setup

name	setup
description	Use when setting up pm-ground-control for the first time. Creates the workspace folder structure, populates memory files through an interview, and installs skills.

pm-ground-control Setup

Welcome to pm-ground-control. This skill will set up your workspace through a short interview. It will:

1. Ask where you want your workspace
2. Learn about your tools
3. Learn about your teams and projects
4. Create your workspace folder structure
5. Populate your memory files
6. Install the skills into your AI agent
7. Optionally configure your MCP connections (no manual file editing required)
8. Optionally sort any existing files into the new structure

This will take about 10-15 minutes. Let's start.

---

Step 0 — Locate the repo

Determine the path to the pm-ground-control repo (the directory containing this skill). This is where the templates live. Derive it from this file's path — the repo root is two levels up from this file.

---

Step 1 — Workspace path

Ask the user:

"Where would you like your workspace folder? This is where your daily notes, meeting notes, and project files will live. Example: ~/Documents/WorkNotes/"

Wait for their response. Expand ~ to the full home path. Create the directory if it doesn't exist:

mkdir -p {{WORKSPACE_PATH}}

---

Step 2 — Tools interview

Ask the following questions one at a time:

Meeting notes tool:

"What tool do you use for meeting notes?

1. Granola + Obsidian + Granola Sync (recommended — auto-exports transcripts to local markdown)
2. Granola (manual export)
3. Otter.ai
4. Fireflies
5. I write notes manually in markdown
6. Other"

Daily notes tool:

"What tool do you use for daily notes?

1. Obsidian (recommended)
2. Notion
3. Plain markdown files
4. Other"

Project tracker:

"Which project tracker does your team use?

1. Asana
2. Linear
3. Jira
4. Notion
5. Multiple (you can specify per project later)
6. None"

Slack:

"Do you use Slack for team communication? (yes/no)"

Record all answers — they go into memory/me.md.

---

Step 3 — Identity interview

Ask one at a time:

1. "What's your name?"
2. "What's your role? (e.g. Product Manager, Senior PM, Principal PM)"
3. "What company do you work at?"
4. If Slack: "What's your Slack user ID? Open your profile in Slack, click the three-dot menu → Copy link, and paste it here. I'll extract the ID — no need to find it manually."
5. "Who is your manager? (name)"
6. "What format do you prefer for your weekly update? (Slack post / email / Notion page / other)"
7. "Who is the audience for your weekly update? (e.g. my manager, my team — or skip)"

---

Step 4 — Teams interview

"Now let's set up your teams. Tell me about the first team you manage or work most closely with."

For each team, ask one at a time:

1. "What's the team name?"
2. "Who is the engineering lead? (name)"
3. "What does this team own? (brief description)"
4. "What are the team's Slack channels? For each one, paste the channel name and link — e.g. #team-engineering: https://.... The name is optional; the link is enough if you prefer."
5. "Who are the key people on this team? List names and roles, one per line."

After each team: "Add another team? (yes/no)"

---

Step 5 — Projects interview

"Now let's set up your active projects."

For each project, ask one at a time:

1. "What's the project name?"
2. "Which team does it belong to?"
3. "Does it have a dedicated Slack channel? If yes, paste the name and link — e.g. #proj-example: https://.... Name is optional; link alone is fine."
4. "Do you track this in Asana, Linear, Jira, or Notion? If yes, paste the project URL."
5. "Any notes about this project? (optional, press enter to skip)"

After each project: "Add another project? (yes/no)"

---

Step 6 — Slack channels

"Let's set up your Slack channel list. Tier 1 (full read) is automatically set from your project and team channels. Now let's add Tier 2 — broader channels you participate in that sometimes have useful signal."

Ask: "List any Tier 2 channels. For each, paste the name and link — e.g. #product: https://.... Name is optional; link alone is fine. These might be cross-functional channels, broad product or engineering channels, or customer-facing channels."

Ask: "Any Tier 3 channels? These are company-wide announcement channels you only need to scan for major news. Same format — name optional, link preferred."

Extracting IDs from Slack links:

• Channel links: https://{{workspace}}.slack.com/archives/{{CHANNEL_ID}} → extract the final path segment as the channel ID
• User profile links: https://{{workspace}}.slack.com/team/{{USER_ID}} → extract the final path segment as the user ID
• If only a link is provided and no name, use the ID as the identifier in memory files and note that the name can be resolved later via slack_search_channels or slack_read_user_profile once the Slack MCP is connected.

---

Step 7 — Folder structure

"How would you like your project folders organized?

1. Default template — each project folder gets: specs/, notes/, gtm/, prototypes/, external.md (recommended)
2. Flat — project folders only, no subfolders
3. Custom — I'll create project folders and you organize them yourself"

---

Step 7b — Optional top-level directories

"A few optional top-level directories can be useful alongside your project folders. Tell me which you'd like included:

• _explorations/ — research and side investigations not tied to a specific project
• _reference/ — reference materials, downloaded docs, third-party context
• _strategy/ — strategic thinking, vision docs, and planning artifacts
• _templates/ — reusable document templates (PRDs, briefs, specs)

Which would you like? (list them, or say 'all' or 'none')"

Record the user's choices — they get created in Step 8.

