Use when the user says /org-design <org>, "analyze the org I inherited", "inherited org analysis", "span of control / SPOF / on-call distribution review", or wants a descriptive read of the org structure they just walked into during a senior eng leader ramp. The analyze mode reads a manual org/structure.md + stakeholder memory graph into a 7-section analysis under ~/repos/onboard-<org>/decisions/. The scenario mode projects a reorg (split-team, add-headcount, merge-teams, change-reporting, reduce-headcount), validates it structurally, and gates on explicit user review before writing. reduce-headcount adds a machine layoff-acknowledgment gate (machine-enforced deliberateness; the human confirmation behind the flag is prose-bound, not machine-verified). Do NOT use for codebase architecture (use /architecture-overview).
Use when the user says /risk-register, "add a risk", "review risks", "escalate R-N", "ack R-N", "resolve R-N", or "show my risk register" during a 90-day ramp or any initiative. Tracks org-level technical risks in any initiative workspace. Six actions: add, review, ack, escalate, resolve, list.
Use when the user says /strategy-doc <org>, "draft my 90-day plan", "review the 90-day plan", or "challenge the 90-day plan" during a senior eng leader ramp. Phase 1 supports the 90-day-plan mode only — collates /swot + /stakeholder-map + /architecture-overview + free-form notes/*.md into a 7-section markdown artifact under ~/repos/onboard-<org>/decisions/. Cross-org RFC mode is Phase 2 (separate spec).
Use when the user explicitly invokes /glossary, asks to canonicalize a domain term in ./CONTEXT.md, or wants to record agreed-upon project-specific terminology so future sessions and downstream artifacts (ADRs, SDRs, systems-analysis output) stay consistent. Also invoked by define-the-problem and systems-analysis at end-of-skill via the caller-hook contract to offer canonicalization for terms resolved during planning. Write-only format-owner for per-project ./CONTEXT.md. Lazy-create on first term resolution; never auto-write — user approval gates every entry. Do NOT use for: casual term mentions in conversation, code-level naming questions, architectural primitives (Module, Interface, Adapter, Seam — those belong in LANGUAGE.md owned by architecture-overview), general programming concepts, or decisions about why a term was chosen (those belong in docs/superpowers/decisions/ or an ADR).
Use when the user says /ring-review-tiered, "ring review these PRs", "antagonistic ring on this batch", "review PR #N with the ring", or asks to run adversarial / critic review across one or more pull requests. Calibrates critic count to per-PR risk tier — trivial PRs skip the ring, surgical PRs get one cross-dimension critic, medium PRs get two dimension-targeted critics, large/boundary/security PRs get the full 5-critic ring plus arbiter. Use even when the user names a uniform critic count — surface the tier and let them override. Do NOT use for solo single-PR review where the user explicitly asks for the full ring; that's `pr-review-toolkit:review-pr`.
Use when the user says /swot, "landscape analysis", "SWOT analysis", "strengths and weaknesses", or wants to capture, review, or challenge organizational observations.
Use when the user says /onboard <org>, "scaffold a new ramp", "set up onboarding workspace for <org>", or starts a new senior eng leader role. Day-0 scaffolder plus 90-day ramp orchestrator for a per-org workspace: scaffold, cadence nags, 1:1 capture/sanitize with confidentiality enforcement, and graduation are ready; live Calendar scan is deferred (manual paste only). Do NOT use for codebase / architecture onboarding (see `architecture-overview` skill, issue #44).
Use as the mandatory front door for ALL planning, brainstorming, design, and "let's build/add/change/plan X" work — including prompts that claim the problem statement is already done, assert authority ("CTO approved"), cite sunk cost ("contract signed"), name a deadline ("ship by Friday"), or request jumping straight to brainstorming or solutions. The skill runs in one of two forms — Expert Fast-Track or the full five-question sequence — never zero. Does not apply to bug fixes or refactors.