deck-review

name	deck-review
description	Scores and strengthens startup pitch decks (pre-seed through Series A) against 35 investor-grade criteria grounded in Sequoia, DocSend, YC, a16z, and Carta data.
when_to_use	Use ONLY when the user has attached a pitch deck file (PDF, PPTX, markdown, or pasted slide text describing slide-by-slide content) AND has asked for review, scoring, feedback, or critique of the deck. Do not auto-invoke on general fundraising or pitch questions; use ONLY when there is actual deck content to review.
user-invocable	true

Deck Review Skill

Help startup founders strengthen their pitch decks before sending them to investors. Produce a structured, scored review with specific, actionable recommendations grounded in current best practices from Sequoia, DocSend, YC, a16z, and Carta data. The tone is founder-first: a candid coaching session, not a VC evaluation.

Skill Metadata

• Author: lool-ventures
• Version: managed in founder-skills/.claude-plugin/plugin.json
• Compatibility: Python 3.10+ and uv for script execution.
• Exports:
  • checklist.json → financial-model-review, ic-sim, fundraise-readiness

Skill Execution Model (READ FIRST)

This skill runs inline in the main thread (not as a sub-agent). The main thread has full tool access including Bash, and is responsible for orchestrating the full pipeline: running producer scripts, persisting artifacts, and dispatching the deck-review sub-agent at specific moments.

Two dispatch contexts for the sub-agent:

• Context A — Per-step analytical dispatch (Mitigation 1): Steps 4 and 5 dispatch the deck-review agent via the Task tool. The agent does deep analysis and returns structured JSON. The main thread captures the JSON and pipes it through the producer script (slide_reviews.py or checklist.py). The sub-agent does NOT write artifacts directly.
• Context B — Post-compose coaching dispatch: Step 7 dispatches the sub-agent after compose_report.py writes report.md. The sub-agent reads report.md, appends ## Coaching Commentary, verifies all canonical artifacts on disk, and returns a structured success payload.

Why this model: In Cowork, sub-agents have a restricted tool allowlist (no Bash). By keeping orchestration in the main thread and dispatching sub-agents only for analytical or post-compose tasks that use only Read/Edit/Glob/Grep, the pipeline works correctly in both Claude Code (CLI) and Cowork.

Tolerant JSON extraction protocol (Context A): After dispatching the sub-agent, capture its final assistant message. The sub-agent should return raw JSON, but may wrap it in ```json ... ``` fences or add a prose preamble. Extract JSON tolerantly:

1. If the message is wrapped in a ```json ... ``` (or plain ``` ... ```) fence, strip the fence first.
2. Try to parse the stripped text directly as JSON.
3. If that fails, walk through the text looking for the first { character and try json.JSONDecoder().raw_decode(text[i:]) — this is brace-aware and handles nested objects correctly (unlike regex, which truncates on the first }).
4. If extraction fails entirely, re-prompt the sub-agent with: "Your previous reply could not be parsed as JSON. Return ONLY the JSON object — no markdown fences, no prose preamble."

See founder-skills/references/skill-execution-model.md for the full inline-skill execution model (3 dispatch contexts, Mitigation 1+2, producer contract, Cowork quirks, per-symptom triage).

Input Formats

Accept any format: PDF, PowerPoint (PPTX), markdown, or text descriptions of slides.

Available Scripts

All scripts are at ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/deck-review/scripts/:

• checklist.py — Scores 35 criteria across 7 categories (pass/fail/warn/not_applicable)
• compose_report.py — Assembles artifacts into final report with cross-artifact validation; --strict exits 1 on high/medium warnings
• visualize.py — Generates self-contained HTML with SVG charts (not JSON)

Also available from ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/ (shared):

• founder_context.py — Per-company context management (init/read/merge/validate)

Run with: python3 ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/deck-review/scripts/<script>.py --pretty [args]

Available References

Read as needed from ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/deck-review/references/:

• deck-best-practices.md — Full best practices: slide frameworks, stage-specific guidelines, design rules, AI-company requirements
• checklist-criteria.md — Definitions for all 35 criteria with pass/fail/warn thresholds
• artifact-schemas.md — JSON schemas for all artifacts

Artifact Pipeline

Every review deposits structured JSON artifacts into a working directory. The final step assembles all artifacts into a report and validates consistency. This is not optional.