---

Step 8 — Create workspace

Using all interview responses, create the workspace.

Base folders:

mkdir -p {{WORKSPACE_PATH}}/daily-notes
mkdir -p {{WORKSPACE_PATH}}/meeting-notes
mkdir -p {{WORKSPACE_PATH}}/memory
mkdir -p {{WORKSPACE_PATH}}/_accomplishments

Optional directories — create each one the user selected in Step 7b:

mkdir -p {{WORKSPACE_PATH}}/_explorations      # if selected
mkdir -p {{WORKSPACE_PATH}}/_reference         # if selected
mkdir -p {{WORKSPACE_PATH}}/_strategy          # if selected
mkdir -p {{WORKSPACE_PATH}}/_templates         # if selected

Project folders — for each team and project (using the chosen template):

Default:

mkdir -p {{WORKSPACE_PATH}}/{{TEAM_FOLDER}}/{{PROJECT_FOLDER}}/specs
mkdir -p {{WORKSPACE_PATH}}/{{TEAM_FOLDER}}/{{PROJECT_FOLDER}}/notes
mkdir -p {{WORKSPACE_PATH}}/{{TEAM_FOLDER}}/{{PROJECT_FOLDER}}/gtm
mkdir -p {{WORKSPACE_PATH}}/{{TEAM_FOLDER}}/{{PROJECT_FOLDER}}/prototypes
cp {{REPO_PATH}}/templates/workspace/project-template/external.md \
   {{WORKSPACE_PATH}}/{{TEAM_FOLDER}}/{{PROJECT_FOLDER}}/external.md

Flat: mkdir -p {{WORKSPACE_PATH}}/{{TEAM_FOLDER}}/{{PROJECT_FOLDER}}

Custom: mkdir -p {{WORKSPACE_PATH}}/{{TEAM_FOLDER}}/{{PROJECT_FOLDER}}

Memory files — copy each template and populate with interview responses:

cp {{REPO_PATH}}/templates/memory/me.md {{WORKSPACE_PATH}}/memory/me.md
cp {{REPO_PATH}}/templates/memory/projects.md {{WORKSPACE_PATH}}/memory/projects.md
cp {{REPO_PATH}}/templates/memory/teams.md {{WORKSPACE_PATH}}/memory/teams.md
cp {{REPO_PATH}}/templates/memory/slack-channels.md {{WORKSPACE_PATH}}/memory/slack-channels.md
cp {{REPO_PATH}}/templates/memory/people-signal.md {{WORKSPACE_PATH}}/memory/people-signal.md
cp {{REPO_PATH}}/templates/memory/custom-sources.md {{WORKSPACE_PATH}}/memory/custom-sources.md

After copying, edit each file to replace all {{placeholders}} with actual values from the interview. Do not leave any placeholders — if the user didn't provide a value, use —.

MEMORY.md index:

Create {{WORKSPACE_PATH}}/memory/MEMORY.md:

# Memory

- [User identity](me.md) — name, role, tools, workspace paths
- [Projects](projects.md) — active/archived projects with team, channels, tracker links
- [Teams reference](teams.md) — people, roles, ownership for all teams
- [Slack channels](slack-channels.md) — three-tier channel list for daily summary sweeps
- [High-signal Slack people](people-signal.md) — prioritized in daily summaries; updated each run
- [Custom sources](custom-sources.md) — additional data sources checked in every daily summary; add entries with /add-source

---

Step 9 — Install skills

Ask: "Which AI agent are you using?

1. Claude Code (~/.claude/skills/)
2. Codex (~/.agents/skills/)
3. Other (specify the skills directory path)"

Resolve the skills directory, then copy:

cp -r {{REPO_PATH}}/skills/daily-summary {{SKILLS_DIR}}/
cp -r {{REPO_PATH}}/skills/weekly-summary {{SKILLS_DIR}}/
cp -r {{REPO_PATH}}/skills/weekly-update {{SKILLS_DIR}}/
cp -r {{REPO_PATH}}/skills/log-accomplishment {{SKILLS_DIR}}/
cp -r {{REPO_PATH}}/skills/accomplishments-review {{SKILLS_DIR}}/
cp -r {{REPO_PATH}}/skills/add-source {{SKILLS_DIR}}/

Note: the setup skill itself lives in the repo and is not copied — users re-run it by returning to the repo.

---

Step 9b — Configure MCP connections (optional)

Ask: "Would you like me to configure your MCP connections now? I can write the config for Slack and your project tracker so you don't have to edit any files manually. (yes / no / skip for now)"

If yes, determine the config file path based on the AI agent chosen in Step 9:

• Claude Code: ~/.claude/settings.json — MCPs live under the mcpServers key
• Codex: ~/.agents/settings.json — same structure
• Other: ask the user for their MCP config file path

Read the existing config file if it exists. If it doesn't exist, start with {}. Parse the JSON and locate or create the mcpServers object.

