Use for a periodic (quarterly / annual) career retrospective across the ENTIRE bettersense memory — producing a longitudinal self-assessment with cited growth deltas since the last retro and the honest gaps to work on next. Trigger phrases include "run my career retro", "where am I in my career", "annual self-assessment", "how have I grown this year", "it's review season, take stock of everything". Reads wins, all stakeholder reflections, self-reflections, pulses, and charters; writes a dated retro to self/retros/ so the next one can measure change. Distinct from wins-curate (which builds one audience-facing artifact like a promo packet) and self-reflect (a single in-the-moment entry). The meta-synthesis whose output compounds over years.
Use when the user needs a decision or backing from executives and is preparing the meeting or memo that gets it — QBRs, roadmap reviews, headcount asks, architecture investment pitches, "I'm presenting to the VP/C-suite next week". Trigger phrases include "prep my exec readout", "I'm presenting to leadership", "I need sign-off from the VP", "help me get this decision approved". Managing up at the decision moment: audience power map, the explicit ask, pre-wiring, and objection handling. Distinct from demo-prep (performing a product) and the-status-crafter (the recurring update rhythm). Reads your stakeholder reflections on the execs in the room.
Use when a new model version ships (or a current one is deprecated) and the user must decide whether and how to migrate a LIVE AI feature — "Claude X just came out, should we move?", "our model is being deprecated in 90 days", "the new model is cheaper, can we switch?", "plan the migration to [model]". Runs the checklist: inventory what's pinned to the old model, re-run evals before believing anything, revisit decision-log entries tied to the old version, re-baseline cost and latency, stage the rollout with rollback criteria. Distinct from ai-pm-frameworks (choosing a model for a NEW feature) and the-vendor-evaluator (choosing a provider).
Use to set up or work with a SHARED, git-backed team workspace for artifacts a team co-owns — team charters, strategy docs, decision records — kept strictly separate from your private reflections, which never leave your machine. Trigger phrases include "share our team charter with the team", "set up a shared bettersense workspace", "put our strategy doc in the team repo", "how do teams use bettersense together". Establishes `$BETTERSENSE_TEAM_HOME` (a separate git repo), enforces a hard wall that personal files (reflections, wins, retros, commitments) are NEVER shared, and drafts the branch/commit/PR — but never pushes or opens a PR for you. The multiplayer layer with the privacy wall built in.
Use when a senior IC (staff/principal engineer, architect, tech lead) needs to write a technical strategy or direction doc — where a system or domain should go over 12–24 months and why. Trigger phrases include "write a tech strategy for [domain]", "I need a technical direction doc", "our platform needs a north star doc", "help me write the tech vision for [area]". The staff+ artifact: turning engineering judgment into direction others can follow without you in the room. Distinct from strategy-doc (its product/business peer) and the-rfc-reviewer (reviewing one proposal). Saves to strategy/tech-<area>.md.
Use when the user's work is better than their visibility — building deliberate, non-gross sponsor awareness so the right people know what they do before the promo/calibration moment. Trigger phrases include "nobody knows what I do", "how do I get more visibility", "I need a sponsor", "my work speaks for itself but nobody's listening", "I was passed over because people don't know me", "how do I self-promote without being obnoxious". The ongoing drip between formal moments: who needs to know, what they should know, and amplification that reads as communication, not bragging. Distinct from wins-curate (assembles the formal packet); reads wins.md for what's worth amplifying.
Use to log something from the current conversation into the user's bettersense memory without re-typing it — a decision that just got made, a win that surfaced mid-discussion, an observation about a stakeholder, a self-insight. Trigger phrases include "log this", "capture this", "save that decision", "add that to my wins", "put that in my reflections", "remember this", or when a substantive conversation just concluded and its outcome would otherwise evaporate. Distinct from decision-log / wins-log / stakeholder-reflect / self-reflect invoked directly (blank-page capture): this skill drafts the entry FROM the conversation that just happened, shows it, and files it in the right place after approval.
Use to track what the user has promised — to their manager, execs, partner teams — and to keep those promises from silently going stale. Trigger phrases include "what have I committed to", "add a commitment", "I promised X by Friday", "am I overcommitted", "help me say no to this", "I need to renegotiate a deadline". Maintains a lightweight ledger at ~/bettersense-work-reflections/commitments.md: log promises when made, review what's due or slipping, renegotiate early with a script, and pressure-test new asks before saying yes. Distinct from wins-log (what you did) — this is what you owe. The saying-no support treats capacity as a trade-off conversation, not an apology.