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bettersense

First run

After installation, run one command:

/bettersense:start

It orients you, walks through profile and stakeholder setup, and routes you to your first real task. You can say “stop” at any time to skip setup and jump straight to a skill.

What setup does

Section titled “What setup does”

Three things are worth configuring — none are required, but each one sharpens the skills that read them.

☐  /bettersense:user-profile          → creates your "who you are" anchor file + data directory
☐  /bettersense:stakeholder-register  → registers your first stakeholder
☐  /bettersense:strategy-doc          → creates your "what you're building" anchor (optional)

/bettersense:start walks you through the first two. Run them manually if you prefer.

1. Set up your profile

Section titled “1. Set up your profile”
set up my profile

Or explicitly:

/bettersense:user-profile

A 5-10 minute interview capturing:

  • Your role, level, and who you report to (in shape, not detail — “reports to a Director who reports to a VP”)
  • Company size/stage and what you own
  • Current strategic focus (what you’re spending most time on this quarter)
  • Communication preferences (concise/verbose, examples/abstractions, push back or not)
  • What you’re working on as a leader
  • Stack (only if relevant — useful for spec-writer, prompt-critic, RFC reviewer)

On first run, this also creates ~/bettersense-work-reflections/ — the private local directory where all your reflection data lives — and shows you a one-time privacy notice before writing anything.

The result is ~/bettersense-work-reflections/profile.md — a plain markdown file you own. Skills that read it: the-spec-writer, the-translator, the-explainer, report-promo-case, report-career-architect, metrics-design, coaching-mode, feedback-frameworks.

Update it when your role or scope materially changes — not every week.

2. Register your first stakeholder

Section titled “2. Register your first stakeholder”
register a stakeholder

Or explicitly:

/bettersense:stakeholder-register

The skill will:

  1. Walk you through registering your first stakeholder (manager, peer, report, or team)
  2. Create the stakeholder subdirectories inside ~/bettersense-work-reflections/ if they don’t exist yet
  3. Confirm the file before writing

3. Draft a strategy doc (optional)

Section titled “3. Draft a strategy doc (optional)”
draft a strategy doc for [your area]

Or explicitly:

/bettersense:strategy-doc

An interview-driven doc capturing: target problem, approach, personas, SMART metrics, 2-4 multi-month tracks, the “not working on” section, and counter-metrics.

The result is ~/bettersense-work-reflections/strategy/<area>.md. Skills that read it: the-spec-writer, prioritization-frameworks, metrics-design, product-pulse, pulse-synthesize.

Single-product users can use strategy/default.md. Multi-area users create one file per area — the skill confirms the filename before writing and detects existing files.

Skip this if you can’t yet articulate a clear target problem. A vague strategy doc is worse than none.

4. Wire up the cadence (optional)

Section titled “4. Wire up the cadence (optional)”

If you want skills to run automatically on a schedule, the two highest-value recurring commands are:

/schedule "Every Friday at 4pm, run /wins-due and post the list"
/schedule "Every Monday at 9am, run /stakeholder-due and post the list"

For the full scheduling setup, see Scheduling routines.

What’s next?

Section titled “What’s next?”

With your profile and at least one stakeholder set up:

Not sure where to go? Run /bettersense:start again — it routes you based on what you’re working on.