| name | skills |
| description | Use when routing, drafting, reviewing, or assembling a complete consulting proposal, EoI, bid, or tender response; use a numbered pipeline skill when only one known section is required. |
| metadata | {"portable":true,"compatible_with":["claude-code","codex"]} |
Proposal Writing - Parent Skill
Acknowledgement: Shared by Peter Bamuhigire, techguypeter.com, +256 784 464178.
This parent skill covers the full range of consulting proposal documents. All active proposal skills live under the repository skills/ directory. Paths below are repository-root-relative so agents and project documentation refer to the same layout.
Use When
- Use this skill when the user needs to draft, review, or assemble any consulting proposal, bid, or Expression of Interest.
- Load it when you need routing guidance to the correct numbered section skill or supporting skill.
Do Not Use When
- The task is only about blog writing or skill maintenance.
- The work is unrelated to proposals, tenders, or bid responses.
Inputs
| Artefact | Source/provider | Required? | Missing-input behaviour |
|---|
| ToR, RFP, advert, or proposal brief | Client or procurement portal | Yes | Stop section drafting and request the governing terms or return a qualified routing-only result. |
| Proposer identity | profiles skill and approved profile file | Yes for drafting | Load exactly one profile; do not infer credentials or signatory authority. |
| Procurement, sector, template, deadline, and envelope constraints | Client instructions and sectors skill | Conditional | State the gap and avoid compliance or submission claims until verified. |
Workflow
- Identify the requested document or proposal section.
- Load
skills/profiles-sectors/profiles/SKILL.md before drafting proposal text so voice and identity are consistent.
- Load the relevant numbered section skill, then add procurement, sector, and supporting domain skills only where they materially improve the output.
- Load
skills/strategy-positioning/website-design-proposal-strategy/SKILL.md whenever the proposal includes website design, redesign, SEO, web content, ecommerce, portal, landing page, web frontend, hosting, maintenance, or website costing.
- Load
skills/domain-delivery/retail-transformation-proposal/SKILL.md whenever the proposal includes retail, omnichannel, e-commerce operations, POS, merchandising, pricing, promotions, markdowns, loyalty, CRM, fulfilment, returns, store operations, shrink, vendor terms, private label, planogram, new-store opening, or retail KPI/WBR scope.
- Load premium, discovery, service-design, storytelling, support, and pricing skills where the buyer context, value defence, implementation credibility, or post-launch operation requires them.
- Load
skills/domain-delivery/accounting-finance-advisory/SKILL.md whenever the proposal needs a finance/accounting section, project financial management section, accounting controls, budget governance, donor/grant finance, statutory/tax handling, audit evidence, financial modelling, bookkeeping, ERP/POS finance, revenue assurance, cost controls, or management reporting. Also load skills/strategy-positioning/embedded-accounting-engine-proposal/SKILL.md when the proposal includes embedded accounting, finance automation, inventory accounting, payroll accounting, tax/VAT automation, or a claim that the system replaces QuickBooks/Sage/Pastel/Tally-class workflows.
- Load
skills/writing-content/premium-commercial-writing/SKILL.md when the proposal, cover letter, executive summary, case study, business document, or public-facing content needs premium commercial polish, evaluator-friendly structure, stronger proof, or search-aware writing.
- Load
skills/strategy-positioning/critical-analysis-business-logic/SKILL.md before drafting high-stakes, methodology, work plan, financial, transformation, or final-review content.
- Apply
skills/meta/anti-ai-slop/SKILL.md as a REAL-TIME gate on every section while you write it, so slop never enters the draft in the first place.
- After each section or major iteration, run
skills/meta/ai-slop-audit/SKILL.md on what was just produced. The audit grades A/B/C/F; a grade of F (Blocked) blocks submission, so fix the blocking findings before moving to the next section. Run it again as the final gate before assembly or submission.
Capability Contract
Read and search are required for the ToR, profile, sector rules, and existing proposal artefacts. Editing is permitted only when drafting or revision is authorised. External submission, publishing, spending, destructive file changes, legal certification, and claims on behalf of the proposer require explicit authority.
Degraded Mode
Fallback: when files, network sources, rendering, spreadsheet tooling, or evidence are unavailable, return the narrowest useful routing decision or qualified draft, mark affected checks not assessed, and never present missing compliance evidence as passed.