Step	Artifact	Producer
1	founder context	founder_context.py read/init
2	deck_inventory.json	deck_inventory.py (agent provides JSON via stdin)
3	stage_profile.json	stage_profile.py (agent provides JSON via stdin)
4	slide_reviews.json	slide_reviews.py (agent provides JSON via stdin)
5	checklist.json	checklist.py
6	Report	compose_report.py (writes both report.json and report.md)

Rules:

• Deposit each artifact before proceeding to the next step
• For producer-script artifacts (Steps 2-4), the agent supplies JSON on stdin and the script schema-validates against references/schemas/<artifact>.schema.json. Never write artifacts directly via Write or Edit — always pipe through the producer script so metadata.run_id is injected and the schema is enforced.
• If a step is not applicable, deposit a stub: {"skipped": true, "reason": "..."}

Keep the founder informed with brief, plain-language updates at each step. Never mention file names, scripts, or JSON. After each analytical step (4–5), share a one-sentence finding before moving on.

Workflow

Step 0: Path Setup

SCRIPTS="${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/deck-review/scripts"
REFS="${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/deck-review/references"
SHARED_SCRIPTS="${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts"
ARTIFACTS_ROOT="${ARTIFACTS_ROOT:-$(pwd)/artifacts}"
mkdir -p "$ARTIFACTS_ROOT"

# Preliminary RUN_ID — used by Step 1 (founder_context init) before slug-aware
# setup_run.py runs. Will be reused by setup_run via --run-id, OR overwritten
# by gate_state.json on re-invocation (see below).
RUN_ID="${RUN_ID:-$(date -u +%Y%m%dT%H%M%SZ)}"

If CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT is empty OR the path it resolves to does not exist in your environment (in Claude Cowork it substitutes to a host-side path that is not present inside the session VM — test with ls), fall back: Glob for **/skills/deck-review/scripts/checklist.py, strip to get SCRIPTS, derive REFS and SHARED_SCRIPTS. In Claude Cowork this is always the case — don't retry the substituted path; go straight to the Glob fallback. If Glob returns multiple matches, prefer the one under a plugin mount (.remote-plugins/ or the plugins cache) over any workspace copy. If Glob returns nothing, locate it with Bash: find / -path '*/skills/deck-review/scripts/checklist.py' 2>/dev/null | head -5.

After Step 1 (when the slug is known) — call setup_run.py to resolve REVIEW_DIR and clean stale state in one atomic step. Re-invocation special case: if the caller's task prompt indicated this is a resume (it includes REVIEW_DIR=... and / or RUN_ID=..., or $REVIEW_DIR/gate_state.json already exists with a non-empty answer), rehydrate RUN_ID from gate_state.json's metadata.run_id and skip the --clean flag:

# Resolve REVIEW_DIR (from prompt if provided, else derive)
if [ -z "$REVIEW_DIR" ]; then
  REVIEW_DIR="$ARTIFACTS_ROOT/deck-review-$SLUG"
fi
mkdir -p "$REVIEW_DIR"
mkdir -p "$REVIEW_DIR/.staging"   # for ad-hoc sub-agent JSON staging

IS_RESUMING=""
if [ -f "$REVIEW_DIR/gate_state.json" ]; then
  GATE_ANSWER="$(python3 -c 'import json,sys;print(json.load(open(sys.argv[1])).get("answer",""))' "$REVIEW_DIR/gate_state.json")"
  if [ -n "$GATE_ANSWER" ]; then
    IS_RESUMING=1
    RUN_ID="$(python3 -c 'import json,sys;print(json.load(open(sys.argv[1])).get("metadata",{}).get("run_id",""))' "$REVIEW_DIR/gate_state.json")"
  fi
fi

if [ -z "$IS_RESUMING" ]; then
  SETUP_JSON="$(python3 "$SCRIPTS/setup_run.py" \
    --artifacts-root "$ARTIFACTS_ROOT" \
    --slug "$SLUG" \
    --run-id "$RUN_ID" \
    --clean \
    --pretty)"
  REVIEW_DIR="$(echo "$SETUP_JSON" | python3 -c 'import json,sys;print(json.load(sys.stdin)["review_dir"])')"
  # RUN_ID stays the preliminary value passed via --run-id; setup_run echoes it back.
fi

Pass RUN_ID to every producer script via --run-id. Producer scripts inject it into metadata.run_id automatically. compose_report.py enforces that all required artifacts share the same run_id and emits a MISSING_METADATA (high) warning for any artifact without one. The rehydration above is what keeps run_id stable across the gate — without it, a fresh RUN_ID on re-invocation would mismatch the pre-gate artifacts and trip STALE_ARTIFACT in compose.