Before asking for any credentials, check what's already configured. Scan the existing mcpServers entries for any that reference Slack (slack.com, server-slack), Asana (server-asana), Linear (server-linear), Atlassian (mcp.atlassian.com), or Notion (notion-mcp-server, mcp.notion.com). For each tool already present, tell the user:

"Slack MCP is already configured — skipping."

Only ask for credentials for tools that are not already configured. Do not overwrite any existing entries.

Slack (ask if user said yes to Slack in Step 2):

"To configure Slack, I need two things:

1. Your Slack bot token — create a Slack app at api.slack.com/apps, add OAuth scopes (channels:history, channels:read, groups:history, groups:read, im:history, im:read, mpim:history, search:read, users:read), install it to your workspace, and copy the Bot User OAuth Token (starts with xoxb-)
2. Your Slack Team ID — it's the part of your Slack workspace URL before .slack.com, or find it at api.slack.com/methods/auth.test. It starts with T.

Paste both here."

Add to config:

"slack": {
  "command": "npx",
  "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-slack"],
  "env": {
    "SLACK_BOT_TOKEN": "{{token}}",
    "SLACK_TEAM_ID": "{{team_id}}"
  }
}

Asana (if user selected Asana in Step 2):

"For Asana, paste your personal access token. Generate one at app.asana.com/0/my-apps → Create new token."

Add to config:

"asana": {
  "command": "npx",
  "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-asana"],
  "env": {
    "ASANA_ACCESS_TOKEN": "{{token}}"
  }
}

Linear (if user selected Linear in Step 2):

"For Linear, paste your API key. Generate one at linear.app/settings/api → Personal API keys."

Add to config:

"linear": {
  "command": "npx",
  "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-linear"],
  "env": {
    "LINEAR_API_KEY": "{{key}}"
  }
}

Jira (if user selected Jira in Step 2):

No token needed — uses OAuth. Add to config:

"atlassian": {
  "command": "npx",
  "args": ["-y", "mcp-remote@latest", "https://mcp.atlassian.com/v1/mcp"]
}

Tell the user: "Jira is configured. The first time you use it, a browser window will open to complete sign-in."

Notion (if user selected Notion in Step 2):

No token needed — uses OAuth. Add to config:

"notion": {
  "command": "npx",
  "args": ["-y", "@notionhq/notion-mcp-server"]
}

Tell the user: "Notion is configured. The first time you use it, you'll be prompted to sign in."

After writing the config file:

"MCP connections written to {{CONFIG_PATH}}. Restart your AI agent session to pick them up, then run /daily-summary at the end of your next working day."

If the user skips this step, note it in the Step 10 summary under Next steps.

---

Step 10 — Confirm

Output a summary:

"Setup complete! Here's what was created:

Workspace: {{WORKSPACE_PATH}} Teams: {{TEAM_LIST}} Projects: {{PROJECT_LIST}} Optional directories: {{OPTIONAL_DIR_LIST or "none"}} Skills installed: daily-summary, weekly-summary, weekly-update, log-accomplishment, accomplishments-review, add-source → {{SKILLS_DIR}}

Next steps: {{If MCP was configured in Step 9b: "1. Restart your AI agent session to load the MCP connections."}} {{If MCP was skipped: "1. Connect your MCP tools manually — see SETUP.md for instructions."}} 2. Configure {{MEETING_NOTES_TOOL}} to export transcripts to {{WORKSPACE_PATH}}/meeting-notes/YYYY-MM-DD/ 3. Configure {{DAILY_NOTES_TOOL}} to save daily notes to {{WORKSPACE_PATH}}/daily-notes/YYYY/MM/YYYY-MM-DD.md 4. Run /daily-summary at the end of your next working day

You can re-run /setup at any time to add teams or projects."

---

Step 11 — Organize existing files (optional)

Ask: "Do you have existing files in this workspace that you'd like me to sort into the new folder structure? (yes/no)"

If yes:

1. Survey what's there. List all files and folders currently in {{WORKSPACE_PATH}} that are not part of the newly created structure (i.e., not daily-notes/, meeting-notes/, memory/, _accomplishments/, project folders, or any optional directories just created).

2. Present a proposed mapping. For each item found, suggest a destination based on:

   • File name, content keywords, and apparent type (spec, notes, GTM doc, reference, etc.)
   • Project and team names from memory/projects.md
   • Whether it fits a known project folder, a top-level optional directory, or should be left in place

   Present the full mapping as a list before moving anything:

   [filename or folder] → [proposed destination]  (reason)
   [filename or folder] → [leave in place]  (reason)
   

3. Confirm before moving. Ask: "Does this mapping look right? You can adjust any destination before I proceed."

4. Execute. Move each confirmed item to its destination. Create any needed subdirectories. If a destination folder doesn't exist yet (e.g., a project folder for a project not listed in the interview), create it using the chosen template.

5. Report. List every move made and any items left in place.