Decision Rules
| Condition or choice | Action | Failure or risk avoided |
|---|
| Full bid or several interdependent sections | Use this parent router, profile, sector, reasoning, and quality gates | Cross-section contradiction |
| One known proposal section only | Route to the matching numbered pipeline skill | Loading the whole catalogue unnecessarily |
| Technical and financial envelopes are separate | Produce and validate them independently | Procurement disqualification |
| Software, finance, website, SaaS, or agentic scope appears | Add the named domain engine or specialist skill | Unsupported technical or commercial claims |
Quality Standards
- Treat each SKILL.md as the portable unit and load it from the
skills/ folder.
- Maintain British English, East African professional tone, and proposer-specific voice.
- Keep the proposal client-specific, evaluator-aware, and measurable where evidence exists.
Anti-Patterns
- Drafting before selecting the proposer profile. Fix: load exactly one approved profile first.
- Generating a full proposal from memory. Fix: inspect the ToR and load each relevant section skill.
- Mixing technical and financial envelopes. Fix: produce separate artefacts and run separate compliance checks.
- Claiming compliance without the governing form or instruction. Fix: mark the requirement not assessed until verified.
- Allowing methodology, staffing, schedule, and price to diverge. Fix: reconcile them against one deliverables and effort model.
Outputs
| Artefact | Consumer | Acceptance condition |
|---|
| Routing decision or proposal component | Proposal lead and downstream section skills | Correct profile, sector, section, quality, and domain routes are named with no unresolved collision. |
| Assembled proposal set | Evaluator and submission owner | Required sections, forms, evidence, cross-section consistency, and envelope separation pass their gates. |
Evidence Produced
| Evidence | Consumer | Acceptance condition |
|---|
| Routing and compliance record | Proposal release owner | Loaded skills, source documents, unassessed requirements, and blocking findings are traceable. |
Core Routing References
References
Sub-Skills - Proposal Sections
| # | Task | Sub-Skill to Read |
|---|
| 01 | Cover letter | skills/pipeline/01-cover-letter/SKILL.md |
| 02 | Executive summary | skills/pipeline/02-executive-summary/SKILL.md |
| 03 | Understanding of the assignment | skills/pipeline/03-understanding-of-assignment/SKILL.md |
| 04 | Firm or consultant profile | skills/pipeline/04-firm-profile/SKILL.md |
| 05 | Relevant experience and past projects | skills/pipeline/05-relevant-experience/SKILL.md |
| 06 | Approach and methodology | skills/pipeline/06-methodology/SKILL.md |
| 07 | Team composition and CVs | skills/pipeline/07-team-composition/SKILL.md |
| 08 | Work plan and timeline | skills/pipeline/08-work-plan/SKILL.md |
| 09 | Expression of Interest | skills/pipeline/09-expression-of-interest/SKILL.md |
| 10 | Financial proposal | skills/pipeline/10-financial-proposal/SKILL.md |
Supporting Skills - Cross-Cutting Knowledge
Read the relevant supporting skill when the proposal requires that domain. Each can also generate a standalone section if the ToR explicitly requires it.
| Supporting Skill | When to Read |
|---|
skills/domain-delivery/project-management/SKILL.md | PM frameworks, governance, reporting, steering committees |
skills/domain-delivery/change-management/SKILL.md | OCM frameworks, adoption strategies, resistance management |
skills/domain-delivery/monitoring-and-evaluation/SKILL.md | Log frames, results frameworks, KPIs, theory of change |
skills/domain-delivery/stakeholder-engagement/SKILL.md | Stakeholder mapping, consultation approaches, communication plans |
skills/domain-delivery/capacity-building/SKILL.md | Training models, ToT, knowledge transfer, skills sustainability |
skills/domain-delivery/gender-and-social-inclusion/SKILL.md | GESI frameworks, gender mainstreaming, disability and youth inclusion |
skills/domain-delivery/environmental-and-social-safeguards/SKILL.md | ESIA, environmental management plans, World Bank ESF, AfDB ISS |
skills/domain-delivery/data-management/SKILL.md | Data collection, MIS design, data governance, data protection law |
skills/strategy-positioning/website-design-proposal-strategy/SKILL.md | Website philosophy, UX/content/SEO methodology, stack explanation, costing, QA, launch, handover, and support |
skills/strategy-positioning/ai-transformation-proposal/SKILL.md | AI applications, automation, agents, analytics, governance, evaluation, operations, and maintenance proposals |
skills/strategy-positioning/premium-client-proposal-strategy/SKILL.md | Executive, enterprise, affluent, high-ticket, premium, and strategic transformation proposal positioning |
skills/strategy-positioning/premium-pricing-and-value-defense/SKILL.md | Premium fee justification, value stack, commercial options, and price defence |
skills/writing-content/premium-commercial-writing/SKILL.md | Premium commercial writing quality for proposals, cover letters, executive summaries, case studies, business documents, and public content |
skills/strategy-positioning/sales-discovery-and-objection-handling/SKILL.md |
Reference - Proposal Strategy and Persuasion
Read skills/profiles-sectors/references/proposal-strategy-and-persuasion.md before writing any proposal. Apply its S1-S2-B baseline logic, P-I-P phase structure, buyer psychology, theme architecture, hypothesis-driven methodology, Pyramid of Ideas, SCQA narrative spine, objection handling, Cialdini principles, and Red Team review process.