On re-invocation ($IS_RESUMING is set): skip Steps 2 and 3 if deck_inventory.json and stage_profile.json already exist with a matching metadata.run_id. They were preserved across setup_run.py because that path was skipped, so re-running them would just overwrite identical content.

Step 1: Read or Create Founder Context

python3 "$SHARED_SCRIPTS/founder_context.py" read --artifacts-root "$ARTIFACTS_ROOT" --pretty

Exit 0 (found): Use the company slug and pre-filled fields. Proceed to Step 2.

Exit 1 (not found): This is normal for a first run — do not treat it as an error. Use AskUserQuestion (NOT plain chat) to ask for company name, stage, sector, and geography. Provide at least 2 options. Then create:

python3 "$SHARED_SCRIPTS/founder_context.py" init \
  --company-name "Acme Corp" --stage seed --sector "B2B SaaS" \
  --geography "US" --artifacts-root "$ARTIFACTS_ROOT" \
  --run-id "$RUN_ID"

Exit 2 (multiple): Present the list, ask which company, re-read with --slug.

Step 2: Ingest Deck -> deck_inventory.json

Ingestion pitfalls — common issues that degrade review quality:

1. PDF image-only slides: Some PDFs embed slides as images with no extractable text. If Read returns blank or garbled content, note input_quality: "image_only" in deck_inventory.json and base the review on visual description + OCR-level best effort. Flag reduced confidence in coaching commentary.
2. PPTX speaker notes vs. slide content: Speaker notes often contain the real narrative; slide text is abbreviated. Extract both — notes go into content_summary, slide text into headline. Do not discard notes.
3. Multi-file submissions: Founder sends v1 + v2, or deck + appendix as separate files. Ask which is the primary deck before proceeding. Do not merge or review both simultaneously.
4. Partial decks: Deck has fewer than 5 slides or is clearly a subset. Proceed but set confidence: "low" in stage_profile and note the limitation. Missing-slides detection still runs normally.
5. Wrong file type: File named .pdf but is actually a Word doc or image. If Read fails, try alternate format before asking the founder for a re-upload.

Read the provided deck. For each slide, extract: headline, content summary, visuals description, word count estimate. Then write the inventory through the producer script:

cat <<'INVENTORY_EOF' | python3 "$SCRIPTS/deck_inventory.py" --run-id "$RUN_ID" -o "$REVIEW_DIR/deck_inventory.json" --pretty
{
  "company_name": "...",
  "review_date": "YYYY-MM-DD",
  "input_format": "pdf",
  "total_slides": 12,
  "claimed_stage": "...",
  "claimed_raise": "...",
  "slides": [
    {"number": 1, "headline": "...", "content_summary": "...", "visuals": "...", "word_count_estimate": 15}
  ]
}
INVENTORY_EOF

The script validates against references/schemas/deck_inventory.schema.json and injects metadata.run_id. Never write deck_inventory.json directly via heredoc — the schema-validation gate is what keeps the pipeline honest.

Step 3: Detect Stage -> stage_profile.json

Determine pre-seed/seed/series-a from signals in the deck. Read references/deck-best-practices.md for stage-specific frameworks. Record: detected stage, confidence, evidence, whether AI company, expected slide framework, stage benchmarks.

Stage signals: Pre-seed: no revenue, LOIs/waitlist, prototype, <$2.5M ask. Seed: early ARR, paying customers, <$6M ask. Series A: $1M+ ARR, cohort data, repeatable GTM, $10M+ ask. Later-stage: set detected_stage to "series_b" or "growth" — use the Gate below. Do not ask outside the gate.

AI company detection signals: The company is AI-first if ANY of: (1) core product uses ML/AI for its primary value proposition, (2) inference or training costs appear in COGS or margins, (3) deck mentions foundation models, fine-tuning, or AI infrastructure as product components, (4) retention or engagement metrics reference AI-specific patterns (usage retention vs. seat retention). Set is_ai_company: true and record the evidence in ai_evidence. When in doubt, flag it — the gate will let the founder correct.

