Idea Skill for Claude

Idea — fast capture of a single idea

Part of the Personal Corp framework — running a one-person business through AI agents.

One pipeline: your voice → a provenance-tracked folder in your ideas repo → (optional) an issue mirror on a GitHub Project view. The folder is the source of truth; everything else is a pointer to it.

This skill is self-contained — it inlines the folder structure, status enum, and provenance formats below. You don't need any external canon file.

What this skill is NOT for

• Mining ideas out of a transcript / meeting / thread — that's bulk extraction from a source. Use a separate extraction skill for that. This skill captures ONE idea the user is voicing right now.
• A dated work task with a deadline — use an issue tracker / the manager skill. Ideas have no deadline; they're seeds.

Setup

Before first use, define this in your project's CLAUDE.md:

## Idea Config

### Ideas repo path
Where idea folders live (one folder per idea):
- ideas_repo: ~/Projects/ideas

### Default author
Name written into `first_voiced_by` when the user doesn't say otherwise:
- default_author: Me

### GitHub mirror (optional)
Mirror each idea as an issue (added to a Project view filtered by `label:idea`):
- mirror_enabled: false
- owner: your-github-handle               # only if mirror_enabled: true
- ideas_repo_name: ideas                  # GitHub repo name for the issue, only if mirror_enabled: true
- project_number: <your Project number>   # only if mirror_enabled: true

(if mirror_enabled is false, the skill only writes to the ideas repo — no issue, no Project)

No separate init skill needed — this section is the setup. If mirror_enabled is false, the GitHub Project step is skipped entirely; the idea still lives as a folder.

One question — max

Ask at most one short question, and only if the idea's essence can't be extracted from the wording (what is it / for whom). Do NOT ask about mechanics, pricing, risks, or tech stack — capture the raw material as-is and write the gaps into next-steps.md as open questions. The question "how should I record it — issue / file / both?" is forbidden: the form is fixed by this skill. Never block on form.

Status enum (in idea.md frontmatter)

• seedling — just voiced, not yet worked on
• exploring — first research gathered, market.md filled
• building — landing / pilot / prototype in progress
• live — a public artifact exists
• parked — set aside, reason in next-steps.md
• dropped — closed, reason in next-steps.md

A freshly captured idea is always seedling.

Provenance formats (rows in sources.md)

Every idea needs at least one source. Each sighting is one row. Genericize the source kind — no real internal paths:

| Source kind | Format in sources.md |

|---|---|

| Meeting note | meeting note — {who/where}, {date} |

| CRM card | CRM card — {contact}, {date} |

| DM | DM — {channel}, {date} |

| Voice draft (solo) | voice draft, {date} |

| Reading / web | {url}, {date} |

| Direct capture | direct /idea invocation, session, {date} |

Steps

• date — resolve the real date. Between 00:00–04:00, "today" means the previous calendar day.

• Dedup against the index. Read INDEX.md at the root of your ideas repo. Match is semantic, not string ("a board of advisors run on agents" ≈ advisory-agent-grounded-data). If unsure, open the candidate's idea.md to compare.
• Match found → this is a repeat sighting, not a new idea:
• append a row to the existing folder's sources.md,
• in idea.md bump last_touch and increment sources_count (do NOT touch first_voiced),
• if mirror is enabled, add a one-line comment to the issue mirror ("voiced again: {date}, {context}"),
• regenerate INDEX.md, commit, report. STOP. Do not create a new folder.

• New idea → create the folder ideas/YYYY-MM-DD-{slug}/ with the template files below.
• Slug: kebab-case, 3–5 words, by meaning not by form (live-sales-coach-b2b, not b2b-product-1). The date prefix is the date of first capture — it never changes on later sightings.
• In idea.md: title, status: seedling, first_voiced_by: {default_author from config unless user said otherwise}, an "Essence" of 1–2 sentences, and the raw verbatim wording preserved exactly as voiced. Interpretation, if any, goes in a separate section — never overwrite the raw wording.
• In sources.md: one row for this sighting (see provenance formats).
• market.md is optional (leave the stub; fill only when researched).
• next-steps.md holds open questions and the "what next?" — this is where pricing/mechanics/stack gaps land.

• Regenerate INDEX.md (format below). It's auto-generated — don't hand-edit individual rows; rewrite the whole file from the folders.

