memo-builder

name	memo-builder
description	Use when drafting or reviewing formal public-equity investment memos. Do not use for live trade construction or credit-first memos; use long-short-pitch or Credit Markets as appropriate.

Memo Builder

Skill Configuration

User Context Preflight

Before searching connectors, retrieving evidence, or drafting output, run python3 skills/user-context/scripts/user_context_preflight.py with the shell working directory set to this plugin's root, and follow the returned saved_context, source_category_plan, and next_action. Set the working directory before the first attempt; do not probe alternate relative paths. Missing context must not block the requested workflow. Do not initialize state or run onboarding during ordinary workflow work.

If next_action.id = "offer_orientation" and the parent router has not already handled it, complete the requested work first and append its one-line optional setup offer once.

Source Resolution

Load ../../shared/workflow-source-resolution.md. Use source_category_plan lazily and attempt only the categories needed for this workflow: company_filings_ir, earnings_transcripts_presentations, internal_research, portfolio_models_trackers, and market_data_estimates.

Deliverable Intake

Apply the presentation-surface precedence in ../../shared/deliverable-intake-policy.md. This workflow's natural artifact is a polished standalone HTML investment memo. Do not choose chat-only output unless the user explicitly requests a lightweight response.

Before source gathering or analysis for a new standalone reader-facing hero deliverable, load ../../shared/deliverable-intake-policy.md and use its adaptive request_user_input preflight for materially unresolved format, depth, audience/use, or focus choices. Reuse resolved preferences in downstream steps; when acting only as input to an owning workflow, do not re-prompt.

Goal

Produce decision-grade Public Equity Investing memos that are evidence-led, numerically auditable, and ready for PM, committee, client, or internal research review.

This skill owns formal written artifacts and synthesis. It does not own raw trade construction; use long-short-pitch first when the user needs variant perception, trade expression, sizing considerations, add/trim/exit/cover rules, or pair-trade mechanics.

Use When

Use this skill when the user asks for:

• IC memo, investment memo, committee note, client memo, research note, PM update, or equity event note
• memo rewrite, upgrade, shortening, pressure test, or QA review
• synthesis of outputs from models, comps, scenarios, earnings, event-driven equity, balance-sheet-risk, or long/short pitch work
• committee-ready framing with source posture, valuation, scenarios, risks, catalysts, open items, and recommendation

Credit-first memos route out: Use Credit Markets for credit instruments, creditworthiness, restructuring, distressed, recovery, spreads, yields, covenants, and debt security analysis. This skill may synthesize Credit Markets output only when the final deliverable is a common-equity or listed-equity memo.

Do not use when the user asks to "pitch this long/short," "make this investable," "build a pair trade," "what is the variant perception," or "what would make us cover/add/trim." Use long-short-pitch.

Artifact Boundary

• Default deliverable: produce the full decision-grade memo. For a substantive investment committee memo, buy-side investment memo, or reusable/source-heavy public-equity memo, produce a polished standalone HTML investment committee memo following ../../shared/html-artifact-standard.md unless the user requests another surface, a quick/no-file answer, .docx, or a standardized dashboard.
• For other substantial written memo modes, produce a polished standalone HTML memo or report appropriate to the requested audience, following ../../shared/html-artifact-standard.md, unless another surface is selected.
• Chat can be the presentation surface only when the user explicitly requests a lightweight response; Markdown is formatting, not the deliverable contract.
• This local skill does not ship native .docx or .xlsx templates/scripts. Route workbook-backed outputs to the model/workbook skills.
• Create .docx or .xlsx artifacts only when the user explicitly asks and an appropriate document/spreadsheet tool, template, or user-provided file is available.
• If no document/template support is available, provide the memo in chat or HTML report form and keep JSON/Markdown support files out of the lead handoff unless explicitly requested.
• Use dashboard-builder only when the user explicitly asks for a standardized dashboard, reusable dashboard template, PM cockpit, or structured payload-driven render. On that path, load references/DASHBOARD_PACK.md; memo-builder owns memo synthesis, narrative architecture, evidence selection, and audience framing, while dashboard-builder owns the standardized shell/rendering/QA. Build a public_equity_investing_dashboard.v1 payload as an internal renderer input.

Source And Mode Selection

Use the strongest available source tier and label assumptions, stale data, proxies, and unsupported figures. Load references/source-policy.md for source priority and minimum inputs.

Default to the full memo mode that best fits the decision. Use a compressed mode only when the user explicitly asks for a summary, short, quick, one-page, brief, TL;DR, or review-only output:

• ic-note
• investment-memo
• event-driven-committee-note
• pm-update
• client-research-note
• qa-review

Load references/memo-modes.md for mode selection and references/output-contracts.md for section-level contracts.