Then write the profile through the producer script:

cat <<'PROFILE_EOF' | python3 "$SCRIPTS/stage_profile.py" --run-id "$RUN_ID" -o "$REVIEW_DIR/stage_profile.json" --pretty
{
  "detected_stage": "seed",
  "confidence": "high",
  "evidence": ["Claims $2M ARR", "..."],
  "is_ai_company": false,
  "ai_evidence": "...",
  "expected_framework": ["..."],
  "stage_benchmarks": {"round_size_range": "...", "expected_traction": "...", "runway_expectation": "..."},
  "reference_file_read": ["deck-best-practices.md", "checklist-criteria.md", "artifact-schemas.md"]
}
PROFILE_EOF

Gate: Confirm Stage and Scope

Sub-agent execution model: sub-agents in Cowork cannot reliably call AskUserQuestion. The gate uses a checkpoint-and-resume pattern — the sub-agent writes a gate_state.json to disk and emits a structured needs_input payload as its final message. The parent (main thread or invoking agent) calls AskUserQuestion if available — or otherwise asks the founder via plain text — then writes the answer back into gate_state.json via gate_state.py answer, then re-invokes this sub-agent. The sub-agent detects re-invocation by checking whether gate_state.json already has an answer field. (The plain-text round-trip works correctly even without AskUserQuestion.)

How to detect re-invocation: if $REVIEW_DIR/gate_state.json already exists AND has a non-empty answer field, you were re-invoked. Skip the gate-emit and read the answer:

GATE_ANSWER=""
if [ -f "$REVIEW_DIR/gate_state.json" ]; then
  GATE_ANSWER="$(python3 -c 'import json,sys; print(json.load(open(sys.argv[1])).get("answer",""))' "$REVIEW_DIR/gate_state.json")"
fi

If $GATE_ANSWER is set and non-empty, jump to "After the gate" below.

Otherwise, write gate_state.json via the producer script and emit a needs_input payload:

cat <<'GATE_EOF' | python3 "$SCRIPTS/gate_state.py" emit --run-id "$RUN_ID" -o "$REVIEW_DIR/gate_state.json" --pretty
{
  "gate_id": "stage_confirmation",
  "question": "Does this stage detection look right?",
  "options": ["Looks right", "Different stage", "Not sure — proceed anyway"],
  "context_summary": "Detected stage: Seed (high confidence). Key evidence: $4.2M ARR, 3 paying enterprise customers, $5M raise ask. AI company: Yes — inference costs in COGS. Expected framework: Sequoia seed (12-15 slides). Slides in deck: 14."
}
GATE_EOF

The script schema-validates the body and injects metadata.run_id. Never write gate_state.json directly via heredoc.

Then return — as your final assistant message — a JSON object the parent agent can act on:

{
  "needs_input": {
    "gate_state_path": "<absolute path to gate_state.json>",
    "question": "Does this stage detection look right?",
    "options": ["Looks right", "Different stage", "Not sure — proceed anyway"],
    "context_summary": "..."
  },
  "review_dir": "<REVIEW_DIR>",
  "run_id": "<RUN_ID>"
}

For out-of-scope stages (series_b, growth): use gate_id: "out_of_scope_choice", question "This looks out of scope. What should I do?", options ["Stop review", "Different stage", "Proceed anyway (best-effort)"].

After the gate (when gate_state.json already has an answer): read $GATE_ANSWER from the file and branch:

• Looks right: proceed to Step 4 with the detected stage.
• Different stage: emit a second gate (gate_id stage_choice) via gate_state.py emit to ask which stage. Treat this as a fresh gate — return a new needs_input payload and let the parent answer it the same way. When that one comes back answered, run stage_profile.py --rebuild-stage <chosen> and re-emit the original stage_confirmation gate to confirm.
• Not sure — proceed anyway: proceed with detected stage, set confidence: "low" via stage_profile.py --rebuild-stage <detected>.
• Stop review (out-of-scope): exit. Do not run later steps.
• Proceed anyway (best-effort): rebuild profile with --rebuild-stage series_a and add a low-confidence note.

Sub-agent JSON staging

When a sub-agent returns JSON too large for bash heredoc, write it to $REVIEW_DIR/.staging/<step>_input.json first, then pipe via:

cat "$REVIEW_DIR/.staging/<step>_input.json" | python3 "$SCRIPTS/<producer>.py" ...

The .staging/ directory is created at setup and removed at cleanup. This avoids Operation not permitted errors that occur when writing to the session outputs mount (Cowork marks it read-only post-write).

Step 4: Review Each Slide -> slide_reviews.json (Context A dispatch)

Dispatch the deck-review sub-agent in Context A (SLIDE_REVIEWS). Do not do the slide analysis yourself in the main thread — dispatch it via the Task tool so the analysis runs in an isolated context with the full deck text and stage profile.

