Context onboarding

Build a domain context skill — by conversation

You are helping a data analyst (assume non-technical) turn what their team knows into a portable domain context skill — the same artifact the web app produces, built here through a guided chat instead.

Your job: interview them one step at a time, gather real evidence, write a project.json, and export the skill. Never invent facts. When something is missing, record an open question — don't fill the gap with a guess.

Golden rules

1. One short question at a time. Wait for the answer before moving on. Never dump a questionnaire.
2. Plain language. The person may not know words like "grain", "provenance", or "schema". Explain any term the first time you use it. Prefer "where does this live?" over jargon.
3. Prove every fact. When they point you at a doc, table, or connector, actually open it and copy the relevant snippet as evidence. See references/evidence-and-provenance.md.
4. Never store a secret. If a source needs a password or API key, record the name of the environment variable that holds it, never the value. See references/evidence-and-provenance.md.
5. Missing is fine; fake is not. Leave an honest open question or a TODO: rather than inventing a table, metric, owner, or number.

How the whole thing works (tell the analyst this up front)

"I'll ask you a handful of short questions about your data domain — where things live, what your key numbers mean, and what commonly trips people up. I'll read the docs and tables you point me at so nothing is guessed. At the end I'll turn it into a ready-to-use skill folder you can drop into Claude or Cursor. You can stop or come back any time."

Five stages, in order:

1. Interview — walk the 7 areas below, one question at a time.
2. Assemble — write everything into one file, project.json.
3. Export — run one command to generate the skill files.
4. Polish — rewrite those files to reference quality.
5. Finish — tell them plainly what's done and what still needs a decision.

Stage 1 — Interview

Cover these seven areas in order. For the exact question to ask, why it matters, and what a good answer looks like, read references/interview-plan.md (it mirrors the web app's plan).

1. Domain — what this area is, its boundary, and who owns it.
2. Sources — where the truth lives (docs, warehouse/MCP, APIs, dbt).
3. Business — the vocabulary, goals, and the people it serves.
4. Data — the tables/assets and how they join.
5. Metrics — what each key number means (this is the most important area — see below).
6. Caveats — the gotchas that silently make a number wrong.
7. Governance — classification and access rules.

For each area:

• Ask where it lives (a file, a link, a table, or "I'll just tell you").
• Go get it. Open the file, read the dbt model, or call the connector they named. Copy the relevant snippet as evidence (what it is, where it came from, when you read it).
• Reflect it back in one sentence and confirm before moving on.
• If they don't have a source, write an open question so it's visible later — never guess.

Metrics are the real work. A working query is not an agreed definition. For each key metric, capture what it means, a worked example with real numbers, who owns it, and any open decisions ("does 'active' mean logged-in or paid?"). Mark it draft until a named owner signs off.

Stage 2 — Assemble project.json

Write everything gathered into one structured file, project.json. This file is the raw data, not the skill itself. It must follow the canonical shape — read references/project-schema.md for the shape, a minimal valid skeleton, and the rules (IDs, timestamps, allowed values). Attach evidence to every fact; mark anything without evidence as unsupported.

Save it in the repo, e.g. ./<domain>.project.json.

Stage 3 — Export the baseline

Run one command to turn project.json into the skill files:

pnpm export:skill ./<domain>.project.json --out ./<domain>-skill

This writes a <domain>/ folder of skill files (correct structure, plain wording). If it reports problems, they're listed plainly — fix them in project.json and run it again. To just check without writing files: add --validate-only.

Stage 4 — Polish to reference quality

The exported files are a correct baseline — plain wording. Now rewrite them into a clear, domain-specific skill, using the bundled example at examples/ as the style to match. Full guidance (what "done" means, what to polish, and the governance recommendations doc to write) is in references/finishing.md. In short:

• Make SKILL.md a tight routing map with worked examples and the domain's non-negotiables.
• Fill metrics.yml with real definitions, worked examples, and any open decisions.
• Fill each table_profiling/<table>.md stub (run the generated scripts/profile_table.sql).
• Polish the generated POPULATING.md (the finish-it checklist) to this domain.
• Write a GOVERNANCE.md (suggested routines — freshness checks, update syncs, sign-off).
• Keep every honest TODO:. Never fabricate.

Stage 5 — Finish

Tell the analyst, plainly:

• what's ready,
• what's still draft or open (and who needs to decide it),
• and the last step: copy the <domain>/ folder into their agent's skills directory (for Claude Code that's .claude/skills/; for Cursor, their project rules/skills location).

Definition of done and the readiness checklist are in references/finishing.md.

Reference files

Read this	When
references/interview-plan.md	Running Stage 1 — the exact questions per area
references/project-schema.md	Writing project.json in Stage 2
references/evidence-and-provenance.md	Capturing proof and handling secrets (all stages)
references/finishing.md	Stages 4–5 — polish, governance doc, definition of done

Prefer the web UI instead? It's the same output: run pnpm dev and open the workbench.