Reference - World-Class Proposal Patterns
Read skills/profiles-sectors/references/world-class-proposal-patterns.md before writing any proposal. Apply its guidance on quantified evidence, named frameworks, client-first problem framing, scannability, programme-level thinking, storyboarding, ghost packs, the elevator test, and prewiring.
Reference - Critical Analysis and Business Logic
Read skills/strategy-positioning/critical-analysis-business-logic/SKILL.md before writing methodology, work plan, financial proposal, risk, M&E, sustainability, transformation, or final review content. Apply its claim-evidence-warrant discipline, essential questions, business-sense checks, mental-model pass, and achievability gate so the proposal is persuasive because it is logical and deliverable.
Reference - Premium, Discovery, and Service Credibility
Use the shared references in skills/profiles-sectors/references/ when a proposal needs deeper buyer insight, ethical persuasion, premium value defence, service design, support language, narrative structure, or technical strategy:
Use skills/writing-content/premium-commercial-writing/SKILL.md as the cross-cutting writing layer when those strategy references must become sharper client-facing prose, case studies, executive summaries, public documents, or thought leadership.
Reference - SaaS Implementation and SaaS Product-Development Proposals
For SaaS-specific bids, the engine carries dedicated skills and references. The SaaS-specific reference library in skills/profiles-sectors/references/ includes:
Load the SaaS skills and references when the engagement is SaaS implementation, SaaS product development, multi-tenant platform build, SaaS migration from installed software, SaaS commercial launch, or SaaS-on-AI work. The audit synthesis in book-extractions/saas-proposal-skills-audit-2026.md documents how these skills and references were derived from the seven SaaS books processed in 2026.
Reference - Consulting Delivery Excellence
Read skills/profiles-sectors/references/consulting-delivery-excellence.md when writing methodology, quality assurance, or implementation sections. Use it to describe credible delivery methods such as McKinsey-style problem solving, consulting workflow, Done-Done quality, Value Realisation Method, Drucker's Five Questions, Design Thinking, SCAMPER, SOSTAC, SECI, and frontloaded work planning.
Proposer Profiles - Who Is Proposing?
Before writing any proposal, load the correct proposer profile from skills/profiles-sectors/profiles/SKILL.md. The profile determines the voice, credentials, experience, and branding used throughout the document.
| Profile | When to Use |
|---|
skills/profiles-sectors/profiles/peter-bamuhigire.md | Proposing as Peter Bamuhigire as an individual consultant |
skills/profiles-sectors/profiles/chwezi-core-systems.md | Proposing as Chwezi Core Systems |
skills/profiles-sectors/profiles/client-template.md | Writing on behalf of a client; copy, customise, and save |
If no proposer is specified, ask before proceeding. The profile affects every section: voice, signatory, experience, team, and references.
Proposal Workspace
All proposals are developed in the local proposals/ directory, which is gitignored. See CLAUDE.md for the full initialization workflow, directory structure, and INDEX.md format. Every proposal lives in its own subdirectory with section markdown files plus terms/, sheets/, team/, research/, and output/ folders.
Standards That Apply to All Sub-Skills
- Follow skills/language/east-african-english/SKILL.md for tone, spelling, and courteous phrasing throughout.
- Use British English spelling: organisation, programme, centre, colour.
- Let the loaded proposer profile determine voice: first-person singular for individual consultants and first-person plural for companies.
- Never use exaggerated marketing language. Confident, measured, professional writing is preferred.
Typical Proposal Section Order
- Cover Letter
- Technical Proposal Submission Sheet
- Executive Summary
- Understanding of the Assignment
- Firm Profile
- Relevant Experience
- Approach and Methodology
- Team Composition
- Work Plan and Timeline
- References
Financial Proposal is always a separate sealed document when the procurement process requires separation.