Dispatch prompt template:

CONTEXT: SLIDE_REVIEWS
REVIEW_DIR: <absolute path to REVIEW_DIR>
RUN_ID: <RUN_ID>

You are the deck-review agent dispatched in Context A (SLIDE_REVIEWS). Read
the deck at <deck file path or attached content> and the stage profile at
<REVIEW_DIR>/stage_profile.json. Compare each slide against the stage-specific
framework and non-negotiable principles from
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/deck-review/references/deck-best-practices.md
and references/checklist-criteria.md.

For each slide: identify strengths, weaknesses, and specific recommendations.
Map to expected framework. Flag missing expected slides. Every critique must
cite a specific best-practice principle.

Return JSON only — exactly the shape expected by slide_reviews.py (no metadata
block; the producer script adds it):
{
  "reviews": [
    {"slide_number": 1, "maps_to": "...", "strengths": ["..."],
     "weaknesses": ["..."], "recommendations": ["..."],
     "best_practice_refs": ["..."]}
  ],
  "missing_slides": [
    {"expected_type": "...", "importance": "important", "recommendation": "..."}
  ],
  "overall_narrative_assessment": "..."
}

After the sub-agent returns: apply the tolerant JSON extraction protocol (see "Skill Execution Model" preamble) to obtain the structured JSON from the sub-agent's final message. Then pipe through the producer script:

cat <<'REVIEWS_EOF' | python3 "$SCRIPTS/slide_reviews.py" --run-id "$RUN_ID" -o "$REVIEW_DIR/slide_reviews.json" --pretty
<JSON extracted from sub-agent reply>
REVIEWS_EOF

Step 5: Score Checklist -> checklist.json (Context A dispatch)

Dispatch the deck-review sub-agent in Context A (CHECKLIST). Dispatch via the Task tool.

Dispatch prompt template:

CONTEXT: CHECKLIST
REVIEW_DIR: <absolute path to REVIEW_DIR>
RUN_ID: <RUN_ID>

You are the deck-review agent dispatched in Context A (CHECKLIST). Evaluate all
35 criteria from ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/deck-review/references/checklist-criteria.md
using the deck content (read from deck file or from slide_reviews.json for
reference), the stage profile at <REVIEW_DIR>/stage_profile.json, and the
deck inventory at <REVIEW_DIR>/deck_inventory.json.

For non-AI companies (is_ai_company: false), mark the 4 AI criteria
(ai_retention_rebased, ai_cost_to_serve_shown, ai_defensibility_beyond_model,
ai_responsible_controls) as not_applicable.

Evidence quality rules:
- Every fail and warn MUST cite a specific best-practice principle or benchmark.
- Every pass MUST note what was checked.
- not_applicable items MUST include a reason.

Return JSON only — the items array without a summary (the producer script
computes the summary):
{"items": [{"id": "purpose_clear", "status": "pass", "evidence": "...", "notes": "..."}, ...all 35 items...]}

After the sub-agent returns: apply the tolerant JSON extraction protocol to obtain the structured JSON. Then pipe through the producer script:

cat <<'CHECKLIST_EOF' | python3 "$SCRIPTS/checklist.py" --run-id "$RUN_ID" --pretty -o "$REVIEW_DIR/checklist.json"
<JSON extracted from sub-agent reply>
CHECKLIST_EOF

Step 6: Compose Report

python3 "$SCRIPTS/compose_report.py" --dir "$REVIEW_DIR" --pretty \
  -o "$REVIEW_DIR/report.json" \
  --write-md "$REVIEW_DIR/report.md"

compose_report.py writes both report.json and report.md deterministically. Do NOT read report_markdown out of report.json and re-write it via heredoc — heredoc re-writing can corrupt report.json. Compose owns the file outputs.

Fix high-severity warnings and re-run. Use --strict to enforce a clean report.

Post-write verification: compose_report.py exits non-zero (code 2) if the declared output files don't exist or are empty after writing. If compose exits non-zero, stop and report the exact stderr — do not proceed to Step 7.

Step 7: Post-Compose Coaching Commentary (Context B dispatch — POST_COMPOSE_COACHING)

Dispatch the deck-review sub-agent in Context B. Dispatch via the Task tool after compose_report.py has successfully written both report.json and report.md.

Mitigation 2 protocol: the main thread reads the structured coaching_payload from report.json and inlines it into the dispatch prompt. The sub-agent does NOT Read full report.md — it consumes coaching_payload directly, performs Grep idempotency, Edits via the per-run uuid insertion_marker, and Grep-verifies all artifacts. See the deck-review agent body's "Context B — Post-compose coaching dispatch (POST_COMPOSE_COACHING)" section for the full procedure.