• GitHub Project mirror — OPTIONAL (only if mirror_enabled: true in config). The folder is the source of truth; the issue is just a pointer for board view. See "Project mirror" below.

• Commit + push to the ideas repo: feat: idea {slug} (invoking this skill is consent to record; the ideas repo is private).

• Report — one line per item: folder path, issue #N (if mirrored), and the Project view link (if mirrored).

Template files

Create these four files in ideas/YYYY-MM-DD-{slug}/. Keep them minimal — the folder is a seed, not a spec.

idea.md

---
title: {short human title}
status: seedling
first_voiced_by: {default_author}
first_voiced: {YYYY-MM-DD}
last_touch: {YYYY-MM-DD}
sources_count: 1
---

# {title}

## Essence
{1–2 sentences — what it is and for whom.}

## Raw wording
> {the idea exactly as voiced — verbatim, do not paraphrase}

## Interpretation (optional)
{any reading/expansion goes here — never inside Raw wording}

sources.md

# Sources

| Date | Who | Context | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| {YYYY-MM-DD} | {default_author} | first voiced | direct /idea invocation, session, {YYYY-MM-DD} |

market.md (optional stub)

# Market

_Not researched yet. Fill when status moves to `exploring`: analogues, demand signals, where it could fit._

next-steps.md

# Next steps

## Open questions
- {gaps you didn't ask about — mechanics, pricing, audience, stack}

## What next
- {landing? brainstorm? park? close? — leave blank if undecided}

INDEX.md regeneration

INDEX.md is auto-generated — never hand-edit. Rewrite it whole from the current folders. Structure:

# Ideas index

Updated: {YYYY-MM-DD}

## Active ideas
| Slug | Status | First voiced | Sources count | Last touch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| live-sales-coach-b2b | seedling | 2026-05-01 | 1 | 2026-05-01 |

## Parked / dropped
| Slug | Status | First voiced | Last touch |
|---|---|---|---|

## By status
- seedling: N
- exploring: N
- building: N
- live: N
- parked: N
- dropped: N

Project mirror (optional — only if mirror_enabled: true)

Each idea folder gets one issue mirror in the ideas repo, added to a GitHub Project view filtered by label:idea. The folder is the source of truth; the issue is a pointer for quick board scanning. Don't copy folder contents into the issue body.

Mirror format:

• title: idea: {title}
• label: idea (the only label — don't invent others)
• body: link to ideas/{folder}/idea.md + one "Essence" paragraph + status + one provenance line. Nothing more.

Commands (after creating a new idea folder):

url=$(gh issue create -R {owner}/{ideas_repo_name} \
  --title "idea: {title}" \
  --body "{body — link + essence + status + provenance}" \
  --label idea)

# Add to the Project board (number from config), so it appears in the label:idea view
gh project item-add {project_number} --owner {owner} --url "$url"

On rename → update the issue title. On dropped → close the issue with a comment stating the reason. On a repeat sighting (step 2) → just add a one-line comment, no new issue.

If mirror_enabled is false, skip this whole section — the idea still lives correctly as a folder.

Failure without the skill → rule

| Failure | Rule |

|---|---|

| Only an issue created, no folder | The folder owns the truth (provenance, sources); the issue is a pointer |

| Fat issue body with full architecture | Body = link + essence + status + provenance, never a copy of the folder |

| INDEX.md not read → duplicate of an existing idea | Dedup is mandatory; a repeat = a new source row, not a new folder |

| Issue not added to the Project (when mirror enabled) | Without item-add the label:idea view won't show it |

| Invented labels (monetization, etc.) | Only idea |

| Blocking question "issue / file / both?" | Form is fixed; max one question — and only about the essence |

| Raw idea rewritten into "architecture" | seedling = raw material verbatim; interpretation is a separate section |

Red flags — stop

• About to create an issue without a folder → step 3 was skipped.
• Writing a body longer than ~10 lines → you're copying, not linking.
• Asked the user a second question → just capture it as-is.
• Finished without item-add (when mirror enabled) or without commit → steps 5–6 not done.

Cross-references

• Mining ideas out of a transcript / meeting / thread — a separate extraction skill (bulk source → many ideas). This skill is single-idea capture only.
• A dated work task with a deadline — the manager skill / your issue tracker, not an idea folder.