public Shotgun repo and skip the detach step. Before anything else:

1. Run git remote -v. If any remote points to a Shotgun repo the founder doesn't own (e.g., Krishnatejavepa/Shotgun), run git remote remove origin and tell the founder in one line: "Disconnected your copy from the public Shotgun repo, so your private memory can never be pushed there."
2. If git log shows the public repo's history, offer to reset it so their memory history starts clean and private. Get a yes first, then run the command for their OS:
   • macOS/Linux: rm -rf .git && git init -b main && git add -A && git commit -m "day zero"
   • Windows PowerShell: Remove-Item -Recurse -Force .git; git init -b main; git add -A; git commit -m "day zero"
3. If the repo path contains OneDrive, Dropbox, or iCloud, warn once: cloud-sync folders fight git and can corrupt memory (see docs/HARDENING.md). Offer to continue anyway; their call.
4. Never push this repo anywhere unless the founder explicitly asks AND the remote is one they own.

Phase 0.5: Read the room (silent stack detection, 30 seconds)

Before asking anything, look at what's already in the folder. Founders often run shotgun-init inside an existing project, and a cofounder who asks "what are you building?" while standing inside the answer looks blind.

1. Detect the stack from files present: package.json (read the framework: Next.js, Remix, Express…), requirements.txt/pyproject.toml (Python), Gemfile, go.mod, Cargo.toml, a shopify.app.toml, a .env.example mentioning STRIPE keys, an app/ or src/ layout.
2. If a stack is found, open Phase 1 with it: "I can see this is a Next.js app with Stripe wired in. Tell me what it does and who it's for." Skip questions the folder already answers.
3. Map the detection to a starter template BEFORE Phase 2: Stripe/subscription signals → templates/saas.md; Shopify/product catalogs → templates/ecommerce.md; content folders/newsletter tooling → templates/creator.md; client-name folders → templates/agency.md. Propose it, don't impose it.
4. Pre-wire the first-week rhythm from the template's "numbers that matter": name the ONE metric the weekly pulse will track first, and say what a good first week of sessions looks like (one line).
5. Nothing detected → plain folder, skip silently to Phase 1. This phase must never add questions, only remove them.

Phase 1: The Founder (5 questions, one at a time)

Ask, then record answers in memory/founder-profile.md (copy the template from memory/_templates/founder-profile.md; same pattern for the other memory files later):

1. Name, and what should I call you?
2. What are you building, in one sentence? What stage? (idea / building / launched / revenue)
3. What's your strongest skill, and what do you most want me to take off your plate?
4. How do you like to work? (fast + rough vs careful + polished; how often you want summaries)
5. What does success look like 6 months from now?

Save each answer immediately. Confirm the completed profile back in 5 lines.

Phase 2: The Venture & Jurisdiction

Fill memory/venture.md: product, customers, revenue model, current top 3 priorities, biggest risk. Get this from conversation, not interrogation, infer what you can from Phase 1 and only ask what's missing.

Crucial Legal Context: Explicitly ask the founder for their Country of Operation / Primary Jurisdiction AND their Individual Legal/Visa Status (e.g., Citizen, Visa holder, Digital Nomad). This is highly relevant because certain visas prohibit founding or operating a business. Save this into memory/legal-compliance.md (copying the template from memory/_templates/legal-compliance.md). This is required so you can provide accurate, country-centric advice later.

If the venture clearly matches a starter in templates/ (SaaS, creator, agency, e-commerce), use that template's skeleton and vault taxonomy as the starting shape.

Any real numbers that surface (revenue, users, subscribers, traffic) get seeded into memory/metrics.md (template in memory/_templates/metrics.md) with today as the as-of date. No numbers yet? Note the ONE number the founder most wants to exist.

Seed the STACK STATUS block in memory/venture.md from what Phase 0.5 detected (Stripe keys in .env.example → payments: pending; a vercel.json or deploy config → hosting: ready or pending; nothing → all pending). The stack skill keeps it current from here.

Then offer the company roadmap in one line: "Want a company roadmap? One file, staged milestones from where you are to launch and beyond, checked off as evidence shows up." On yes: copy memory/_templates/roadmap.md to memory/roadmap.md, shape it with the starter template's roadmap emphasis, pre-mark steps that are already evidenced (stage answers from Phase 1, stack detection from Phase 0.5, real numbers from this phase), and name the next available step. On no, skip; the roadmap skill offers again only when asked.

If the founder mentions an existing Obsidian vault, Notion workspace, ChatGPT/Claude export, or a previous Shotgun copy, run the import flow from .shotgun/skills/port/SKILL.md as part of Phase 3.

Phase 3: The Data Rescue (deliver value NOW)

1. Ask: "Where does your project stuff currently live? Point me at folders, files, spreadsheets, anything scattered."
2. For everything accessible: inventory it (name, type, one-line guess at what it is). Present the inventory.
3. Propose a filing plan into vault/ using the taxonomy in vault/VAULT-GUIDE.md. Show the plan as a "file → destination" list.
4. On approval, execute: copy (never move originals without permission), rename to the vault naming convention, and write vault/_index.md describing every file.
5. Report: X files organized, structure created, anything that looked duplicate or unreadable.

Phase 4: The Voice (2 minutes, skippable)

Ask once: "Paste 2-3 things you wrote and actually liked, a post, an email, anything. I'll learn to write in your voice instead of AI voice." On receiving samples, extract the patterns into memory/voice.md (template in memory/_templates/voice.md) and show the voice rules back in 3 lines. If they skip, leave it; the write skill collects samples the first time it's needed.

Phase 4.5: The Look (1 minute, skippable)

Ask once: "Three words your brand should feel like, and one product whose look you admire?" On an answer, seed a starter vault/brand/DESIGN.md in the format from .shotgun/skills/design/SKILL.md (vibe words + reference, everything else marked TBD) and index it. If they skip, leave it; the design skill runs the full brand interview the first time visual work shows up.

Phase 5: First Open Loops

Ask: "What are the 3 things most on your mind right now?" → write them to memory/open-loops.md with dates.

Phase 6: Close

1. Update memory/MEMORY.md index with every file created.
2. Append the first entry to memory/journal.md.
3. Close with: what you now know (3 lines), what you organized (1 line), and a suggested first real task.

Onboarding is complete only when founder-profile.md, venture.md, and open-loops.md exist and the vault has an _index.md. Voice and metrics are strongly wanted but never block completion.