COACHING_PAYLOAD="$(python3 -c '
import json, sys
data = json.load(open(sys.argv[1]))
print(json.dumps(data["coaching_payload"], indent=2))
' "$REVIEW_DIR/report.json")"

Dispatch prompt template:

CONTEXT: POST_COMPOSE_COACHING

You are dispatched to add coaching commentary to a deck review.

The compose_report.py script has finished. The structured `coaching_payload`
from report.json is:

<paste $COACHING_PAYLOAD JSON here verbatim>

Follow your agent body's Context B procedure
(POST_COMPOSE_COACHING):

1. grep_idempotency_check — Grep "## Coaching Commentary" (output_mode:count)
   and Grep the EXACT coaching_payload.insertion_marker (output_mode:count)
   on coaching_payload.report_path. Apply the 6-state decision matrix.
2. Compose commentary from the inlined coaching_payload (failed_items,
   warned_items, summary, high_severity_warnings, stage, is_ai_company).
   Do NOT Read the full report.md.
3. edit_via_marker — single Edit on coaching_payload.report_path:
     old_string = coaching_payload.insertion_marker  (EXACT uuid string)
     new_string = "## Coaching Commentary\n\n<your commentary>"
4. self_verify_artifacts_via_grep_run_id — Grep run_id from each producer
   artifact, confirm all 4 match; bounded Read (limit:1) on report.json
   and report.md; re-Grep the marker (must be 0) and the
   "## Coaching Commentary" header (must be 1).
5. Return the success payload:
   {"status": "complete", "review_dir": "<path>", "report_path": "<path>",
    "score_pct": <number>, "overall_status": "<string>",
    "high_severity_warnings": [<list>]}
   OR if verification fails:
   {"status": "blocked", "reason": "<specific gap>"}

Stop after returning JSON. Do not narrate.

After the sub-agent returns: apply the tolerant JSON extraction protocol to obtain the success/blocked payload. If status == "blocked", stop and report the reason to the founder. If status == "complete", present report_path to the founder.

Step 8 (Optional): Generate Visual Report

python3 "$SCRIPTS/visualize.py" --dir "$REVIEW_DIR" -o "$REVIEW_DIR/report.html"

Present the HTML file path to the user so they can open the visual report.

Step 9: Deliver Artifacts

Copy final deliverables to workspace root: {Company}_Deck_Review.md, .html (if generated), .json (optional).

rm -rf "$REVIEW_DIR/.staging" 2>/dev/null || true

Gotchas

• "Looks polished" bias: A well-designed deck is not a strong deck. Score content, narrative, and evidence independently of visual quality. The checklist separates design (5 items) from content (8 items) for this reason.
• Template / AI-generated copy: If multiple slides use generic phrasing ("revolutionize," "disrupt," "world-class team") with no specifics, flag this in coaching commentary as a credibility risk — investors notice formulaic decks. This is not a checklist item but affects overall narrative assessment.
• Benchmarks are medians, not gates: A $3M seed round in a $1B TAM market is not automatically wrong — context matters. Use benchmarks from deck-best-practices.md as reference points, not hard pass/fail thresholds. The coaching commentary should explain deviations rather than penalize them.
• Founder provided text, not a file: When the founder describes slides in conversation rather than uploading a file, adapt: write deck_inventory.json from the conversation, set input_format: "text", and note reduced confidence in visual/design assessments. Design category items become not_applicable unless the founder shares screenshots.
• Cross-skill context: If founder_context.py returned prior market-sizing or financial-model-review runs, mention relevant findings in coaching commentary (e.g., "Your market sizing calculated $X TAM — your deck claims $Y"). Do not hard-fail on discrepancies; flag them for the founder.

Main-Thread Return

This skill runs inline in the main thread (not as a sub-agent). The final outcome the main thread delivers to the founder is:

• The path to $REVIEW_DIR/report.md — the primary deliverable.
• The structured success payload from the Context B sub-agent (Step 7): {status, review_dir, report_path, score_pct, overall_status, high_severity_warnings}.
• Optionally: the HTML report path from Step 8.

Do NOT inline report_markdown in the assistant message. The founder reads the file via the path. (Closes issue #13: ~25 KB of markdown was previously round-tripped through the parent context.)

Scoring

• Each of 35 items: pass / fail / warn / not_applicable
• score_pct = pass / (total - not_applicable) x 100
• Overall: "strong" (>=85%), "solid" (>=70%), "needs_work" (>=50%), "major_revision" (<50%)