When To Invoke Support

Load shared/support-layer-routing-contract.md for source/data/QC/style support. Use financial-source-of-truth before final claims, metrics, citations, or management assertions. Use financials-normalizer before building from messy financials, consensus exports, guidance tables, segment data, share count, net debt, or capital allocation inputs. Use excel-data-cleaner before relying on malformed tables or mixed fiscal periods. Use deck-report-qc before circulating a memo-derived deck/report or source-heavy packet, and use style-guide-adapter only after substance is locked. These support artifacts stay secondary; memo-builder owns the memo and investment judgment.

Sub-agent decomposition

For complex medium/large requests, use sub-agents where available; otherwise emulate the split as named workstreams. Suggested lanes: evidence, model/valuation, risks and catalysts, narrative synthesis, and memo QA. Keep this skill as the lead: reconcile conflicts, source labels, assumptions, open items, final QA, and the user-facing answer.

Default Memo Spine

Use this full spine unless another memo mode is clearly requested:

1. Recommendation / Decision Ask
2. Executive Summary
3. Thesis and Evidence
4. What Must Be True
5. Valuation / Scenario Work
6. Risks, Disconfirmers, and Mitigants
7. Catalysts and Monitoring
8. Implementation Considerations
9. Open Items / Data Requests

If the memo is screen-grade because source context is thin, say so before the first metric table.

Handoffs

Upstream inputs this skill can synthesize:

• source/evidence: financial-source-of-truth, financials-normalizer, company-tearsheet
• models/valuation: equity-model-update, dcf-model-builder, three-statement-model-builder, comps-valuation, scenario-sensitivity-generator
• earnings/research: earnings-preview, earnings-deep-dive, initiating-coverage
• trade/event/risk: long-short-pitch, event-driven-analyzer, portfolio-risk-management
• monitoring and QC: thesis-tracker, catalyst-calendar, deck-report-qc, style-guide-adapter

Use sector-context-overlay only when issuer economics clearly match a supported sector; load references/sector-overlays.md only for memo-specific sector framing.

Rendering And Compression

• Lead with the decision ask or conclusion.
• For a standalone HTML investment committee memo, make the first-read layer a compact memo opening: recommendation / decision ask, decision hinge, what is priced in, valuation or scenario skew, and any source limitation that changes the action. Do not repeat the same recommendation across a dashboard-style hero, summary tile, and full decision panel.
• Keep background proportionate; preserve recommendation, scenario/downside, source posture, catalysts, monitoring, and open items.
• Use tables only when they compress decision-critical information.
• For long memos, put source caveats and open items near the end, but do not bury data limitations that affect the recommendation.
• Sparse source context should produce a full screen-grade memo skeleton with assumptions, missing evidence, and upgrade path, not a shortened memo.
• State source readiness in decision-specific terms when evidence supports only one direction of action, such as sufficient to decline initiation today; insufficient to support initiation, rather than using broad readiness labels that imply the entire underwrite is decision-grade.
• Keep citations traceable but readable in HTML: do not fragment tickers, prices, EPS ranges, percentages, dates, multiples, or metric labels into separately linked tokens.
• Before delivering standalone local HTML, visually inspect the opening viewport and decision-critical downstream sections through local headless-browser screenshots, not the in-app Browser plugin. Check desktop and narrow-screen legibility, clipping, citation density, whitespace, and that the page does not acquire horizontal overflow.

QA

Before finalizing, verify:

• recommendation and decision hinge are clear
• material numbers are sourced, model-derived, or explicit assumptions
• downside is mechanistic, not generic
• what must be true items are measurable
• valuation/pricing/recovery support matches memo type
• a multi-year valuation using forward-period earnings and an exit or terminal multiple shows either present value using an explicit discount-rate / required-return assumption or annualized return / IRR versus a stated hurdle; undiscounted terminal price appreciation alone does not support initiation
• disconfirmers and monitoring triggers are present
• trade-construction asks are handed to long-short-pitch

Load references/quality-workflow.md for the full quality bar and workflow.

Public Equity PM Judgment Layer

For substantial memos, load shared/pm-judgment-heuristics.md before finalizing. Audience modes: long_only_pm, long_short_hf, sell_side_research, etf_index_diligence, public_equity_diligence.

Memo modes to support: buy-side-investment-memo, pm-update, sell-side-research-note, client-research-note, etf-index-diligence-note, and public-equity-diligence-memo.

Required PM judgment:

• Every full memo needs a decision hinge, what must be true, what is priced in, downside mechanism, measurable disconfirmers, source posture, and action discipline.
• Build-from-scratch memo mode must include an intake checklist, source packet requirements, first-pass house view, variant wedge, priced-in debate, estimate path, valuation/skew, downside mechanism, catalysts, disconfirmers, action rules, and exact evidence needed to upgrade from screen-grade to decision-grade.
• Sell-side notes need rating/target-price debate, estimate revision bridge, variant versus Street, risk-to-rating, and compliance-safe wording.
• ETF/index notes need mandate, methodology, holdings/weights, tracking-error or benchmark implications, factor exposure, liquidity, and rebalance/corporate-action risk.